The Message of the Sphinx AKA Keeper of Genesis
Page 37
[441] Probably somewhere within the Sphinx Temple. This idea was, in fact, suggested by the German Egyptologist, Adolf Erman, who wrote: ‘Ro-setau, the gate of the ways, led direct to the underworld. It is possible that part of this shrine has survived in the so-called temple of the Sphinx ...’ (A Handbook of Egyptian Religion, Archibald Constable & Co. Ltd., 1907, p. 15).
[442] R. O. Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts, op. cit., Vol. III, p. 132, Spell 1035.
[443] Ibid., p. 109.
[444] Pyramid Texts, op. cit., lines 1128-34.
[445] Ibid., lines 924-5.
[446] Ibid., line 1328.
[447] Ibid., line 1657.
[448] Seventh Division, Book of What is in the Duat, E. A. Wallis Budge trans., Egyptian Heaven and Hell, op. cit., Vol. I, p. 143.
[449] Robin Cook, The Pyramids of Giza, op. cit., p. 42.
[450] Pyramid Texts, op. cit., lines 1710-18.
[451] E. A. Wallis Budge, An Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary, op. cit., Vol. I, p. 580a.
[452] Selim Hassan, Excavations at Giza, op. cit., p. 184.
[453] E. A. Wallis Budge, Dictionary, op. cit., Vol. I, p. 579b.
[454] Selim Hassan, Excavations at Giza, op. cit., p. 184.
[455] Adolf Erman, A Handbook of Egyptian Religion, op. cit., 1907, p. 15.
[456] Coffin Texts, op. cit., Vol. III, p. 134.
[457] I. E. S. Edwards, The Pyramids of Egypt, op. cit., 1993 edition, p. 286.
[458] The causeway of the Pyramid of Unas at Saqqara has a small part of the original roof on the ceiling of which are carved five-pointed stars. The ceiling was painted blue and the stars probably gold or yellow.
[459] Jean Kerisel (La Grande Pyramide et ses Derniers Secrets, scheduled for publication 1996) discusses this matter at length. The table is about 10 metres below the floor-level of the Sphinx enclosure.
[460] Kerisel appeared on the BBC documentary, The Great Pyramid: Gateway to the Stars, shown on 6 February 1994.
[461] Jean Kerisel, La Grande Pyramide, op. cit., pp. 196-8.
[462] Pyramid Texts, op. cit., lines 1195-9.
[463] The ‘Herald of the Year’ mentioned in the Pyramid Texts implies the star Sirius which follows Orion. The latter, by necessity, must be near the ‘Field of Offerings’.
[464] See fig. 11 in R. A. Schwaller de Lubicz, Sacred Science, op. cit., p. 97. See also various diagrams of so-called ‘Sphinx stelae’ shown in Selim Hassan, The Sphinx, op. cit.
[465] Kerisel has recently obtained a scientific licence from the Egyptian Antiquities Department to explore the subterranean chamber of the Great Pyramid and test a hunch he’s had for many years that somewhere under the chamber is an access to a hidden chamber itself connected, perhaps, by tunnel with the valley or even the Sphinx area. In July 1995 Kerisel managed to use a high-precision drill to make tiny boreholes into the wall of the horizontal passageway that leads to the chamber but so far nothing has been found.
[466] Robert Bauval, ‘The Seeding of the star-gods: A fertility ritual inside Cheops’s Pyramid?’ in Discussions In Egyptology, Vol. XVI, 1990, pp. 21-9.
[467] The Orion Mystery, op. cit., p. 221. The ‘ritual’ was graphically recreated in the BBC documentary The Great Pyramid: Gateway to the Stars, shown in February and September 1994.
[468] Pyramid Texts, op. cit., line 632.
[469] E. A. Wallis Budge, Dictionary, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 654b.
[470] Smithsonian Contributions to Astrophysics, Vol. X, No. 2, 5000 and 10,000 Year Star Catalogs, by Gerald S. Hawkins and Shoshana K. Rosenthal, Washington, DC, 1967, p. 154. For 2500 bc the declination for Regulus is given as +24.1 degrees. Thus for latitude 30 degrees the rising point would be very close to 28 degrees. The sun’s declination at the summer solstice in c. 2500 bc was very near this point, at 23.98 degrees. Since the apparent angular width of the sun is about 0.5 degrees, both Regulus and the sun would have occupied the same ‘place’ in the eastern horizon at the summer solstice in c. 2500 bc.
[471] James H. Breasted, Ancient Records, op. cit., Part II, pp. 321-2.
[472] ‘Egyptians of the New Kingdom were ... in the dark concerning it [the Sphinx] and it is extremely doubtful if there ever was a single person living in Egypt at this period, who knew as much of the true history of the Sphinx as we do to-day ...’ (Selim Hassan, The Sphinx, op. cit., p. 75).
[473] James H. Breasted, Ancient Records, op. cit., Part II, p. 323.
[474] T. G. H. James, An Introduction to Ancient Egypt, British Museum Publications Ltd., 1987, p. 37.
[475] Ibid., p. 38.
[476] Boston Globe, op. cit., 23 October 1991.
[477] Labib Habachi, The Obelisks of Egypt, The American University Press, Cairo, 1988, p. 40.
[478] Ibid.
[479] Nicholas Grimal, A History of Ancient Egypt, Blackwell, Oxford, 1992, p. 12.
[480] Ibid.
[481] W. B. Emery, Archaic Egypt, Penguin, London, 1987, p. 23.
[482] Michael A. Hoffman, Egypt Before the Pharaohs, Michael O’Mara Books Ltd., London, 1991, p. 12.
[483] Ibid.
[484] W. B. Emery, Archaic Egypt, op. cit., p. 32ff.
[485] Cambridge Ancient History, Volume I, p. 250.
[486] Henri Frankfort, Kingship and the Gods, University of Chicago Press, 1978, p. 90.
[487] I. E. S. Edwards, The Pyramids of Egypt, op. cit., 1993 edition, p. 286: ‘The high priest of the centre of the sun cult at Heliopolis bore the title “Chief of the Astronomers” and was represented wearing a mantle adorned with stars.’
[488] Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend, Hamlet’s Mill, op. cit., p. 58.
[489] See for example C. W. Ceram, Gods, Graves and Scholars, Book Club Associates, London, 1971, p. 26ff.
[490] See Sarva Daman Singh, Ancient Indian Warfare, Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1989, p. 7ff.
[491] Labib Habachi, The Obelisks of Egypt, op. cit., p. 39.
[492] Ibid.
[493] Cited in ibid., pp. 39-40.
[494] For a detailed discussion see E. A. E. Reymond, The Mythical Origin of the Egyptian Temple, Manchester University Press, Barnes and Noble Inc., New York, 1969.
[495] John Anthony West, Traveller’s Key to Ancient Egypt, op. cit., p. 412.
[496] E. A. E. Reymond, Mythical Origin of the Egyptian Temple, op. cit., p. 4.
[497] Ibid.
[498] Ibid., p. 8ff.
[499] Letter to Robert Bauval dated 27 January 1993: ‘I believe it [the mound] represented the primaeval mound on which life first appeared.’
[500] E. A. E. Reymond, Mythical Origin of the Egyptian Temple, op. cit., pp. 28, 39, 46, 48, etc., etc.
[501] Ibid., p. 42.
[502] Ibid., p. 41.
[503] Ibid., p. 44.
[504] Ibid., pp. 27 and 31.
[505] Jeremy Black and Anthony Green, Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia, British Museum Press, London, 1992, pp. 163-4.
[506] Donald A. Mackenzie, Myths and Legends of India, The Mystic Press, London, 1987, p. 141ff; Veronica Ions, Indian Mythology, Hamlyn, London, 1983, pp. 120-1.
[507] E. A. E. Reymond, Mythical Origin of the Egyptian Temple, op. cit., pp. 106-7.
[508] Ibid., p. 55.
[509] Ibid., p. 90.
[510] Ibid., p. 113.
[511] Ibid., pp. 109 and 127.
[512] Ibid., p. 77.
[513] Ibid., p. 112.
[514] Ibid., p. 273.
[515] Cited in R. A. Schwaller de Lubicz, Sacred Science, op. cit., pp. 103-4. See also Henri Frankfort, Kingship and the Gods, op. cit., p. 90.
[516] E. A. E. Reymond, Mythical Origin of the Egyptian Temple, op. cit., p. 59.
[517] R. T. Rundle Clark, Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egypt, op. cit., p. 37.
[518] P. dem Berlin, 13603. For the ancient traditions asserting that Heliopolis was originally founded in remote pre-Dynastic times see J. Norman Lockyer, The Dawn of Astronomy, op. cit., p. 74.
[519
] E. A. E. Reymond, Mythical Origin of the Egyptian Temple, op. cit., p. 122.
[520] Ibid , pp. 121-2.
[521] Margaret Bunson, The Encyclopaedia of Ancient Egypt, New York, Oxford, 1991, p. 110.
[522] Ibid., p. 45.
[523] E. A. Wallis Budge, An Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 958.
[524] Flinders Petrie, Royal Tombs II, Pl.v,3, cited in E. A. E Reymond, Mythical Origin of the Egyptian Temple, p. 136.
[525] E. A. E. Reymond, Mythical Origin of the Egyptian Temple, op. cit., p. 257. See also p. 262.
[526] Ibid., p. 262.
[527] Ibid., p. 114; see also R. T. Rundle Clark, Myth and Symbol, op. cit., p. 37ff.
[528] Encyclopaedia Britannica, 9:393.
[529] The Orion Mystery, op. cit., p. 188.
[530] Ibid., p. 17.
[531] Ibid., pp. 203-4.
[532] Ibid., p. 17.
[533] R. T. Rundle Clark, The Legend of the Phoenix, University of Birmingham Press, 1949, p. 17.
[534] The Orion Mystery, op. cit., p. 212ff.
[535] R. T. Rundle Clark, Myth and Symbol, op. cit., p. 246.
[536] Robert K. G. Temple, The Sirius Mystery, Destiny Books, Rochester, Vt., 1987, p. 186.
[537] E. A. Wallis Budge, Hieroglyphic Dictionary, op. cit., Vol. II, pp. 828-32.
[538] Ibid., Vol. I, p. 11b.
[539] Mark Lehner, The Egyptian Heritage, op. cit., p. 119.
[540] E. A. Wallis Budge, Hieroglyphic Dictionary, op. cit., p. 11b.
[541] See for example W. B. Emery, Archaic Egypt, op. cit., p. 22.
[542] Manetho, W. G. Waddell trans., Heinemann, London, 1940, p. 3, note 1.
[543] R. A. Schwaller de Lubicz, Sacred Science, op. cit., p. 86; Lucy Lamy, Egyptian Mysteries, Thames & Hudson, London, 1986, pp. 68-9; Jane B. Sellers, The Death of Gods in Ancient Egypt, op. cit., p. 94.
[544] Sacred Science, op. cit., p. 86.
[545] Ibid.
[546] Jane B. Sellers, The Death of Gods, op. cit., p. 94.
[547] E. A. Wallis Budge, Hieroglyphic Dictionary, op. cit., Vol. I, pp. 22-3.
[548] Ibid.
[549] Sacred Science, op. cit.
[550] Henri Frankfort, Kingship and the Gods, op. cit., p. 93.
[551] Later known as Buto and Hierakonpolis respectively.
[552] Frankfort, Kingship, op. cit., p. 94.
[553] Ibid.
[554] The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts, R. O. Faulkner, trans., op. cit., lines 478 and 1717, pp. 94 and 253 respectively; Frankfort, Kingship, op. cit., pp. 93-5; R. T. Rundle Clark, Myth and Symbol, op. cit., pp. 122-3.
[555] E. A. E. Reymond, Mythical Origin of the Egyptian Temple, op. cit., p. 122.
[556] John Anthony West, Serpent in the Sky, op. cit., p. 1.
[557] Manetho, op. cit., p. xi.
[558] Ibid, p. 3.
[559] Ibid, p. 5.
[560] Ibid, p. 15.
[561] Ibid, p. 227.
[562] Diodorus Siculus, C. H. Oldfather trans. Harvard University Press, 1989, Vol. I, p. 157.
[563] R. A. Schwaller de Lubicz, Sacred Science, op. cit., p. 111.
[564] Skyglobe 3.6.
[565] The Orion Mystery, op. cit, p. 140ff.
[566] The Orion Mystery, op. cit, pp. 29 and 281, note 1. Details are as follows: Sneferu, about 9 million tons (two Pyramids at Dahshur) plus three Giza Pyramids (about 15 million tons) plus Abu Roash and Zawayat Al Aryan (about 1 million tons) = 25 million tons, i.e. about 75 per cent of the total volume of ‘Pyramid Age’ Pyramids (estimated at around 30 million tons).
[567] See for example Ahmed Fakhry, The Pyramids, op. cit.
[568] Hermetica, op. cit, Asclepius III, 24b, p. 341.
[569] Ibid, 25, p. 343.
[570] See in particular Chapter 4.
[571] Pyramid Texts, op. cit. Utterances 471-3, pp. 160-1.
[572] T. G. H. James, Introduction to Ancient Egypt, op. cit, p. 41.
[573] Ibid.
[574] See discussion in W. B. Emery, Archaic Egypt, op. cit, p. 42ff.
[575] The Age of the God Kings, Time-Life, 1987, p. 56ff.
[576] See discussion in W. B. Emery, Archaic Egypt, op. cit, p. 42ff.
[577] Even his name is put into doubt. According to Dr. Jaromir Malek, for example, the name of Menes ‘could be completely fictitious and based on a word-play which was misunderstood as a royal name by the later compilers of king-lists’ (Jaromir Malek, In the Shadow of the Pyramids, Orbis, London, 1986, p. 29). As for his other name, Narmer, this, too, is plagued with confusion and doubt. On the so-called votive mace-heads and palettes found at Hierakonpolis there is shown the image of a chieftain or ‘king’ and on the front of his face are shown certain hieroglyphic signs, in some cases forming the syllables ‘Nar-Mer’ and in others showing a scorpion. This has led Egyptologists to conclude that the Menes of the king-lists is this Narmer or ‘King Scorpion’ (ibid., pp. 28-9). To overcome the obvious confusion of having this presumed ‘last king of Predynastic Egypt’ bearing three names, Egyptologists have arrived at the unsatisfactory conclusion that the name ‘King Scorpion’ on the votive mace-head ‘is almost certainly wrong’ and that it must be regarded as some sort of ‘large ceremonial image’. Consequently ‘if King “Scorpion” is thus refuted,’ proposed Dr. Malek, then ‘the likeliest candidate for identification with the figure on the mace-head is Narmer’ (ibid., p. 29).
[578] W. A. Fairservis Jr., ‘A Revised View of the Narmer Palette’, in Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, XXVIII, 1991, pp. 1-20.
[579] Jane B. Sellers, The Death of Gods in Ancient Egypt, op. cit., pp. 93-4.
[580] Ibid., p. 90.
[581] Ibid., p. 94.
[582] Henri Frankfort, Kingship and the Gods, op. cit., pp. 18-19.
[583] Ibid., p. 33.
[584] Ibid., p. vi.
[585] Sellers, Death of Gods, op. cit., p. 93.
[586] Ibid., pp. 93ff, 115ff and 192ff. Having determined that the ancient Egyptians made use of the phenomenon of precession, Sellers then focused, to the exclusion of all else, on the idea that the ancients were tracking the heliacal rising of Orion at the spring equinox. With this in mind she based all her observations in the eastern horizon at the time of the spring equinox. This led her to make precessional calculations which bracketed the ‘Golden Age’ between 7300 bc and 6700 bc, the two epochs marking the beginning and end of Orion’s heliacal rising with the spring equinox (e.g. pp. 28 and 43). Although the core of her thesis that the key to the ancient mystery is to be found in the tracking of Orion’s precessional drift is spot on, her conclusion that the measurements are to be made at the rising in the east of Orion at the spring equinox is a curious error of judgement. For what is most surprising about Sellers’s analytical approach is that, while she correctly puts all the emphasis of her thesis on Orion and its precessional drift, she makes absolutely no reference to the most obvious astronomical ‘Orion marker’ in ancient Egypt: the ‘Orion’ star-shaft in the Great Pyramid. Indeed, Sellers completely ignores the Pyramids or any other structure in Egypt, and instead centres her attention only on the textual material. The fact is that the Pyramid builders and the compilers of the Pyramid Texts were not tracking Orion in the eastern horizon but high in the southern skies, at the meridian.
[587] Precessional calculations show that we live in the astronomical ‘Last Time’ of Orion, with the belt stars in our epoch approaching the highest altitude at the meridian that they will ever attain in their precessional cycle.
[588] Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend, Hamlet’s Mill, op. cit., p. 11.
[589] Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Vol. I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms, p. 52.
[590] Ibid., pp. 52-3.
[591] Pyramid Texts, op. cit., lines 1256-7, p. 200.
[592] Ibid., 1278, p. 202.
[593] For a brief review see Bunson, The Encyclopaedia of Ancient Egypt, op. cit., p. 130.