3. The Children of Horus:
These have their invisible stations in the corners of the hall. They are the guardians of the viscera of the human being—every part of whom comes up for judgment in its right time and place.
Ameshet: The man-faced is in the northeast. He has a blue nemyss banded with red, blue, and black. His face is red and he has a black ceremonial beard. Round the shoulders of his white mummy shape are bands of red, blue, and black, three times repeated. He stands on red, blue, and black with a border of green, white, and yellow.
Too-oumathph,18 the jackal-faced, is in the southeast. He has a black face with yellow linings to his pointed ears. He wears a blue nemyss with borders of black, yellow, and blue—the same colours appearing threefold at his shoulders. He has a white mummy shape and stands on blue, yellow, and black, with a border of green, yellow, and mauve.
Kabexnuv, the hawk-faced, is in the northwest. He has a black and tawny face, and a nemyss of black bordered with red, yellow, and black. The same colours appear threefold at his shoulders. He has a white mummy shape and stands on red, yellow, and black with a border of green, mauve, and white.
Ahepi, the ape-faced, is in the southwest. He has a blue nemyss bordered with red, blue, and yellow bands. These colours appear on his shoulders in the same order. His face is red; and he stands on red, blue, and yellow, with a border of green, orange, and mauve.19
4. The Forty-Two Assessors:
These are not described at all save to say that they make the Sign of the Enterer as the candidate is passed by them. They are witnesses in the judgment hall of Osiris.
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17. Note by Regardie: If the reader, who is interested, will consult some such text as The Gods of the Egyptians by Sir E. Wallis Budge, he will find pictures of the gods referred to. He would be well advised to make his own tracings or drawings of them with colour as directed by these instructions.
18. Note by JMG: Here and in the following essay, this name is misspelled Tmoomathaph in the original; see “The Coptic Names of the Chiefs and Officers”.
19. Note by Regardie: Too-oumathph is sometimes written Duamutef. Kabexnuv is sometimes written Qebhsenef. Ahephi is sometimes written Hapi. Ameshet is sometimes written Mesti.
THE CANOPIC GODS
The Symbolism of the Four Genii of the Hall of the Neophytes
By G.H. Frater Sub Spe 20
In a temple of the grade of Neophyte, the four gods—Ameshet, Ahephi, Too-oumathph, Kabexnuf—said also to be vicegerents of the elements, and answering to the rivers of Eden as drawn in the warrant of the temple, are said to rule in the four corners of the hall between the stations of the Kerubim.
In Egyptian mythology, these gods are also said to be the children of Horus, and to partake of his symbology. If, now, we regard the Neophyte ceremony as representing the entrance into a new life, regeneration—mors janua vitae 21—the Egyptian symbology wherein that idea was so clearly and exactly worked out becomes important. Bear in mind that a new life means a new plane or a higher world, a passing, say, from the Kether of Assiah to the Malkuth of Yetzirah.
Now as behind Kether depend the veils of the negative existence: Ain, Ain Soph, and Ain Soph Aour, so through negative existence must pass the soul that goes from Assiah to Yetzirah, or vice versa. This process is illustrated by the Neophyte ceremony as described in Z.3, and as seen by the clairvoyant eye. In Egyptian mythology, the dead, when the ceremonies are complete, the soul weighed and passed, the body mummied and preserved from corruption, became one with Osiris, and is called an Osirian. Hence, the Hierophant, who represents Osiris when the candidate is placed in the north, speaks to him in the character of his higher soul—“The voice of my undying and secret soul said unto me,” etc.
Osiris, however, is a mummied form, and the body of the Egyptian dead was mummied at this part of the ceremony. Let us now consider the nature of the body which is mummied. The body itself may be considered as a vehicle whereby the life forces act, and the medium whereby these life forces act is what are termed the vital organs. Withdraw or destroy any of these and the life ceases to function in that body. Not less important, then, than the body itself, the vehicle of the soul, are the organs, the media for the action of organic life, and it is equally important to preserve these from corruption, yet not together with the body. For as the body of Osiris was broken up, so must the body of the Osirian be divided. This is the meaning of the viscera being preserved apart from the body.
The death and resurrection of Christ has other symbology and the teachings belong to a higher grade. Let none therefore object that His body was laid in the tomb entire. (The body of Osiris was first laid in the chest or Pastos whole. The division into fourteen parts was subsequent. N.B. one plus four = five, the five wounds.) For even as Yod Heh Vav Heh must be known before Yod Heh Shin Vav Heh can be comprehended, and as Moses must precede Christ, so must the mysteries of Osiris first be known.
Now the guardian of the hall and of the Neophytes against the Qlippoth (whose Kether is Thaumiel, the dual or two-headed one, the demons of corruption and disintegration) is the Hiereus or Horus, and to the children of Horus, who partake of his symbology, are the viscera committed, to guard them against the demons of disintegration and corruption. As the elements and the forces of the elements are to the world, so are the vital organs and the life which animates them to the human body. Appropriately, then, are the vital organs and the life which animates them, placed under the charge of the vicegerents of the elements, the children of Horus, the great gods Ameshet, Ahephi, Too-oumathph, and Kabexnuf, who regulate their functions in material life, and guard them after so-called death, when the man that was has become an Osirian.
Consider then, what are these vital organs and their functions. Broadly they may be divided into the alimentary system and the circulatory system, for in this classification we take no account of the brain or reproductive organs which belong to another classification, and are not elemental nor concerned in the maintenance of the life of the material body.
Each of these divisions may be further divided into that which divides or distributes to the body that which is needed for life, and that which casts out from the body and renders to the Qlippoth that which is unnecessary or pernicious. From this arises a four-fold division as in the following diagram:
With this key, the division becomes easy, for in the alimentary system, the stomach and the upper intestines divide the food taken into the system by a process called digestion, and by assimilation retain what is necessary. This therefore is “A” in the diagram. But the lower intestines receive and cast out that which is rejected, these therefore will be represented by “B.” In the circulatory system, the heart is the organ which distributes the blood that it receives washed and purified by the lungs. Hence the lungs and heart are represented by “C.” The matter rejected from the circulatory system is rejected and cast forth by the liver and gallbladder, which therefore will be represented by “D.”
Now as to the treatment of these vital organs in the process of mummification. Seeing that during life they were under the guardianship of the great gods mentioned, so in death they were dedicated each to one of these, who were the four genii of the underworld, or the lesser gods of the dead.
These vital organs then, being taken out and separately embalmed, were placed in egg-shaped receptacles, symbolic of Akasa, under the care of Canopus, the pilot of Menelaus, and the god of the waters of creation, the eternal source of being, whose symbol was a jar; and under the especial protection of that one of the genii of the underworld or vicegerents of the elements to whom that particular organ was dedicated. Hence each egg-shaped package was enclosed in a jar whose lid was shaped like the head of that especial god.
Now Ameshet was also termed “the carpenter” for he it is who by the medium of his organ, the stomach, frames the rough materials and builds up the structure of the body; to him the stomach and upper intestines were dedicated (A).
Ahephi was a
lso termed “the digger” or “burier” for he puts out of sight or removes that which is useless or offensive in the body, and to him the lower intestines or bowels were dedicated (B).
Too-oumathph was also called “the cutter” or “divider” for he divides and distributes the blood bearing with it the prana and the subtle ether by the holy science of breath brought into the body, and to him were the lungs or heart dedicated (C).
Kabexnuf was termed “the bleeder” for as a stream of blood is drawn from the body, so is a stream of impurity drawn from the blood, and cast out into the draught by the action of the liver and gallbladder, and to him therefore, these organs were dedicated (D).
These jars were called Canopic jars and were disposed in a certain order round the mummy. Consider now the points of the compass to which they would naturally be attributed. Reason itself will insist that the organs of the alimentary system, the most material and earthy, should be in the north, and the warm and vital heat of the circulatory system should be to the south, while in the cross division, the receptive and distributive organs should be placed to the east, the source of life and light, and the organs that purify and cast out should be to the west that borders on the Qlippoth.
This gives us the following arrangement:
Yet this arrangement would, as it were, symbolize the entire separation of the alimentary system and the circulatory system, which is contrary to nature, for they continually counterchange, and thus arises life. Wherefore in the Hall of the Two Truths, the portions of Ahephi and Kabexnuf are reversed, and the order becomes.
East—Ameshet
South—Too-oumathph
North—Kabexnuf
West—Ahephi
Now these, being thus arranged, do partake of the symbology of the elements to which they belong. For Ameshet being to the east, the quarter of air, has the head of a man. Too-oumathph, to the south, has the head of a jackal who is the purveyor of the lion (for these are the vicegerents of the elements, while the Kerubim are the lords thereof); so Too-oumathph is properly a jackal. Kabexnuf in the west, in the region of water, has the form of a hawk, the subordinate form to the alchemic eagle of distillation, and the form also, of Horus, the Hiereus, beside whom is his station, and of whose symbology he partakes.
Ahephi, in the north, has the head of an ape. The symbology of the ape in ancient Egypt is very complex. Here it may be taken that while Apis, the bull, represents the divine strength of the eternal gods, the ape represents the elemental strength which is far inferior and blended with cunning. Ahephi, however, has other symbology and other attributes. For by reason of the fertilizing qualities of the Nile and of the fact that what is brought down by the Nile as refuse from the land of the sacred lakes is, to Egypt, its life and the source of its fertility, so there arises a correspondence between the Nile and the lower intestines, and both are under the care of Ahephi (Hapi) who thus was worshipped as Nilus, and in this connection he has for his symbol a headdress of lotus flowers.
Now, further, the alimentary system is under the special guardianship of Isis and Nephthys. Isis who conquers by the power of wisdom and the forces of nature, guards Ameshet. And Nephthys, who hides that which is secret, guards Ahephi—whence also, until recent days, in the fullness of time, the sacred sources of Ahephi, the Nile, were kept secret from the whole world.
Too-oumathph is under the guardianship of Neith, the dawn. This is the celestial space, who makes the morning to pass and awakes the light of a Golden Dawn in the heart of him whom the eternal gods shall choose, by the sacred science of the breath.
Kabexnuf is guarded by Sekhet, the sun at the western equinox, the opening of Amenti, who wears the scorpion on her head—and these guardianships were often painted on the Canopic jars.
When, therefore, the candidate kneels at the foot of the altar, or where the corpse lies on the bier preparatory to the passing over the river towards the west, and the soul stands before Osiris, and the goddesses stand by and watch while the beam sways and the decision is taken—then, the body of the candidate is, as it were, broken up as the body of Osiris was broken, and the higher self stands before the place of the pillars, but the lower self is in the invisible station of the evil persona. Then is the candidate nigh unto death, for then, symbolically, his spirit passes through the veils of the negative existence, passing from the Kether of Assiah to the Malkuth of Yetzirah. Therefore, unless the genii of the underworld were then present and directing their forces on the vital organs, he must inevitably die.
Let their symbols then be represented in all operations and formulae drawn from the symbolism of the Hall of the Two Truths, for they are of the utmost importance, but as their stations are invisible, so shall their symbols be astral and not material.
Thus shall perfect health of body be preserved, which is of utmost importance in all magical working, and thus shall the lessons of the Hall of the Neophytes be duly carried out in our daily life.
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20. Note by JMG: This was John W. Brodie-Innes, one of the leading adepts of the original Order.
21. Note by JMG: Latin for “death changes into life.”
Z.3: THE SYMBOLISM OF THE
ADMISSION OF THE CANDIDATE
The Admission of the Candidate
The candidate is waiting without the portal under the care of the Sentinel—“the watcher without”—that is, under the care of the form of Anubis of the West symbolically that he may keep off the “dog-faced demons,” the opposers of Anubis, who rise from the confines where matter ends, to deceive and drag down the soul. The ritual of the thirty-first Path says: “Since ever dragging down the soul and leading it from sacred things, from the confines of matter arise the terrible dog-faced demons never showing a true image unto mortal gaze.”
The Hierophant gives a single knock to announce the just commencement of a vibration in the sphere of sensation of the candidate. He then states that he holds the dispensation from the greatly honored chiefs of the Second Order, to affirm that the effect of the ensuing ceremony upon the candidate is only authorized by the higher powers for the purpose of initiation which shall ultimately lead to the knowledge of his higher self. He is admitted to the grade of Neophyte which has no number, concealing the commencement of all things under the similitude of no thing.
The Hegemon, the representative of the goddess of truth and justice, is consequently sent to superintend the preparation, symbolizing that it is the presider of equilibrium who is to administrate the process of initiation, by the commencement of the forces of equilibrium in the candidate himself, through the symbols of rectitude and self-control. But the actual preparation of the candidate should be performed by the Sentinel—the “watcher without”—to show that this preparation must be accomplished before the establishment of equilibrium can occur. Therefore does the Hegemon superintend the preparation rather than perform it actually. A triple cord is bound round the body of the Neophyte, symbolizing the binding and restriction of the lower nature. It is triple in reference to the white triangle of the three supernals. Then, also, are the eyes bandaged to symbolize that the light of the material world is but darkness and illusion compared with the radiance of the divine light. The preparation also represents a certain temporary binding and restriction of the natural body.
The Hierophant, being a member of the Second Order and therefore initiated into the secret knowledge of the symbolism, shall, together with any officers and members also of the Inner Order, remember what tremendous gods and goddesses they represent—the divine forces of the eternal in the administration of the universe. The ritual should be read in a loud, clear, stern, and solemn voice so as to impress the candidate with the solemnity of the occasion. In this, there should be no foolish nervousness or hesitation, but the ritual as performed by an initiated Hierophant should become in his hands something more than this.
Thus should he act. Let him remember what particular god he represents. Exalting his mind unto the contemplation thereof, let him thin
k of himself as a vast figure, standing or moving in the likeness of that god, colossal, his head lost in the clouds, with the light flashing round it from the headdress of the god—his feet resting upon earth in darkness, thunder and rolling clouds, and his form wrapped in flashes of lightning—the while vibrating the name of the god. Thus standing, let him endeavour to hear the voice of the god whom he represents and of the godforms of the other officers as previously explained.
Let him speak, then, not as if unto an assembly of mortals but as to an assembly of gods. Let his voice be so directed as to roll through the universe to the utmost confines of space. Let the candidate represent unto him, as it were, a world whom he is beginning to lead unto the knowledge of its governing angel. As it is written “The lightning lighteneth out of the east and shineth even unto the west, even so, shall the coming of the Son of Man be.”22
The candidate during the ceremony is addressed as “child of earth,” as representing the earthly or terrestrial nature of man—he who comes forward from the darkness of Malkuth to endeavour to regain the knowledge of the light. This is what is meant by the speech of the Hegemon, because the path of the initiate is but darkness and foolishness to the natural man. The single knock given by the Hegemon without the door represents the consenting will of the natural man to receive the force formulated by the Hierophant, and is answered by the Kerux within as if a witness were confirming the same. This being done, the Kerux, as a witness, demands authority from the Hierophant to admit the candidate into the Hall of Truth and Justice. The Hierophant, in granting the permission, seals the candidate with a new name given to the physical body of the outward man, but signifying the aspirations of his soul. As a consequence of the affirmation of the motto as the name of the candidate in the Hall of Truth, Osiris at once sends forward the goddess of the scales of the balance to baptize him with water and the companion goddess to consecrate him with fire. As it is written, “Unless a man be born of water and of the spirit, he shall in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven.”23
The Golden Dawn Page 49