The Message of the Sphinx AKA Keeper of Genesis

by Graham Hancock

  The etymology of the ancient Egyptian term Shemsu Hor, ‘Followers of Horus’, was studied by the Alsatian scholar R. A. Schwaller de Lubicz who concluded: ‘The term Shemsu Hor ... literally means ... “those who follow the path of Horus”, that is, the “Horian way”, also called the solar way ... These Followers of Horus bear with them a knowledge of “divine origin” and unify the country with it ...’[563]

  The ‘solar way’ or ‘path of Horus’ is, of course, the ecliptic—that imaginary way or path in the sky on which the sun appears to travel through the twelve signs of the zodiac. As we saw in earlier chapters, the direction of the sun’s ‘journey’ during the course of the solar year is Aquariusà Piscesà Ariesà Taurusà Geminià Cancerà Leo, etc., etc. The reader will recall, however, that there is also another, more ponderous motion, the precession of the earth’s axis, which gradually rotates the ‘ruling’ constellation against the background of which the sun is seen to rise at dawn on the vernal equinox. This great cycle, or ‘Great Year’, takes 25,920 solar years to complete, with the vernal point spending 2,160 years in each of the twelve zodiacal constellations. The direction of motion is Leoà Cancerà Geminià Taurusà Ariesà Piscesà Aquarius, etc., etc., i.e. the reverse of the route pursued by the sun during the course of the solar year.

  We suggest that the ‘Followers of Horus’ followed—in a very precise, astronomical sense—not only the annual path of the sun, eastwards through the zodiac, but also, for thousands of years, the vernal point’s relentless precessional drift westwards through the same twelve constellations. We also suggest that this shadowy brotherhood, whose members were said to have carried the ‘knowledge of divine origin’ (which they would later use to ‘unify the country’), may have interrelated on an extremely selective basis with the more primitive inhabitants of the Nile Valley in the prehistoric and Predynastic periods, interbreeding with chosen women and recruiting new generations from amongst the brightest and the best of their offspring—but leaving little or no trace of their presence in the archaeological record. We suggest, too, that around the beginning of the third millennium bc something happened in the cosmic order of the night sky—something long preordained and expected by their astronomers—that caused the ‘Followers’ to launch their grand attempt to initiate and ‘unify’ the historical civilization of Egypt. Last but not least, we suggest that whoever they really may have been, it was the ‘Followers’—the Sages, the Builder Gods—who provided this nascent civilization with the injection of advanced technical knowledge, engineering, architectural and organizing skills necessary for the completion of the vast celestial ‘temple’ that we know today as the Giza necropolis ...

  In the next chapters we will test some of these hypotheses.

  Chapter 14

  Space-Time Co-ordinates

  ‘The mind has lost its cutting edge, we hardly understand the ancients.’

  Gregoire de Tours, sixth century ad

  In astronomical terms the ‘vernal point’ is the ‘address’ that the sun occupies on the spring equinox—its particular position on that particular day against the background of the zodiacal constellations that encircle the ecliptic (i.e. the perceived ‘path’ of the sun). As a result of a cosmic coincidence these twelve prominent constellations are distributed in the heavens in the plane of the ecliptic (i.e. in the plane of the earth’s orbit around the sun) and, furthermore, are spaced out more or less evenly around it. The vernal point, however, is not fixed. Because of the phenomenon of precession, as we have seen in earlier chapters, it gradually sweeps around the whole ‘dial’ of the zodiac at a precise and predictable rate.

  Between 3000 bc and 2500 bc, the epoch in which Egypt appears to have received the sudden spark of genius that initiated the most brilliant achievements of the Pyramid Age, the vernal point was stationed on the immediate right (i.e. ‘west’) bank of the Milky Way, drifting almost imperceptibly slowly past the small group of stars, known as the Hyades, which form the head of Taurus[564]—the Bull of the Sky.

  What this means is that the vernal point had arrived in that region of the sky dominated by the adjacent constellations of Taurus and Orion, and particularly by the three stars of Orion’s belt. Moreover, as we have seen in Part I, the three great Pyramids of Giza—which stand on the west bank of the Nile—were designed to serve as terrestrial models, or ‘doubles’ of those three stars.

  Now here is the interesting thing. If we regard the Giza Pyramids (in relation to the Nile) as part of a scaled-down ‘map’ of the right bank of the Milky Way, then we would need to extend that ‘map’ some 20 miles to the south in order to arrive at the point on the ground where the Hyades-Taurus should be represented. How likely is it to be an accident that two enormous Pyramids—the so-called ‘Bent’ and ‘Red’ Pyramids of Dahshur—are found at this spot? And how likely is it to be an accident, as was demonstrated in The Orion Mystery, that the site plan of these monuments, i.e. their pattern on the ground, correlates very precisely with the pattern in the sky of the two most prominent stars in the Hyades?[565]

  We suggest none of this is accidental, that the ‘celestial signal’ which ‘sparked off the incredible Pyramid-building programme of Egypt’s Fourth Dynasty was provided by the precessional drift of the vernal point into the Hyades-Taurus region, and that the ‘Hyades Pyramids’ of Dahshur were therefore naturally built first.

  Such a theory provides a motive for the vast enterprise of Fourth-Dynasty Pyramid construction (involving some 25 million tons of stone blocks—more than 75 per cent of all the stone that was quarried and shaped into Pyramids during the Pyramid Age).[566] In addition, it accords fully with archaeological evidence which suggests that the two superb Pyramids at Dahshur were built by Sneferu (2572-2551 bc), the founder of the Fourth Dynasty and the father of Khufu. In other words the Bent and the Red Pyramids were indeed built before any of the great Pyramids of Giza[567]—which is exactly what one would expect if the drift of the vernal point into the Hyades-Taurus was the trigger that set the whole enterprise in motion.

  And there is something else.

  Journey in time

  The Hyades-Taurus region, together with its terrestrial analogue, is identified in the Pyramid Texts as the starting point for the Horus-King’s ‘quest’—i.e. that great dualistic journey, enacted both in the sky and on the ground, that we described in Part III. As the reader will recall, the texts specifically and unambiguously instruct Horus in his solar form, i.e. the sun’s disc, to position himself at this starting point and thence to ‘go to Horakhti’, i.e. to voyage eastwards towards the constellation of Leo. And we have seen how the sun actually does this, sailing along the ecliptic path during the solar year in the direction Taurusà Geminià Cancerà Leo.

  This order of the constellations therefore appears to define ‘forward’ movement in time and, at one level, the identifiable astronomical events described in the texts do indeed unfold in the ‘normal’ forward direction of the solar year (after being stationed near Taurus, and then crossing the Milky Way, the sun reaches Leo later in the year—i.e. later in time). Moreover this same ‘normal’ forward motion also appears to be mirrored in the ritual performed by the Horus-King on the ground: i.e. after crossing the river Nile it is inevitable that the initiate will arrive at the breast of the Great Sphinx somewhat later in time.

  But in the Pyramid Texts, and in the arrangement of the Giza monuments—as in so much else that has come down to us from ancient Egypt—everything may not be quite what it seems. An awareness of the effects of precession on the part of the ‘Followers of Horus’ (and the later priests of Heliopolis) would have included an intense focus on the stellar background at the vernal equinox and an understanding that the sun’s ‘journey’ towards Horakhti-Leo, as calibrated at this ‘governing moment ‘ of the year, would by definition have been a journey backwards in time through a succession of ‘world-ages’—i.e. from the Age of Taurus, circa 3000 bc (when the sun on the vernal equinox rose against the stellar background
of the constellation of Taurus) to the Age of Leo, circa 10,500 bc, when the sun on the vernal equinox rose against the background of the celestial lion.

  So when we read in the Pyramid Texts that the ‘Followers of Horus’ are urging the Horus-King to travel from Taurus to Leo it is possible that they may have had in mind something rather complex and clever. It is possible, in other words, that as well as offering the sun’s annual path through the constellations as a kind of ‘treasure trail’ for the initiate to follow on his way to the breast of the Sphinx, they may also have offered him knowledge of its slow reverse motion at the vernal equinox—perhaps as his cue to embark on a different kind of journey, against the flow of precession and back to the ‘First Time’.

  This is more than speculation. As we saw at the end of Part III, the Horus-King’s journey to the breast of the Sphinx was undertaken at the summer solstice during the Pyramid Age (because in that epoch it was at the summer solstice that the great conjunction of the sun with Horakhti-Leo occurred). We also saw, however, that the initiate who had correctly followed the ‘treasure trail’ set out in the texts, and who had reached the Sphinx in the pre-dawn on the summer solstice, would immediately have become aware of a curious ‘dislocation’ between sky and ground. He would have noticed, in particular, that the Sphinx gazed due east but that his celestial counterpart—Horakhti-Leo—was rising at a point on the horizon located some 28 degrees north of due east. He would also have noticed that the three great Pyramids of Giza precisely straddled the meridian but that their terrestrial counterparts, the three stars of Orion’s belt, hung low in the south-eastern portion of the pre-dawn sky, far to the left of the meridian.

  Given the profoundly astronomical character of his religious frame of reference he might well have felt a numinous urge to ‘put sky and ground together again’—i.e., so to arrange matters that the Sphinx would be gazing directly at Leo in the pre-dawn, whilst, at the same moment, the three stars of Orion’s belt would straddle the meridian in the precise pattern ‘specified’ by the meridional layout of the Pyramids. If that could somehow be brought about then the monuments would truly represent ‘an image of heaven’[568]—as the old Hermetic doctrines teach—and the land of Egypt ‘which once was holy, a land which loved the gods and wherein alone the gods deigned to sojourn on earth’, might once again become, as it was before, ‘the teacher of Mankind’.[569]

  But how could the Horus-King hope to unite sky and ground?

  The only way would be if he were equipped to use precession—presumably just as an intellectual tool—to travel backwards in time.

  For as the reader will recall there was a time when a unique celestial conjunction involving the moment of sunrise, the constellation of Leo, and the meridian-transit of the three stars of Orion’s belt, did indeed occur. That time, of course, was near the beginning of the Age of Leo, at around 10,500 bc,[570] some 8000 years prior to the Pyramid Age.

  Becoming equipped

  The Utterances conventionally numbered 471, 472 and 473 in the ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts contain information of an extraordinary nature. In view of the importance of this information, we set it out in full below:

  I am the essence of a god, the son of a god, the messenger of a god, [says the Horus-King]. The Followers of Horus cleanse me, they bathe me, they dry me, they recite for me the Spell [formula] for Him who is on the Right Way, they recite for me the Spell of Him who Ascends, and I ascend to the sky.

  I will go aboard this Bark of Re [the Solar Bark]... Every god will rejoice at meeting me as they rejoice at meeting Re [the sun] when he ascends from the eastern side of the sky in peace, in peace.

  The sky quivers, the earth quakes before me, for I am a magician, I possess magic ... I have come that I may glorify Orion, that I may set Osiris at the head, that I may set the gods upon their thrones.

  O Mahaf, Bull of the gods [Taurus-Hyades], bring me this [solar bark] and set me on yonder side ... The reed-floats of the sky are set down for me by the day-bark that I [the solar Horus-King] may go up on them to Re at the Horizon. The reed floats of the sky are brought down to me by the night bark that I may go up on them to Horakhti at the horizon. I go up on the eastern side of the sky where the gods are born, and I am born as Horus, as Him of the Horizon ... I have found the Akhus with their mouths equipped ...

  ‘Who are you?’ say they [the Akhus], with their mouths equipped.

  ‘I am an Akhu with my mouth equipped.’

  ‘How has this happened to you,’ say they, the Akhus with their mouths equipped, ‘that you have come to this place more noble than any place?’

  ‘I have come to this place more noble than any place because: The reed-floats of the sky were set down for Re [the sun disc and the emblem of the Horus-King] that Re might cross [the Milky Way] on them to Horakhti at the Horizon ...’[571]

  56. Artist’s impression of the unique celestial conjunction that occurred at sunrise on the vernal equinox in the epoch of 10,500 bc.

  These Utterances appear to describe an important part of the Horus-King’s initiatory journey—an ordeal of questions and answers based on astronomical science wrapped up in esoteric symbols. The inquisitors are the ‘Followers of Horus’, also known as the Akhus (the ‘Venerables’, the ‘Shining Ones’, the ‘Transfigured Spirits’, etc., etc.). Moreover, as we would expect, the Horus-King’s cosmic journey begins in the Taurus-Hyades region of the sky, on the right bank of the Milky Way. and proceeds along the ecliptic path to end at Leo i.e. ‘Horakhti’, at the horizon. Here, at ‘this place more noble than any place’, the Akhus greet him—indeed he claims to have become an Akhu himself—and give him the final instructions or directions that he will need to complete his quest.

  What we have to consider is the possibility that these final instructions might somehow have ‘equipped’ the Horus-King to make the necessary journey back in time, to the ‘First Time’, and into the cosmic Kingdom of Osiris when sky and ground were united in perfect harmony.

  Unification

  As the reader will recall from the previous chapter, the ‘Followers of Horus’ were said to have possessed ‘a knowledge of divine origin’ that was to be used to ‘unify the country’. It is therefore presumably of relevance that large numbers of ancient Egyptian inscriptions and papyri make reference to an event known as ‘the Uniting of the Two Lands’—an event that is eloquently related in the so-called Shabaka Texts (the ‘Memphite Theology’) which we have reviewed in Part III.

  It is the scholarly consensus that the ‘Unification of the Two Lands’ was a political and economic ‘federation’ between southern and northern Egypt, resulting from the military conquest of the latter by the former, which supposedly occurred at around the year 3000 bc.[572] This conquest, as T. G. H. James informs us, ‘was effected by a King known to history as Menes. No contemporary monument bears a royal name that can with certainty be read as Menes, but he is generally identified with King Narmer who is shown wearing both the red and white crowns [respectively of northern and southern Egypt] on a great palette [now in the Cairo Museum]. With the unification of the Kingdoms begins the historic period of Egypt.’[573]

  Also sometimes referred to as ‘King Scorpion’ (after a symbol that appears on an archaic mace-head) we have already met Menes-Narmer.[574] We have noted, too, the strange Egyptological double standard by which he is accorded the status of a genuine historical figure whilst his predecessors—mentioned with equal prominence in the king-lists and Manetho—are dismissed as ‘mythical beings’.

  Indeed, Egyptologists speak with such immense confidence of ‘the political consolidation of Egypt around 3000 bc’ and of the ‘unification under Narmer’[575] that one would suppose they were in possession of bundles upon bundles of ancient treaties, land deeds and historical records. The truth, however, as James half admits, is that nothing is known for sure about the supposed first Pharaoh of the First Dynasty. On the contrary, the whole of what we read about him, including his identification with ‘Narmer’,
is scholarly speculation based on idiosyncratic interpretations of certain scenes—some of which depict battles—that are carved on the so-called ‘Narmer Palette’ and on certain votive mace-heads from Hierakonpolis (an ancient religious capital in southern Egypt).[576]

  In short, Egyptology’s case that ‘the Unification of the Two Lands’ refers to the political unification of northern and southern Egypt under Menes rests on three completely uninscribed artefacts which are carved with scenes that might bear such an interpretation—but that could also be interpreted in many other ways. These curious artefacts tell us precious little about Menes-Narmer himself,[577] let alone what his political and territorial aspirations—or those of anybody else—might have been circa 3000 bc in Egypt. Semi-legendary or semi-historical, Narmer (or Menes or ‘King Scorpion’—take your pick) is thus the quintessential ‘King Arthur’ of Egyptology. And so, too, is his supposed ‘Unification of Egypt’—which is also veiled in semi-mythical, semi-historical confusion, very much like the confederation of King Arthur’s Round Table.[578]

  Moreover the conclusion that Menes-Narmer was the first ruler to have been involved in the ‘Unification of the Two Lands’ clashes rudely with the beliefs of the ancient Egyptians themselves. Their records and traditions make it clear that there had been earlier ‘Unifications’ in the ‘Time of the Gods’—all going back to the original Kingdom of Osiris, the ‘Kingdom of the “First Time” ’ which was torn asunder by Seth and then unified once again by Horus.