Amun the Hidden

Amun the Hidden

“Self-made, you fashioned your body,
Creator uncreated.
Sole one, unique one, who traverses eternity,
Remote one, with millions under his care.
Amun is one, concealing himself. . .
He is hidden from the gods, and his aspect is unknown
He is farther than the sky, he is deeper than the Duat,
No god knows his true appearance.”

Excerpted from - Leiden Papyrus I 350

Ancient Egypt: Religious Thought Development

"Contrary to the popular and current impression, the most important body of sacred literature in Egypt is not the Book of the Dead, but a much older literature which we now call the 'Pyramid Texts.' These texts, preserved in the Fifth and Sixth Dynasty Pyramids at Sakkara, form the oldest body of literature surviving from the ancient world and disclose to us the earliest chapter in the intellectual history of man as preserved to modern times. They are to the study of Egyptian language and civilization what the Vedas have been in the study of early East Indian and Aryan^[1] culture. Discovered in 1880–81, they were published by Maspero in a pioneer edition which will always remain a great achievement and a landmark in the history of Egyptology. The fact that progress has been made in the publication of such epigraphic work is no reflection upon the devoted labors of the distinguished first editor of the Pyramid Texts. The appearance last year of the exhaustive standard edition of the hieroglyphic text at the hands of Sethe after years of study and arrangement marks a new epoch in the study of earliest Egyptian life and religion. How comparatively inaccessible the Pyramid Texts have been until the appearance of Sethe's edition is best illustrated by the fact that no complete analysis or full account of the Pyramid Texts as a whole has ever appeared in English, much less an English version of them. The great and complicated fabric of life which they reflect to us, the religious and intellectual forces which have left their traces in them, the intrusion of the Osiris faith and the Osirian editing by the hand of the earliest redactor in literary history—all these and many other fundamental disclosures of this earliest body of literature have hitherto been inaccessible to the English reader, and as far as they are new, also to all."
_________________________
¹Videre licet:
Ancient India: The Aryas (Aryans) - http://wsu.edu/~dee/ancindia/aryans.htm

Etymology:
http://www.answers.com/topic/aryan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/aryan

Source:
Breasted, James Henry. Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt; Lectures Delivered on the Morse Foundation at Union Theological Seminary (New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1912), pp.xiii-xiv.

Full Text:
http://www.sacred-texts.com/egy/rtae

Queen Cleopatra VII: Only Part-Afrikan?

"Upcoming BBC-One Documentary Says Cleopatra was Part-African"

"You know when whites (mostly Europeans) start talking this way, after blacks have been insisting forever, jaws drop on the other side of the pond. That’s what happened when the Leakeys established that the first men walked out of Africa, not Europe (although some are now trying mightily to find out whether China is older). It must be that time: a black president, Jefferson acknowledged as the father of Sally Hemings’ children and now Cleopatra being acknowledged as having African ancestry…all these books are going to be rewritten.

Hilke Thuer of the Austrian Academy of Sciences studied the remains of Cleopatra’s sister, the royal Arsinoë IV, taken from her tomb in Ephesus, once a Greek colony in what is now Turkey. Arsinoë (pronounced “Ar-see-noi”) lost the power struggle between herself and the Queen when Marc Antony–by this time Cleopatra’s husband–had her whacked on the steps of the Temple of Artemis. Arsinoë was exiled there by Julius Caesar after being paraded through the streets of Rome in triumph behind his chariot..."

Source:
http://thisblksistaspage.wordpress.com/2009/03/17/here-we-go-again-bbc-one-documentary-says-cleopatra-was-part-african

Queen Cleopatra VII (51 - 30 BC)

"Cleopatra VII - 'Cleopatra, Thea Philopator, Philadelphus, Thea Neotera, Regina Regum Filiorum Regum' - was the 16th ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty, reigning over Egypt from 51-30 BC, during the Ptolemaic period. She became co-regent with her 10-year-old brother Ptolemy XIII at the age of 17, and following his death (aged 14) in 47 BC during the civil war she then married her younger brother Ptolemy XIV, who was only 12 years old. This meant she effectively ruled alone..."

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/cleopatra_vii.shtml

"Is the mummy of Cleopatra buried in Paris?"

"Cleopatra VII, the great Cleopatra, the big nose of geopolitical power, is in Paris. It is a matter of justice, because what would be better for a woman like her? Specifically, she is buried in the gardens of the National Library of France, at its old headquarters of the Rue Vivienne, near the Louvre and the Palais Royal. That is what Juan Angel Torti, former Chilean journalist and possibly the most elegant retiree in Paris, has been sustaining for years. This former reporter for Agence France-Presse, whose headquarters is a stone’s throw from where the Egyptian queen supposedly lies, looks forward to the moment when archaeologists reach access to the end of the 120 meters long tunnel at the temple of Tabusiris Magna, 50 kilometers from Alexandria, where the sarcophagi of Cleopatra and Marco Antonio are allegedly located. That is expected to happen later this year, as announced by the Egyptian authorities. But Torti is certain they are in for a big disappointment: 'The tomb of Cleopatra is empty...'"

Source:
http://allaboutegypt.org/2008/08/is-the-mummy-of-cleopatra-buried-in-paris

Learn about the following terms:
▪ Quadroon
▪ Octoroon
▪ Quintroon
▪ Hexadecaroon
▪ Mulatto

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octoroon

In addition, see:
▪ Jim Crow Discrimination Laws (Tennessee enacted the first Jim Crow Law in 1875):
http://afroamhistory.about.com/od/jimcrowlaw1/p/jimcrowoverview.htm

▪ Examples of Jim Crow Laws:
http://academic.udayton.edu/Race/02rights/jcrow02.htm

▪ U.S. Supreme Court - Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) - "Separate but Equal" doctrine of segregation:
http://www.landmarkcases.org/plessy/impact_separate_equal.html

▪ Civil Rights Movement (1955-1965):
http://www.watson.org/~lisa/blackhistory/civilrights-55-65
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American_Civil_Rights_Movement_(1955%E2%80%931968)

The Egyptian Museum (Cairo)

The Egyptian Museum in Cairo, on Being the Elder Statesman

Author: Olivia Jaru

When the distinguished Egyptian museum in Cairo first opened its doors in 1902 it was designed to display around 35,000 objects. The air circulation was thought to be adequate for the 500 estimated daily visitors and natural lighting sufficient to illuminate the exhibited objects.

Little has changed over the last century, as far as the museum’s facilities are concerned, although its contents have exploded into a staggering 200,000 or so objects. This figure may or may not, include treasures in the basement which some say is worthy of excavation itself!

Many of the objects acquired over the years are the result of continuous excavations, which have taken place throughout Egypt since the opening of the museum and with the increase in visitors to around six to seven thousand per day, floor space in the building has itself, become a treasured commodity.

To accommodate these increases, Cairo is to have a Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), described in a government brochure as “a vision, a single source; faint yet filled with the strength to glow with the power of a thousand suns.” It is a majestic work in progress and will stand on the Giza Plateau in the shadow of one of the seven wonders of the ancient world – Khufu’s great pyramid. Superlatives aside, this 480,000 square meter site will house one hundred thousand of Egypt’s most unique ancient treasures, fifty thousand of which have already been chosen, many from the present Egyptian museum.

The transportation of one hundred thousand irreplaceable ancient objects from one museum to the other is positively ‘mind boggling’ and must surely pose a logistical nightmare for the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA). The removal into storage of just one item in 2006, the eighty three ton, 3,200 year old statue of Rameses II, from the front of Cairo’s main railway station, took nine snail-paced hours to transit the city, during the dead of night, using military-style procedures which cost around $1 million. The pink granite statue of Ramesses, in the meantime, remains protected, until he takes up his new commanding position in the Atrium of the Grand New Museum (GEM). Other items destined for display at GEM, will be inspected, documented and issued with a health card. If they require restoration treatment this will be carried out in one of Gem’s new underground conservation laboratories, after which they will be stored.

A “vital link towards averting disaster” during the ‘big move’ has been the introduction of a new database, currently in progress. The idea of a digitized database was first proposed by Gary Scott of the American Research Center in Egypt and Dr. Janice Kamrin, Egyptological Consultant to the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Cairo. The plan was approved by Dr. Zahi Hawass, the SCA’s head, along with museum curators, and funded by ARCE/USAID and put into action at the museum a couple of years ago by Dr. Kamrin.

Before the database, there was no standardized approach to registration. Any museum-based research was carried out via the ‘Object Register Books’ or reference library. The handwritten register books, are, themselves historical catalogues containing information, such as the description of an object, where it was found and by whom. Some of the earliest entries date back to 1858 (around 7,000) with the very first entry marked as JE1, a small standing statue of the goddess Isis with hands by her side and throne on her head - found at Saqqara.

According to Egyptologist Elina Nuutinen from the Registrars and Collections Department, the books have now been photographed, which means the copies can be handled for transcription purposes, rather than the extremely fragile originals.

Apart from the small team of Egyptologists and registrars involved in the Database Project, there is also the Volunteer Project, overseen by Elina Nuutinen. Volunteers from all over the world, including Egyptologists, students and egyptophiles whose work is connected to the subject, are attracted to the musty corridors of the Egyptian museum. It is hugely rewarding for those who are committed, although the fainthearted should not apply!

According to Dr. Kamrin 134,000 transcriptions had already been transferred to the database by May of this year, just over half-way! The project has received two more years of funding from the Andrew W. Mellor Foundation and has just taken on two more Egyptologists to help with the registering of artifacts. Once collected, the information in the database will form the basis for a new standardized Collections Management System which, says Dr. Kamrin “will bring this pre-eminent institution into the new century.”

The Grand Egyptian Museum “ is a decades-old dream’ linking ancient and modern Cairo,” but let’s not forget the grandeur of the present Egyptian Museum in Cairo, it is not retiring yet It will still stand in Midan el Tahirir looking just a little more like the dignified elder statesman.

About the Author:

Researcher/writer Ancient Egypt.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - The Egyptian Museum in Cairo, on Being the Elder Statesman

Ancient Egyptian History & Culture (AEHC)

Visit the Ancient Egyptian History & Culture (AEHC) website and Alt-Webring:

The AEHC highlights online resources and information about Ancient Egyptian history, culture, Egyptology, religion (Kemeticism) and spirituality, science and medicine, Priest/esshood, Egyptian Book of the Dead, archaeology, Ancient Egyptian Language (AEL) - Middle Egyptian Language, and more.

Hail! Mighty Ancient Nile

Records of the Past, 2nd series, Vol. III
ed. by A.H. Sayce
[1890]

HYMN TO THE NILE

I

Adoration to the Nile!
Hail to thee, O Nile!
who manifesteth thyself over this land,
and comest to give life to Egypt!
Mysterious is thy issuing forth from the darkness,
on this day whereon it is celebrated!
Watering the orchards created by Ra [1]
to cause all the cattle to live,
thou givest the earth to drink, inexhaustible one!
Path that descendest from the sky, [2]
loving the bread of Seb and the firstfruits of Nepera,
thou causest the workshops of Ptah [3] to prosper!

II

Lord of the fish, during the inundation,
no bird alights on the crops.
Thou createst the corn, thou bringest forth the barley,
assuring perpetuity to the temples. [4]
If thou ceasest thy toil and thy work,
then all that exists is in anguish.
If the gods suffer in heaven [1]
then the faces of men waste away.

III

Then he torments the flocks of Egypt, and great and small are in agony.
But all is changed for mankind when he comes;
he is endowed with the qualities of Num. [2]
If he shines, the earth is joyous,
every stomach is full of rejoicing,
every spine is happy,
every jaw-bone crushes (its food).

IV

He brings the offerings, [3] as chief of provisioning;
he is the creator of all good things,
as master of energy, full of sweetness in his choice.
If offerings are made it is thanks to him.
He brings forth the herbage for the flocks, [4]
and sees that each god receives his sacrifices.
All that depends on him is a precious incense.
He spreads himself over Egypt,
filling the granaries, renewing the marts,
watching over the goods of the unhappy.

V

He is prosperous to the height of all desires,
without fatiguing himself therefor.
He brings again his lordly bark;
he is not sculptured in stone, in the statues crowned with the uræus serpent,
he cannot be contemplated.
No servitors has he, no bearers of offerings!
He is not enticed by incantations!
None knows the place where he dwells,
None discovers his retreat by the power of a written spell. [1]

VI

No dwelling (is there) which may contain thee!
None penetrates within thy heart!
Thy young men, thy children applaud thee
and render unto thee royal homage.
Stable are thy decrees for Egypt [2]
before thy servants of the North! [3]
He stanches the water from all eyes
and watches over the increase of his good things.

VII

Where misery existed, joy manifests itself;
all beasts rejoice.
The children of Sebek, the sons of Neit, [4]
the cycle of the gods which dwells in him, are prosperous.
No more reservoirs for watering the fields!
He makes mankind valiant,
enriching some, bestowing his love on others.
None commands at the same time as himself.
He creates the offerings without the aid of Neit, [1]
making mankind for himself with multiform care.

VIII

He shines when he issues forth from the darkness,
to cause his flocks to prosper.
It is his force that gives existence to all things;
nothing remains hidden for him.
Let men clothe themselves to fill his gardens.
He watches over his works,
producing the inundation during the night. [2]
It is a god Ptah … [3]
He causes all his servants to exist,
all writings and divine words, [4]
and that which he needs in the North.

IX

It is with the words that he penetrates into his dwelling;
he issues forth at his pleasure through the magic spells. [5]
Thy unkindness brings destruction to the fish;
it is then that prayer is made for the (annual) water of the season;
Southern Egypt is seen in the same state as the North.
Each one is with his instruments of labour,
none remains behind his companions.
None clothes himself with garments,
the children of the noble put aside their ornaments.
The night remains silent,
but all is changed by the inundation;
it is a healing-balm for all mankind.

X

Establisher of justice! mankind desires thee,
supplicating thee to answer their prayers;
thou answerest them by the inundation!
Men offer the first-fruits of corn;
all the gods adore thee!
The birds descend not on the soil.
It is believed that with thy hand of gold
thou makest bricks of silver!
But we are not nourished on lapis-lazuli;
corn alone gives vigour. [1]

XI

A festal song is raised for thee on the harp,
with the accompaniment of the hand. [2]
Thy young men and thy children acclaim thee
and prepare their (long) exercises.
Thou art the august ornament of the earth,
letting thy bark advance before men,
lifting up the heart of women in labour,
and loving the multitude of the flocks.

XII

When thou shinest in the royal city, [1]
the rich man is sated with good things,
the poor man even disdains the lotus;
all that is produced is of the choicest;
all the plants exist for thy children.
If thou hast refused (to grant) nourishment,
the dwelling is silent, devoid of all that is good
the country falls exhausted.

XIII

O inundation of the Nile,
offerings are made unto thee,
oxen are immolated to thee,
great festivals are instituted for thee.
Birds are sacrificed to thee,
gazelles are taken for thee in the mountain,
pure flames are prepared for thee. [2]
Sacrifice is made to every god as it is made to the Nile. [3]
The Nile has made its retreats in Southern Egypt,
its name is not known beyond the Tuau. [4]
The god manifests not his forms,
he baffles all conception.

XIV

Men exalt him like the cycle of the gods,
they dread him who creates the heat,
even him who has made his son [5] the universal master
in order to give prosperity to Egypt.
Come (and) prosper! come (and) prosper!
O Nile, come (and) prosper!
[O thou who makest men to live through his flocks [1]
and his flocks through his orchards!
Come (and) prosper, come,
O Nile, come (and) prosper!]
This work has been successfully finished and dedicated to the scribe of the treasury Qaqabu [by the scribe Ennana]. [2]
_______________________
Footnotes
48:1 The orchards of Ra are mentioned in the Book of the Dead, ch. 81.

48:2 This belief in the celestial origin of the Nile survived in Egypt, at all events as late as the time of Joinville (Histoire de Saint-Louis, ch. xl.).

48:3 Ptah is associated with the Nile in a list of divinities represented on a wall of the age of Ramses II at Karnak (Champollion: Not. Manuscrites II. p. 255, where Ptah is called Ptah, pa Hapi aā).

48:4 In the Anastasisi text: "Causing the temples to keep holiday."

49:1 The Nile is not only the dispenser of life to mankind, but also to the gods (see verses 4, 10, 53). In the Hymn it absorbs as it were all the gods, and even takes the place of Ra in verse 14.

49:2 Num, the divine creator, like Ptah, is similar to Ptah in his relation to the Nile. The two verses point out that all life is dependent on the Nile, an idea which is developed to excess in the verses following.

49:3 Funerary offerings made to the ka or "double."

49:4 See verse 14.

50:1 The gods had to submit to the power of incantations and magic formulæ (compare the legend of Ra bitten by a serpent, the romance of Setnau, and numerous passages in the Book of the Dead). The Nile alone was excepted from this law; it remained enshrouded in mystery in its retreat near the two whirlpools often mentioned in the texts and even alluded to by Herodotus.

50:2 So in the Anastasi text. The fixity of the periodic return of the Nile is probably referred to.

50:3 Verse 5 has, however, stated that the Nile had no servants; perhaps the secondary gods are meant here who directed the spread of the waters over Egypt, that is to the north of the whirlpools from whence the Nile rose.

50:4 Neit is often represented with two crocodiles on the breast; her relation to Sebek, the crocodile-god, is difficult to define.

51:1 Neit appears here as the goddess of production; the Nile has no need of Neit (or perhaps the rain) in order to generate the crops; it makes its way throughout the country by means of canals and trenches.

51:2 This seems to be an allusion to the festival of the "Night of the Drop" (Lêlet en-Nuqta), still observed in Egypt on the 5th of June, when the rise of the Nile is supposed to commence. The name is due to the old tradition recorded by Plutarch, according to which the rise of the Nile was caused by a tear which dropped into it from the eye of Isis. In M. Amélineau's Contes et Romans de l’Egypte Chrétiennes, i. p. 17, the rise of the Nile is attributed to the intercession of St. Michael, whose festival is celebrated on the 6th of June; three days before, the archangel prays that the water may rise, since it is "the life of men and animals."

51:3 Unknown word, conjectured by Cook to represent the name of a new god Kabes.

51:4 The Nile inspires Thoth the scribe of the divine utterances.

51:5 The Nile is unaffected by incantations, but serves himself with them at his pleasure in order to manifest himself.

52:1 The Nile is indeed the dispenser of all wealth, but true wealth does not consist in gold or silver, but of the products of agriculture which enable men to live.

52:2 Women are represented on the monuments accompanying the singers by clapping the hands; this custom still survives throughout the East. It is possible that we still possess the festal songs of the Nile, of which Lane has preserved for us some fragments in his work on The Modern Egyptians.

53:1 Probably Thebes, the residence of the Pharaohs at the time when the Hymn was composed. No other city can be meant, as otherwise the mythological texts would have mentioned it. Thebes, moreover, is near Silsilis, where the height of the Nile was measured, as is indicated by the Book of the Dead, chap. 149, and the royal decrees of Silsilis, which institute festivals in honour of the Nile.

53:2 These offerings are mentioned in the decrees of Silsilis.

53:3 See verse 7.

53:4 The other world.

53:5 The Pharaoh.

54:1 From the Anastasi papyrus.

54:2 See the Papyrus Anastasi 7, pl. 7, ll. 5 and 6.

Source: http://www.sacred-texts.com/ane/rp/rp203/rp20309.htm

Ancient Egyptian Funerary Text: Utterance 553

Resurrection, Meal, and Ascension of the Deceased King,

Utterance 553.

1353a. To say: Geb has raised thee up; this thy spirit has been guarded for thee.

1353b. Thy mns-jar remains; thy mns-jar is caused to remain.

1353c. Thou art more exalted than Shu and Tefnut in the house of Ḥtmw.t (the destroyer), N.,

1354a. for thou art verily a spirit who wast nursed by Nephthys with her left breast.

1354b. Osiris has given to thee the spirits; take the eye of Horus to thee.

1355a. These thy four ways which are before the grave of Horus

1355b. are those whereon one goes (lit. goes a going) to the god

p. 220

as soon as the sun sets (or, as far as the setting of the sun).

1356a. He takes hold of thine arm, after Seker, chief of Pdw-š purified thee,

1356b. (and he conducted thee) to thy throne which is in ḳbḥ.w.

1357a. Raise thyself up, spirit of N.; sit, eat thou;

1357b. let thy ka be seated, that he may eat bread and beer with thee without ceasing for ever and ever.

1358a. Thy going is as a representative of Osiris;

1358b. thy feet hit thine arms;

1358c. they bring thee to thy feasts,

1358d. to thy white teeth, (to) thy fingernails, (to) the Dw.f-nome.

1359a. Thou ferriest over as the great bull to the green fields,

1359b. to the pure places of Rē‘.

1360a. Raise thyself up, spirit of N.; thy water belongs to thee, thine abundance belongs to thee;

1360b. thine efflux belongs to thee, which issued from the secretion of Osiris.

1361a. The double doors of heaven are open for thee; the double doors of ḳbḥ.w are undone for thee;

1361b. the double doors of the tomb are open for thee; the double doors of Nut are unfastened for thee.

1362a. "Greeting," says Isis; "ferry on in peace," says Nephthys,

1362b. after she had seen thy father, Osiris, on the day of the mm.t-feast (or, of feasting him who is in need ?).

1362c. Elevated is the ddb.t-chapel of the double ’itr.t-palace of the North, thy Grg.w-bȝ.

1363a. Raise thyself up; shake off thy dust;

1363b. remove the dirt which is on thy face; loose thy bandages.

1363c. They are indeed not bandages; they are the locks of Nephthys.

13 64a. Travel over the southern regions; travel over the northern regions;

1364b. be seated on thy firm throne.

1364c. Anubis, who is chief of the sḥ-ntr, commands that thy spirit be behind thee, that thy might be in thy body,

1364d. that thou remain Chief of the mighty ones (or, spirits).

1365a. Thou purifiest thyself with these thy four nmś.t-jars,

1365b. (with) the špn.t and ‘ȝt-jar, which come from the sḥ-ntr for thee, that thou mayest become divine.

p. 221

1365c. The sky weeps for thee; the earth trembles for thee;

1366a. the śmnt.t-woman laments for thee; the great min.t mourns for thee;

1366b. the feet agitate for thee; the hands wave for thee,

1366c. when thou ascendest to heaven as a star, as the morning star.

1367a. N. is come to thee, his father; he is come to thee, Geb;

1367b. he is united with your dead, O gods.

1367c. Let him sit on the great throne, on the lap of his father Mḫnti-'irti;

1368a. let him purify his mouth with incense and natron; let him purify his nails upper and lower.

1368b. Let one do for him what was done for his father, Osiris, on the day of assembling the bones,

1368c. of making firm (or, adjusting) the sandals, of crossing the feet (i.e. when ferrying over).

1369a. To thee come the wise and the understanding;

1369b. to thee comes the southern ’itr.t-palace,

1369c. to thee comes the northern ’itr.t-palace, with a salutation,

1369d. (thou) who endurest eternally at the head of the mighty ones.

Excerpted from:
The Pyramid Texts
Translation by Samuel A. B. Mercer
[1952, copyright not renewed]
http://www.sacred-texts.com/egy/pyt/pyt33.htm

Solar Eastern Gate

"In Egypt the gates of the under world through which the sun passes are shown in the illustrations to the Book of the Dead as great pylons like the entrances to the temples. Every temple pylon becomes a sun gate, and sculptured and painted on the centre of its lintel is the red disc of the sun. 'The winged globe,' says Wilkinson, 'always having its place over the doorways.' And Perrot and Chipiez, 'It was generally ornamented with the winged globe, an emblem which was afterwards appropriated by the nations which became connected with Egypt. This emblem in its full development was formed by the solar disc, supported on each side by the uræus, the serpent which meant royalty. The disc and its supporters are flanked by two wide-stretching wings with rounded fan-shaped extremities, which symbolized the untiring activity of the sun in making its daily journey from one end of the firmament to the other. Egyptologists tell us that the group as a whole signifies the triumph of right over wrong, the victory of Horus over Set (light over dark). An inscription at Edfou tells us that after this victory Thoth ordered that the emblem should be carved over every door in Egypt, and in fact there are very few lintels without it.' That is, there was a sacred legend saying that the God of Wisdom ordered the sun to be represented on every portal, to symbolise the victory of the sun over darkness, in the struggle at daybreak at the gates of the east."

Excerpted from:
Architecture, Mysticism and Myth, Chapter VIII, “The Golden Gate of the Sun”
by W.R. Lethaby, [1892], pp. 176-177.

Pharaoh Thothmes III - Prayer

From the CLIVth Chapter of the Book of the Dead (Naville, Todtenbuch, Bd. I., Bl. 179, l. 3) the deceased king Thothmes III prays:

seset-kua emxet-k Tem huau ma ennu ari-k
Preserve me behind thee, O Tmu, from decay such as that which thou workest

er meter neb netert nebt er aut neb er t'etfet neb
for god every, and goddess every, for animals all, for reptiles all

sebuit-f per ba-f emxet mit-f ha-f
for each passeth away when hath gone forth his soul after his death, he perisheth

emxet sebi-f
after he hath passed away.

Set

Thee Ancient Egyptian God Set has been equated with Typhon, daimon, daemon, demon, trickster, pure evil, and much more.

This musing is about evil and good. How one deals with good vs. evil is absolutely up to you whether she/he/it recognizes this particular duality within Nature and the Cosmos.

Set has been given existense, credence, and acceptance "of possessing overwhelming power" within the Ancient Egyptian cosmology for centuries and to this day within the mundane world.

For all intensive and logical reasoning, "evil" does live and prevail within our mundane existence as many different types of representations from the spirit world with many infused into human form and human psyche which we all encounter every day. Specifically, these are negative forces (often times in the form of human beings) that we engage, deal, and battle with each and every day. It's not YOU.

IT IS all about THEM and THEIR need to feed and fuel THEIR self-centered ideologies and agenda in many subtle ways.

There are many metaphysical ways of dealing with, handling, and squashing these negative forces that influence your life and well-being. For those who are unaware of this or just simply myopic to the facts due to having a perpetually closed mind to anything or everything concerning the metaphysical realm. Most of us seek and enjoy the attainment of mind, body, spirit balance or equilibrium on many planes of existence.

Take this for what it may or may not be worth to you.

In the Realm of the Goddess,

Blessed Be in the Faith!

▪ Reverend K.A. Sahure (a.k.a. Frater Kheti)

Hieroglyphic

The term hieroglyphic derives from the Ancient Greeks meaning priestly writing.

Utterance 312

"To say:

The bread flies, the bread flies to my houses, the houses of the Lower Egyptian crown."

The Pyramid Texts (1952)
“A Series of Five Charms, Utterance 312”
Translation by Samuel A. B. Mercer

Kheper

"Kheper-i kheperu kheper-kuie [kheper-kuy] em kheperu

em kheperi kheper em sep tepi."

Society of Egyptian Kemeticism

S.O.E.K.

The primary purpose and major focal point of S.O.E.K. are to explore, study, and research topics about the practice of Kemeticism, the re-creation, and reconstruction of the religion of Ancient Egypt and Mother Africa along with its pantheon of Gods and Goddesses, syncretic, and systematic belief system.

Scholarly informational and educational topics will include:
Ancient Egyptian reincarnation, mummification, the pyramids, the "Book of the Dead" (i.e., Funerary/Coffin texts and Pyramid texts), hieroglyphics, pharaohs, dynasties, archaeology, geography, and history.

The spiritual S.O.E.K. religious entitlement/designation will be granted by the Temple of Kheti to ordained clergy who can demonstrate their knowledge, understanding, and practice of the Ancient Egyptian religion and Kemetic Reconstructionist Orthodoxy.

To update those who are interested, the S.O.E.K. online forum has been melded with the Temple of Kheti eGroup so as to not force redundancy of our ongoing educational efforts to disseminate purposeful information regarding the practice of Kemeticism. The spiritual S.O.E.K. religious entitlement/designation will be granted by the Temple of Kheti to ordained clergy who can demonstrate their knowledge, understanding, and practice of the Ancient Egyptian religion or Kemetic Orthodoxy. If you seek ordainment, the Temple of Kheti can ordain you as a minister as well. The course is still in the development stage along with the spiritual entitlement/designation that will be granted to those upon successful completion the course. Visit www.templeofkheti.org for more information.

Ii-wy em hotep,

Dr. K. Sahure, D.D., Msc.D.
Spiritual Overseer – Society of Egyptian Kemeticism
High Priest – The Temple of Kheti

The Rosetta Stone

In the case of Ancient Egyptian archaeology, the Rosetta Stone has been one of those rare finds indeed. The stone itself is a large stele (slab or block) of black basalt (a hard, black volcanic igneous rock most commonly found in the Earth’s crust formed from molten, volcanic activity) measuring 3 feet 9 inches by 2 feet 4 inches wide by 11 inches thick (or 118 x 77cm) or 3 feet 9 inches in length and 2 feet 4.5 inches in width (or 114 x 72 x 28cm) as some sources have provided. Other sources claim that the stele was formed of granite.

The Rosetta Stone’s remains were found to be inscribed in three parts and in three ancient scripts:

Hieroglyphs (hieroglyphic), Egyptian Demotic (a cursive form of Ancient Egyptian writing also called Hieratic), and Ancient Greek. The stone had been carved and inscribed by Egyptian priests (and possibly priestesses), in 196 BCE, with a decree praising the great and spiritual works of Egyptian Pharaoh (King) Ptolemy V during his reign from 203 to 181 BCE.

It is claimed that the stone was discovered or unearthed by one of Napoleon Bonaparte’s military officers of the Engineering Corps, in July of 1799, during an invasion of Egypt by the French. As the story goes, the stone was partially buried in the mud during the excavation of a fort in the nearby village of Rashid (Rosetta)—near the city of Alexandria in Lower Egypt. The previously demolished fort, assumed to have been caused by Napoleon’s invasion, was to be rebuilt due to the discovery of the stone. From there, the stone was named after the village of Rosetta. Then the Rosetta Stone was later seized by the British, among other antiquities collected by the French, and was presented by King George III (1738-1820) to the British Museum in 1802. This stone became the key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics and a foundation for the study of modern Egyptology.

The significance of the Rosetta Stone is based on the Egyptian hieroglyphics being accompanied with the Greek inscriptions which could be more readily translated and understood. A third inscription on the stone was written in the Demotic or Egyptian cursive script developed much later in Egyptian history—this script was used almost exclusively by Sem Priests (or sem), Male Servants of God (or hem netjer), Female Servants of God (hemet netjer) High Priests (hem netjer tepey), Lector Priests (kheri heb), Wa’eb Priest (or wa’eb), and Scribes (or sesh) for secular writings and documents.

Since the inscriptions on the Rosetta Stone were difficult to translate, distinguished French linguist, Egyptologist, and professor Dr. Jean-Francois Champollion (living in France) decided to undertake the translation along with the distinguished British physicist and linguist Dr. Thomas Young (living in Britain) in 1814. Dr. Champollion's knowledge of the Greek and Coptic (the “final” evolution of the Egyptian language) was a major key in deciphering the Rosetta Stone. The Coptic language is a more recent evolvement of the much older Demotic script; back and forth comparisons and analyses were made between the two languages to assist in the translation of the Demotic portion of the stone. Again, other scholars and researchers claim that this project began in 1822.

Furthermore and according to some scholars and researchers:

The credit as to who first discovered and unlocked the method(s) of deciphering and reading the symbolic as well as spoken meaning of hieroglyphs is claimed for both Young and Champollion. A heated controversy over has been waged for many years regarding this matter. It has also been stated that some view that Young and Champollion secretly and simultaneously, and independently of one another solved the many secrets of the Rosetta Stone.

Many scholars of Ancient Egyptian history, archaeology, and Egyptology have attempted to translate the inscriptions on the Rosetta Stone and used the Greek language inscriptions as a guide to the stone’s decipherment since Young and Champollion or vice versa. However, there is no mention of the research produced and contributed later by the distinguished Senegalese Physicist, Egyptologist, Anthropologist, Sociologist, Historian, and Professor Dr. Cheikh Anta Diop (1923-1986).

Another truth and treatise for another time. To this day, the Rosetta Stone resides in the British Museum.

~ Dr. K.A. Sahure, Msc.D, D.D.

______________________________________________
Copyright © 2003-2005 Kheti Metaphysical Institute