Questions about Egyptian Mysticism

[Apech]

"Apepch7,

 

I've noticed that it's pretty challenging to put together even a newbie level understanding of Egyptian religion. If you ever feel inclined to write up an Egyptian Religions for Dummies article, Egyptian q&a thread, or a recommended reading list that'd be great!

 

Your pal,

Yoda

 

PS, my question du jour: is Set a good guy or a bad guy? I read the wiki on him and it sounded like he's a good guy. Am reading Search for Omm Sety (which I realize might not be the best place to get info laugh.gif ) but there the vibe was that Set was demonic. Of course, all these good guys can have a wrathful side and maybe that was the glimpse received in that book. Thanks for any thoughts!

 

PPS, While I consider Jesus to be a major avatar, I've always wondered at how strange of a religion Christianity has seemed to me and wondered where on earth did the whole storyline come from... it doesn't seem to 100% fit the Hebrew tradition. Now it feels like it is a reenactment of the Egyptian religion within a Roman/Hebrew framework. I'd love to hear your take on it."

 

---------------------------------------------------

 

Writing an article on Egypt would be a major piece of work (even if it was for dummies ). I've studied Egypt for about 30 years and feel like I'm scratching the surface. Its such a deep and profound system - but sadly one which died out with the beginning of the Christian era (or rather with the beginning of Christianity as the state religion under the Roman Empire). If you want to know about it then you have to choose between either mainstream Egyptology books - which have the advantage of being rigorous in an academic sense (but are still subject to the writers prejudice e.g. Sethe and Assmann deny any mysticism in Egypt despite Egypt being recognised in classical times as the most religious culture on earth.) or more interpreted books by people who are interested in mysticism and have written up their own ideas - some of which are a bit fanciful and are not backed up by much evidence. So if you want a really good book on authentic Egyptian Mysticism - there isn't one.

 

If I start my own practice thread I can post some ideas for discussion if anyone is interested.

 

Set - aha! a very interesting god! To understand Set (probably originally called something like Sutekh) you have to look back at the origin of Egypt as a single country at the very beginning of its history. Orginally there were two kingdoms of Upper Egypt (in the South) and Lower Egypt (in the North). The first dynastic king united these two different regions into one country which throughout its history was still known as 'the two lands' for this reason. The totemic male deities of these two lands were Horus (North/Lower Egypt) and Set (South/Upper Egypt). In the early dynasties these two gods were seen as equal and opposite. Some kings were named after Set and some after Horus and some both. (Even in the New Kingdom Set could be also used for a kings name e.g. Set I etc.) So Set as originally understood is not evil or bad. However he was a force which provided opposition to Horus.

 

In late Egypt this changed slightly and Set did indeed become more associated with 'bad' things like deserts and storms. But even so, the best way to understand this is to think of two forces. One, Horus tends to create structures in order to impose order on its environment (to rule), while the other tends to break down structures in order to liberate energy. Held in dynamic tension these two provide the driving force behind the cycle of existence. The goddesses associated with them also signify the vehicles for this cyclical movement. Isis moves upward into light and Nephthys moves downward into darkness (I can give quotes from the Pyramid Texts to back this up). This is much misunderstood as Nephthys is sometimes thought of as bad and Isis good, but actually both life an death are two sides of one cycle, both are needed. The way to think of this is that there is a cycle in which one moves between luminosity (light/life) and darkness (voidity). The darkness as voidity is the source of regeneration and 'powers up' the cycle while the light (the sun) brings into existence the rich variety of created form.

 

Where Set becomes a problem is when imbalance means that Set is unrestrained. This is the source of the myth where Set (thought of as the brother of the king Osiris) kills his brother to try to take the throne. Order is restored when Horus the son of Osiris eventually after an 80 year battle overcomes Set. Set is not destroyed but is given an appropriate role.

 

Set also had a role in the sun's daily cycle. Because of his great strength and power he was the only god able to overcome the serpent Apep which opposed the sun god's journey through the sky. Thus enforcing the idea of Set as a destructive but necessary force.

 

So short answer is Set is not bad - he is vital.

 

 

Jesus - beware the internet stuff about Horus being Jesus - this is all rubbish. However it is said that as a child Jesus spent some time in Egypt . Egypt also influenced Judaism - for instance the beginning of Genisis is almost pure Egyptian thought with God moving over the face of the deep and so on. There is a resurrection theme in the Osiris/Horus myth but it is not quite like Jesus. There is no doubt that Egypt influenced Gnosticism for instance so I think that anything that might be called Christian Mysticism would have influences from Egypt.

 

One other idea that I have read about is that Mahayana Buddhism may have spread down the Silk Route into the middle east at the time that Jesus lived and taught and that some of his ideas (e.g. sermon on the mount) are almost identical to this form of Buddhism.

 

Cheers for now.

[Vajrasattva]

Out of SET came the concept of SATAN.

Edited September 25, 2008 by Vajrasattva

[Yoda]

Apepch7,

 

Thanks for the info, that was way awesome!!! I pride myself in being a serious Google God, but it's very humbling for me to see how hard it is to get even a rudimentary understanding on this front. Muppet Labs owes you one!

 

The whole Christian approach of sacrificing God's life to purge sin and create a fresh new start for the world with the discovery of the resurrection by Mary M. seems paralleled to the Osiris story at least at first glance.

 

Is there any sacrificing-to-purge-sin in the Egyptian Religion? Is there any notion of sin? I'm also really curious about the concept of heaven and hell and afterlife in Egypt. Thanks for any additional thoughts!

 

Your pal,

Yoda

[fiveelementtao]

I had recently heard an interesting parallel of Jesus and Krishna. Certainly Jesus can be viewed as an avatar of Vishnu. But, the virgin birth, the evil king killing babies in order to destroy the child foretold in prophecy etc... are similar story lines shared by each. Kinda makes one wonder if Vishnu suits up in this same drama for different cultures....

 

Apepch7,

 

Thanks for the info, that was way awesome!!! I pride myself in being a serious Google God, but it's very humbling for me to see how hard it is to get even a rudimentary understanding on this front. Muppet Labs owes you one!

 

The whole Christian approach of sacrificing God's life to purge sin and create a fresh new start for the world with the discovery of the resurrection by Mary M. seems paralleled to the Osiris story at least at first glance.

 

Is there any sacrificing-to-purge-sin in the Egyptian Religion? Is there any notion of sin? I'm also really curious about the concept of heaven and hell and afterlife in Egypt. Thanks for any additional thoughts!

 

Your pal,

Yoda

[Apech]

Apepch7,

 

Thanks for the info, that was way awesome!!! I pride myself in being a serious Google God, but it's very humbling for me to see how hard it is to get even a rudimentary understanding on this front. Muppet Labs owes you one!

 

The whole Christian approach of sacrificing God's life to purge sin and create a fresh new start for the world with the discovery of the resurrection by Mary M. seems paralleled to the Osiris story at least at first glance.

 

Is there any sacrificing-to-purge-sin in the Egyptian Religion? Is there any notion of sin? I'm also really curious about the concept of heaven and hell and afterlife in Egypt. Thanks for any additional thoughts!

 

Your pal,

Yoda

 

 

Yoda,

 

Thanks for your continuing interest - I thought maybe I was boring everyone to death with my long explanations .

 

There is a concept of sin in Egypt as can be seen in the famous Judgment Scene (Ch. 125 Book of the Dead) where the heart of the deceased is weighed on the scales against the feather of maat (truth). This illustration is accompanied by what is known as the 'negative confession'. Basically the deceased in the underworld has to say that he/she has not done certain 'bad' deeds. These include moral, social and religious transgressions. The weighing of the heart is carried out by Thoth and Anubis but the judge is Osiris, who after his death became the king of the dead or "Foremost of the Westerners." Westerners being a term for the dead because the necropolis was on the west bank of the Nile.

 

So if the heart of the deceased (and heart stands for mind here) balances with truth he is ok, if not he is fed to a monster called Ammit (!) So better to be good!

 

Every person who died also became an 'Osiris N', where N was their name. So for instance you would become the Osiris Yoda ( ). In Ch. 17 of the Book of the Dead it is described, amongst a whole lot else, how the 'evil' (Egyptian word Dw) is removed from the Osiris N. The text explains that this 'Dw' has arisen because of what the Osiris N has done since he came from his mothers womb. Also the 'Dw' is described through a particular grammatical form as being 'of', 'on' or 'attached to' the Osiris. So the idea is that since being born through our actions we accumulate this Dw which then has to be removed in the Netherworld. This Dw is not ours exactly, but something that we have accumulated. The removal is through a dual process - firstly the gods who make up the cosmos (long detailed explanation needed for who they are which I can't put in here) judge between what is 'pure' in the Osiris N and what is 'Dw' - secondly the Eye of Horus (a goddess) named in this case as Hetep-se-Khus ('she who brings fulfillment/peace and protection') then burns out the impurities like a flame passing through the deceased.

 

So what is being described is a dual process of 1) settling out impurities from the mind, allowing us to distinguish between 'pure' being and contamination 2) burning the contamination out using psychic energy.

 

So although the Egyptians had concepts for sin - it was something that could be removed, in fact had to be removed and was to do with human interaction in life, human entanglements and was not an essential constituent of the being.

 

Osiris himself is like the forerunner for everyone else. He makes it possible for the rest of us because we can ask - let what was done for Osiris be done for me. So in a way Osiris could be seen as having gone through this 'for' us.

 

Lot more to say about this but not enough time now.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Apepch7

Edited September 25, 2008 by apepch7

[Aetherous]

Thanks for all of this, apepch7!

[Yoda]

Swwwwweeeeeet!!!

 

Apepch7,

 

Probably not all of your UK pals are lined up to learn more about this, I can imagine!!

 

I dig the evil=entanglements thing. So you get fed to Ammit not by being too evil/entangled but by not leveling with everyone about it? (mental note: be straight up and order the Osiris. )

 

Any reincarnation discussed? If not, what are the heavenly pastimes? What happens to the soul after being eaten by Ammit? No hell realms? Perhaps nobody has ever made it back to write about it.

 

I've heard it said that the concept of the guardian angel in the modern western world comes from Egypt. Anything to it?

 

I've heard it said from non-scholarly sources ( ) that much Persian/Indian/Chinese/Tibetan wisdom schools have been Egyptian inspired. Just another youtube scam?

 

Maybe I'm revealing my pyramidiot tendencies here, but do you think there's anything to the idea that the pyramids are older than most scholars believe?

 

Thanks again for such well articulated thoughts!!

 

Your pal,

Yoda

[rex]

Really interesting - thanks Apepch7.

 

Some Egyptian statues in museums still hold a certain presence. Visiting the British Museum recently I noticed that despite the room being overcrowded with visitors no one seemed to walk within a three foot radius of a statue of Sekhmet.

[Yoda]

Some Egyptian statues in museums still hold a certain presence. Visiting the British Museum recently I noticed that despite the room being overcrowded with visitors no one seemed to walk within a three foot radius of a statue of Sekhmet.

 

 

Egyptian statues are amazing creations.

[witch]

I've found a couple fascinating old books by a guy named E.A. Wallis Budge written around the turn of the last century. Very straightforward about the religious practices, but the author was as tweedily British as they come. Charming read.

 

I'm interested in the parts of a man

 

no backchat!

 

like the heart, soul, shadow, name, and double. I'm particularly interested in the double, the ka.

[Vance]

I could send you the way of Rudolf Steiner. He has many interesting insights, but it's very esoteric, and if you don't have any esoteric knowledge or solid grounding, it won't do much fer ya.

[Yoda]

I'm just finishing up "Search for Omm Sety" about a woman who studied under several Egyptologists and who believed that she could interact with 2 figures of Egyptian history. Some of it is hard for even me to believe, but an interesting read.

[三江源]

Really interesting - thanks Apepch7.

 

Some Egyptian statues in museums still hold a certain presence. Visiting the British Museum recently I noticed that despite the room being overcrowded with visitors no one seemed to walk within a three foot radius of a statue of Sekhmet.

 

 

yes, thankyou Apcech7, for the fascinating and clear info. We will drink up any more you have, too, so feel free..

 

I was at the BM recently too, and noticed now very intense the energy is in The Egyptian Rooms... ooogh.. didnt care for it at all.

[Apech]

Yoda,

 

1) Reincarnation, heavenly realms and what happens after being eaten by Ammit?

 

There is no teaching on reincarnation in Egypt that I'm aware of but there was definitely a future after death. In principle this relied on becoming an 'akh' or effective spirit, aligning with the Northern circumpolar stars (known as the imperishible spirits) and therefore becoming indestructible = immortal. It is possible that reincarnation was a secret doctrine in Egypt but this is impossible to prove.

 

As to heavenly realms the blissful after-life was called the sekhet-hetep or sekhet-arru (meaning fields of peace/offerings + fields of reeds) in these realm the deceased is shown enjoying a kind of perfect form of life on earth. Sometimes the sky goddess 'Nut' is translated as 'heaven' but a better translation is just sky. In typical Egyptian fashion there were many images of how the blessed dead spent their existence - e.g. riding in the sun's boat, living as a star, living in the fields of peace with Osiris.

 

Ammit is interesting. She is shown as a composite 'monster' with the head of a crocodile, body of a lion and hindquarters of a hippo. The reason this is interesting is because a form of the mother goddess "Ta-urt" (meaning the great-one) is composed of the same three animals but in the reverse order. The head of a hippo, the body of a lion and the tail of a crocodile. Ta-urt is like the cosmic womb from which all beings, indeed all forms emerge. She gives birth to everything that exists. Ammit as the reverse of this makes things 'un-born', that is she sucks them out of existence. This is an anathema to the Egyptians and to us to ... i.e. to die and be completely forgotten. This is what is called the second death. the first death is when the spirit leaves the body. At this point, although the body has ceased to function the person still exists as a ka, ba, shade and so on. There is still a chance for re-integration, but the second death is a real end to the possibility for the being to exist. This is why the Book of the Dead has chapters called "Not dying a second time."

 

2) Guardian angel - well possibly but not expressed in that way. The ba is sometimes seen a bit this way - indeed there is a famous text called "A discourse of a man with his soul" - sometimes called "The man who is tired of life."

 

3) Persian/Indian/Tibetan and so on. I have read about this idea but I don't know if there is enough evidence to say it is so. What I absolutely believe is that mankind is far older than scientists suppose in terms of culture, belief systems and understanding of the world. So I think that the ancient wisdom which is enshrined in all these cultures goes way back - probably to a common source (not necessarily Atlantis but as the origin of this myth.)

 

4) Omm Sety is actually quite highly regarded in Egyptological circles (despite her strange beliefs).

 

 

Witch,

 

1) E.A. Wallis Budge - he is quite a controversial figure in Egyptology. Even at the time that he wrote (late 19 century) he was not at the leading edge of Egyptian studies and he has some very strange views about certain things e.g. sexual imagery. This is a drawback for Egyptian studies because they believed that Atum the creator brought the world into being by masturbating (or in some versions by auto-fellatio !) amongst much else!!! So most Egyptologists would tell you to throw his books away. But that's what they think. The good thing about Budge is that he published so much and that now because of copyright expiry its available really cheap! Which I think is a good thing - I have several of his books. He is most famous for publishing the Papyrus of Ani - a version of the Book of the Dead from the British Museum.

 

2) The 'ka' is very interesting... but I've run out of time.

[Yoda]

Apepch7,

 

You are the official Taobum Egyptologist!

 

I'm glad Omm Sety is well thought of! I'm enjoying her biography but it's certainly not for everyone... definitely far out and can be a creepy factor. (She says that when a certain spirit visits her her animals all freak out which does make me wonder at how kosher these sorts of visits are.)

 

For anyone who wants to do additional reading, Scribd.com is a great resource for all the out-of-copyright goodies.

 

~~~

 

On the first death vs. second death thing. I read about this in John Michael Greer's discussion of vampires. Per Greer, the experience of dying as in "hovering over the body in the emergeny room" is the first death where you have complete access to the physical world and going through the "tunnel of light and seeing grandma" is the second death where you don't.

 

In general, it is best for most of us just to go through both deaths and get on with it. But for dudes like Chinese Emperors and Pharoahs there are cultivation practices, embalming practices (got to keep the body reasonably intact), nice entombment with helper spirits, comfortable place to hang out away from sunlight, etc and a priesthood/ancestor worship system who feeds the Ka through time are all advantageous.

 

Ideally this is done from an altruistic motivation to help guide the country's affairs and/or to conduct further spiritual practices. But all too often, the motivation is a fear of the second death in which case avoiding the second death can take on vampiric aspects especially when the ancestor worship/priestly ground support peters out.

 

Greer believes that the original Egyptian and Chinese teachings started with good intentions and results but quickly deteriorated into vampy stuff.

[Yoda]

Apepch7,

 

Feel free to get on with your life and ignore these questions... but if you have time: Who are Anubis and Thoth? Are they related? And is Anubis related to Set? Is 'scapegoating' something that goes on in Egyptian religions?

 

Thanks!

Yoda

[Apech]

Apepch7,

 

Feel free to get on with your life and ignore these questions... but if you have time: Who are Anubis and Thoth? Are they related? And is Anubis related to Set? Is 'scapegoating' something that goes on in Egyptian religions?

 

Thanks!

Yoda

 

 

The names Anubis and Thoth are actually Greek version of Anpu and Djehuty.

 

Anpu is a dog or jackal, black in colour and is the deity associated with embalming and cemeteries. He is in charge of the seven sacred oils which are used to purify and embalm the mummy and it is thought that the priests that carried out this task wore an Anubis mask at certain points in the process. He is shown as reclining on the tomb and was in part a guardian of the necropolis. His black colour was not the natural colour of these desert dogs but was symbolic of death and more importantly the regenerative powers of the waters of the Nun (void). He had various titles and was an ancient god in his own right - but because of a late tendency to put the gods in family groups was sometimes thought of as the son of Set and Nephthys, although rather confusingly he was regarded as the son of Isis in very late times when the Isis cult grew to prominence. He is sometimes linked to and confused with another jackal god called Apuat (or Wepwawet) whose name means "Opener of the ways" which refers to the function of acting in vanguard to the god Osiris in the rites of Abydos.

 

Djehuty (Thoth) is the god of wisdom. One of the greatest gods of Egypt, worshiped in the form of an Ibis or sometimes a baboon. He was linked (but not exclusively) to the moon - but was chiefly regarded as the inventor of writing, mathematics and medicine. Although not 'related' to Anubis in the sense of family, they are often shown together because they are the chief guides to the dead in the underworld. Thoth supplies the knowledge of the underworld, what to do and how to do it. He also supplies the magical words (heka) by which the dead person is able to open the doors and gateways in the underworld and overcome guardian demons and so on. Thoth's main place of worship was Hermopolis (Khemennu) which in Egyptian means City of Eight - a name which refers to the Ogdoad of primeval deities which emerged from the void in the form of frogs and serpents. In his own city Thoth is regarded as the creator which he effected by flying as an Ibis through the primeval waters calling forth the creatures.

 

Not sure about 'scapegoating' - if you mean sacrificed animals which take away the sins of others, maybe, but its not mainstream as far as I know.

[Yoda]

I thought that Anubis and Apuat were the same dude... canine/psychopomp types as it were... Confusing territory!!

 

Speaking of City of 8, I'm guessing that they have a numerology system going on? Does the number 8 have any meaning on it's own?

[Apech]

I thought that Anubis and Apuat were the same dude... canine/psychopomp types as it were... Confusing territory!!

 

Speaking of City of 8, I'm guessing that they have a numerology system going on? Does the number 8 have any meaning on it's own?

 

 

You have to remember the Egyptian culture spanned an extremely long period of time and that there were three main periods of development Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom, New Kingdom - as well as the Late Period. During these times some of the ways in which ideas were expressed changed slightly. So in some ways you could say Anubis and Apuat became to be seen as more or less the same at some time, even though they originally had their own function, history and centres of worship. Egypt can be very confusing because of this - and the fact that the Egyptians were the masters of holding multiple (sometimes contradictory) ideas/images together at one time.

 

Yes, numbers were hugely significant. Eight in this case refers to four male and four female deities which emerged from the void. This represents a 'state' before the creation in which the emerging forms were still interpenetrating - (you might think of something like a quantum field for a modern equivalent). After eight comes nine, or the Ennead which is the number of the creation, the structure of the universe.

[Yoda]

Apepch7,

 

I've been curious as to 3 and 5 in the Egyptian system... thanks for any thoughts!

 

So you've obviously studied up... If you feel like chatting about it, what sort of affinity do you have for this material? What have you gotten out of it? What other systems have you studied?

 

Your pal,

Yoda

[Apech]

Apepch7,

 

I've been curious as to 3 and 5 in the Egyptian system... thanks for any thoughts!

 

So you've obviously studied up... If you feel like chatting about it, what sort of affinity do you have for this material? What have you gotten out of it? What other systems have you studied?

 

Your pal,

Yoda

 

 

Yoda,

 

As to 3 and 5 ... three is most significantly the deities of the third phase of creation - i.e. Nut (sky), Geb (earth) and Shu (air) - Shu holds the sky up from the earth thus keeping the world in existence. If the sky and earth come together then the world sinks back into the primordial abyss of the Nun. This also relates to the three 'dimensions' of the created world i.e. sky and earth again + the Dwat or netherworld which is conceived as being inside both the earth and sky. The Dwat is the space into which one goes at death and also where one goes in dreams and so on - so its the land of the shamanistic journey.

 

Five relates to the five senses. The High Priest of Thoth was called the 'great one of the five' meaning he was a master of perception and had command over Sia (perception). But, Thoth is also called 'thrice great' in temple inscriptions which relates to Hermes Trismegistos of Emerald Tablet fame for anyone into western Alchemy.

 

I was conscious when I came back to this thread that I haven't really talked at all about Egyptian Mysticism but just about Egyptology. Because it is not an extant system the way I work is this. I use the discipline of Egyptology to study intellectually the ideas and concepts and what is known about their religion and also to help read texts. Then I use meditation to unlock the power of those ideas into direct realisations about the nature of reality. In this way you can build a kind of map of the mind/reality which discloses deeper and deeper insights into the nature of things. Although as I say it is not an extant system I find that when I work on it, it guides me, points out to me various things, and I see this as being particularly the influence of Thoth.

 

I have also studied Tai Chi and Qi Gong under Master To and Grace Chen as well as Tibetan Buddhism - all of which have benefited me greatly and are systems for which I have the greatest respect.

Edited September 28, 2008 by apepch7

[rex]

Egyptian statues are amazing creations.

Yes, enchanting. The granite ones may still be holding the charge from various ceremonies. Granite I believe - like crystal - is supposed to hold energetic signatures.

 

I was at the BM recently too, and noticed now very intense the energy is in The Egyptian Rooms... ooogh.. didnt care for it at all.

I didn't care for the vibe either. There is a distinct aggrieved air - its a shame the dead and their artifacts couldn't have been left alone.

 

I feel quite a guarded attraction towards Sekhmet, not in the least because she bears more than a striking resemblance to the Tibetan Dakini, Senge Dongma (Simhamukha). The late Robert Masters dedicated much of his life to Sekhmet:

http://www.robertmasters.org/sekhmet/1.html

 

Thanks again Apcech7, really good thread. Do you rate the work of Theodor Abt and Erik Hornung? They've produced some finely ilustrated works on the Amduat. Speaking of which I hear that the British Museum is very shortly going to be opening a new room dedicated to Egyptian tomb paintings ...

[Yoda]

Apepch7,

 

Thanks for sharing! Anything you'd like to share about the mystic/shaman or "pyramidiot" side of the equation, I'd love to hear about.

 

I'm reading "Shamanic Mysteries of Egypt" right now. Basically, it sounds like they've studied the basics of Egyptology, meditated in the temples, and are interacting/imagining to interact with the gods. It's a nice book.

 

Rex, Omm Sety related a fictionalized account where she had an argument with the spirit of a high level Egyptian about the grave robbing ways of Egyptologists in a rather threatening way to her. Since she was both Egyptologist as well as shaman, she was persuasive in her argument that there's a huge distinction between grave robbing/desecratioin and what Egyptologists do and that in the long run, there's much more dignity and respect that has developed and will continue to develop through the efforts of Egyptologists as imperfect as it is. And, in a sense, reverence towards their ways continues to this day thanks to Egyptologists.

 

Yours,

Yoda

[Apech]

Yes, enchanting. The granite ones may still be holding the charge from various ceremonies. Granite I believe - like crystal - is supposed to hold energetic signatures.

 

I didn't care for the vibe either. There is a distinct aggrieved air - its a shame the dead and their artifacts couldn't have been left alone.

 

I feel quite a guarded attraction towards Sekhmet, not in the least because she bears more than a striking resemblance to the Tibetan Dakini, Senge Dongma (Simhamukha). The late Robert Masters dedicated much of his life to Sekhmet:

http://www.robertmasters.org/sekhmet/1.html

 

Thanks again Apcech7, really good thread. Do you rate the work of Theodor Abt and Erik Hornung? They've produced some finely ilustrated works on the Amduat. Speaking of which I hear that the British Museum is very shortly going to be opening a new room dedicated to Egyptian tomb paintings ...

 

Thanks for the thanks! really, I am restraining myself from writing 320 page essays because I know I am a little obsessive about this subject. It all started for me when I was student and interested in meditation, the Dao etc. I had a conversation with someone saying I wanted to find a system that really worked and they said "oh well its all in the Book of the Dead you know." So I got a copy and understood exactly nothing but got completely hooked on trying to work out what exactly they (the Egyptians) were on about.

 

The Brit Mus I am no great fan and I go there like a military operation, work out what I want to see, go and see it and extract myself like special forces as quickly as possible. But in the defense of it and any other museum + Egyptology - what would we know without it? Also tomb robbing started in the ancient world and most tombs were robbed by Egyptians themselves in antiquity - with a couple of notable exceptions e.g King Tut. So you can't blame the modern world for that! Human beings have always been the same!

 

As to the big statues - also they are not my things - you can keep Rameses 2 and all his ego mania and empire building and his overblown temples. My heart is with the genuine practitioners (similar to us) who worked quietly on understanding the way. So I rarely look at the big stone stuff! Also the mummies - I admit to some qualms cos it could be my great- great-great ...great granddad's skinny bones everyone is gawping at! But I reassure myself by going back to the idea that all this stuff was meant to be found. We are meant to recover this ancient knowledge - just in the same way as the knowledge of the east is meant to come west, Buddhism leave the land of snows etc. So I hope there is no great resentment in the minds of the AEs cos I believe its all in a good cause.

 

Thanks for the Robert Masters link I will ahve a good read of that.

 

As regards Eric Hornung he is a bit of hero to me, but only as an Egyptologist - I have two indispensable books by him - "The one and the many - concepts of god in Ancient Egypt" and "The Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife". However I am told he does not beleive in any spiritual matters which makes it rather strange that he should collaborate with Abt on the Am Dwat, as Abt is a Jungian and is into psycho-spiritual interpretations. That's a good book too but the English translation reads in places like a quick Google job!

[Aetherous]

really, I am restraining myself from writing 320 page essays because I know I am a little obsessive about this subject.

 

Please restrain yourself no more! That would be awesome.