A BRIEF HISTORY OF EGYPT Egypt wasn't always a thin ribbon of life surrounded by desert. From 200,000 to 10,000 bce most of what is now known as the Sahara desert used to be verdant grasslands and plains with many trees and several rivers. There was an accumulation of different cultures down to 5,000 bce. From 6,000-4,000 bce different belief structures, and both matrilineal and patrilineal societies existed along the Nile, for by then the Sahara was rapidly turning to desert and the cultures went to the only remaining source of water, the Life Giving Nile. Agriculture was already developed, and irrigation systems in use. There was already predominant Goddess and God worship in these societies. From 4,000-3,100 bce, Egypt now evolved into states, between 36-44 of them, called Nomes. From time to time, Egypt became united into two kingdoms, the Upper King-dom, from about Aswan down to Cairo, with its capital at Nekhen, whose chief god was a goddess, Nekhebit, the Vulture Goddess; and Lower Egypt in the Delta with it's capital at Uatchet, whose chief god was also a goddess, Uatchet. Nekhebit, the Vulture Goddess was an Earth Mother, and considered very maternal (the type of vultures in Egypt are very maternal birds). She also symbolized regeneration of life, from Death comes Life, as the vulture is one of the few animals that can survive and mainly subsists on bodies of animals that would poison others. Uatchet, the Snake Goddess, was also venerated as protection from snakes, and of fertility (snakes lay many eggs). The two goddess, Nekhebit and Uatchet, Vulture and Snake goddess became the part of the crown over the third eye, look at the two on most crowns of egypt. Later, the snake goddess became associated with the Serpent Fire of the Egyptian equivalent of the Kundalini, and it's power came out at the third eye, instead of the top of the head (which became associated with another god). The worship of Hathor, Amon, Thoth, Horus, Bast, Sekhmet and a few others have already been well established. Isis is yet to be found or mentioned. The first three Dynasties: I The 1st king, Narmer, united the kingdoms forever (after a brief unification prior), and on the famous palette of Narmer is found not only the Nome standards (our equivalents of flags), but the 1st known name of Hathor. The 2nd king of the 1st Dynasty established the right of women to rule Egypt. It was during the 1st Dynasty that a woman ruled Egypt, to take that into perspective, if the US followed that, we would have a woman president well before the Civil War. She was one of the 11 women to rule one of the greatest civilizations in the world. And it, like most of the others, was peaceful. Rights of women were established. they could marry and divorce; there was no community property; women could establish their own businesses without a man's consent or cosignature; they could conduct them before, during and after marriage. Married couples were considered co-partners and co-equals. Pregnant women, by law, had to be taken care of by the husband or the police came and beat him up! ---------- Ancient Egyptian Astral Heaven(s) Ancient Egypt had more than one heaven, and most of their heavens were subdivided into sections or parts akin to, and probably best equated with the astral plane. As the astral plane has many different levels, the lowest next to the earthly plane, and highest sections up to and pass most of earth's religions concept of heaven, the astral plane is like a onion with the material world in the center, and the layers going outward (or inward, or higher, or whatever). As most religions heavens are manifested in the astral plane, they are also separate from each other. This is also true in Egyptian heavens of the astral plane. The Book of the Dead (a misnomer as the Egyptians never called it that), lists the sections of the Heaven of Osiris. As you read the book, you also see that there is a specific way to get to the heaven and through it. There is an ancient Egyptian writing from a scribe that says, in effect: "If you don't use the specific directions to get to a particular heaven, you won't get there but to a false heaven." As most of us are aware, the astral plane is composed and made up of the thought-forms of mankind and of the gods, hence, there is an Egyptian heaven that was formed by the thousands of people who have conceptualized it since the beginning of the 1800's, made stronger through the Rosecrucians and Blavatsky's, and into the modern metaphysical movement. But it is NOT the ancient Egyptian heaven. Hence, you can't simply just astrally project in order to get to a real Egyptian heaven. You have to follow the directions by the ancient Egyptians in order to make it to one of their specific heavens. You may even have to change your astral form to conform to a certain type in order to enter. For example, one of the ways to get to the Horus heaven is to have project to the Nile, and do certain things in order for a boat with a hawk on it to come over to the bank and pick you up to take you to the Horus Heaven. One of the things you have to do, and not the only thing, in order to get into the Heaven of Isis is to change your astral body into the shape of a bird, a Swallow! So if someone, no matter how much you respect them, tells you that they dreamed or astrally projected to astral Egypt, they are wrong, unless they know the specific ways to do it. The Egyptians then, have a sort of astral lock on the proverbial doors to the entra-nce of their heavens, and you can't just blindingly end up there without the right keys to get there. I can probably safely say that no more than a couple of dozen people in the last century have been able to enter these heavens, and no one who has written a book about Egyptian metaphysics has (including Eliz. Hatch who wrote Initiation; who knows nothing about Ptahhotep). The teachers are still pretty much in the Egyptian heavens, waiting to teach the student who is able to get there. Although the ancient Egyptians had the wherewithal to go into drug induced states (they had mandrake and poppies for medicine), I have yet to find one example of them using them for magic or astral projection. Astral sight was taught before astral projection, using techniques that we still use today. Several techniques that are used today in astral projection today were also used in astral projection then, but usually, a priest led the student in the first several experiences in order for the student to get used to the experience and feelings associated with projection to a particular heaven. Therefore the guided trips were first used. Usually the first trips were done in the temples (easier to do with all of the power already resident in the temples). Some, like the priests of Horus were also done by the Nile's edge, the student going into a sleep, the priest astrally projecting and drawing the students astral body and consciousness out doing what is necessary for the Horus boat to arrive on the astral Nile, then going on the trip through the Horus heaven. Sometimes it was done out in the desert. Once when I was in Egypt, after finding a Eye of Horus between the pillars of the temple of the ka of Ptahhotep, I went into the Serapeum (desert underground chambers for the burials of the Serapis bulls; talk about sensory deprivation! Light wouldn't go farther than 20' and normal talking didn't extend past 30- 40'.) and in the Serapeum, while sitting down next to the stone coffin of one of the bulls I instantaneously, and lack of trying on my part, astrally projected. I found myself several hundred feet over the desert at Sakkara and flew to the Nile and commenced on a trip to an Egyptian heaven. When a teacher died, such as Imhotep, he went to the appropriate heaven and taught from there (according to the ancient Egyptians, who said that at that point their teachers on earth would astrally project to the heaven to be taught by him). At that point, all priest/esses called him Master, or another appropriate remark. Since apparently there was much connections between the two worlds, the priest/esses knew when Imhotep finally left the astral heaven to ascend beyond and into the world of the god/desses. At that point Imhotep on earth was called a God (this process is found in a papyrus fragment translated courtesy of the French Institute of Archeology of Cairo). Hence, if you know when Imhotep or some other lived, and know that after death he was called a master, then the earliest time that he, or she, started being called a God was the time he moved out of the astral plane. Some other traditions use the symbology of ladders as an analogy of the ascent to their astral plane. Each rung represents a god or goddess to invoke, the ladder is always held by two gods, which symbolize the type of path being used. In some other traditions, there was a way to ascend through the astral plane and into the spiritual realm, reserv-ed for the higher priests who have passed the Guardian of the Threshold. These tradi-tions can be found when you go to Egypt for in some of the temples the staircase to the roof will have a god/dess for each step, symbolizing those that you will need to ascend to the spiritual plane. Certain god/desses and spiritual beings can assist or deter you from your astral trip. THE HELPERS: Anubis is one of the best. Hathor is also great, for she gives you magical power during your astral projection. The god Seb supplies all a person needs to astrally travel in many places. The god Seb, Shu, the goddesses Nut and Tefnut defend people during their journeys. There was also the Souls of the West, Souls of the East; Lady of the Evening, Calf of the Goddess (Morning Star), Souls of several different cities for their special heavens; The Catcher of Gods, the Divine Being who Examines Gods for Men, the God who Binds Gods. THOSE THAT YOU WANT TO AVOID: The Unmentionable Terrible Serpent (with Lovecraftian powers and would be great in his novels, like Chuthulu or Hastor the Unspeakable, occasionally used in Black Magic, which apparently was very uncommon in Egypt) I won't give you his name. There is of course, Apep, Apophis, and a few specific to each of the heavens, but are usually particular to the Osirian heaven (Reading the Book of the Dead will give you a great idea about them). A zoomorphic projection is when you astrally project then change your astral body into a zoomorphic figure in order to get to specific Egyptian astral heavens. An example is turning your astral body into a swallow to get to Isis's heaven, or into a hawk to get to one of Horus's heavens. Following the Eastern Tradition of the astral plane, the Egyptians have an almost exact duplicate of the concept. Basically it says that there is a plane of existence between the realm of the high gods and earth, called the astral plane, which has layers like an onion. The astral plane is made up of the mind stuff of heaven and earth dwellers alike and is as real as both. To the Eastern people, all the heavens of all the religions are there. To both Egyptian and Easterners, to get there you astrally project or out of body experien-ce. Although the Egyptians had a more elaborate version. The Egyptians, therefore, which had several religious traditions, of which Isis plays in a couple) had several heavens. These were usually conceived of in layers or parts, corresponding to the layers of the astral plane. In Heliopolis there were 12 layers or planes to their heaven. Each tradition had a different heaven and a different way of getting there. The temples trained the people how to do it at home, at the temple, or elsewhere. Sometimes more than just the astral body took the trip, there was also a spiritual body, the soul, the spirit and other forms. According to ancient Egyptian practices, you can project your astral body, soul, spirit, or spiritual body. However, there is no ritual to do all at once, probably because it would kill the person. Of course the sa is considered the spiritual power of a person and the anim-ating force of the body. As long as you have the sa and one of the three (soul, spirit or spiritual body) you're body can still live during the projections. The Egyptians are the only ones that I am aware of (other than a very few Native American tribes) that even project the spirit or the spiritual body or the soul. Altered state of consciousness was used in Egypt, usually by NOT using drugs, althou-gh they did have mandrake, poppies and hemp (used in medicine as an anesthetic). What was taught differed by tradition, and what kind of altered state differed also. For example: A scribe of Anubis: Does he want to become a doctor/priest, a mummification priest, or a priest/guide to the astral plane? If the latter, then he is taught the basics of the Egyptian astral planes and how each one differs, and how each tradition of Egypt has a different path to their own. He is taught how to astrally project, and then his teach-er will project and take him on a guided tour. Eventually he will astrally project to the Anubis temple in the astral plane and receive higher knowledge from their teachers. Eventually he will teach others to project, and lead them on journeys. No one except probably about 15 people know how to astrally project to an ancient Egyptian astral plane. The form you take, the route you take, what you see determines if you will get there, and if you don't know these things, according to the Egyptians you will not reach the plane. Instead you will end up on an astral plane of Egypt created by people who lived from the 1700-1800's on, such as Golden Dawn people, Rosecrucians, Wicca people. Is there an astral plane? It's up to you. I have my own opinion. My opinions are almost always based on experts in their own fields. ---------- Ancient Egyptian Initiations The mysteries and initiations varied from temple to temple. In the Lesser Mysteries of Isis there is preparatory instruction, meditation within the temple and introduction to the sanctuary for participation in a performance of drama of death and resurrection. In today's society, there are many groups that give initiations, but the initiation usually fails, and usually for the following reasons; 1. The group doing the initiation does not know enough to do one successfully (usually through lack of full knowledge of their tradition). 2. Incomplete preparation of the Initiate. 3. Incomplete preparation of the group. 4. Incomplete Initiatory Ceremonies or process. 5. Initiation Rituals becomes a bad play at best.6. The people directing the Initiations weren't properly prepared or initiated in their own initiation. In Egypt, they allowed for self-initiation (but only for some levels). All cognition, after all, comes from the inside. We are therefore initiated only by ourselves, the master or teacher gives us the Key. In some Egyptian initiations the goal is the receive the Sa, the innate virtue or power of the gods as a sort of fluid (or magnetic fluid or aura). It is transmitted by the God's (I will sometimes say God, but take it as either God or Goddess) hands through touch or passes on the neck or spine of the individual. This operation is called the Satapu-sa. "The Summit is the Apex of the Mountains height, but there are both Summit and Valley, hence, something exists which causes both. Equally there is within you that which wants to lift itself despite the animal instincts, and also that which wants to remain earthly. Summit and Valley, are 2 powers manifested. If there were not these two there would be only one. Since there are two there are also all the others which sprang from these, the other Neters or Gods/desses." "One should pass through complexity in order to exhaust the various possibilities until the awakening of the consciousness which leads towards simplicity; it is on intermediate phase between dream and reality." "If the essence and perfection of all good are comprehended in the god/desses, and if you adhere to a more excellent nature, you will obtain a union with them, the contemp-lation of truth, and the possession of intellect. A knowledge of the gods is accompanied with a conversion to and knowledge of ourselves." I'll let you contemplate that one for awhile. Written on the college walls of the Temple of Horus at Edfu. The Egyptian path can be considered (as defined by Frankfort) as; 1. Evolution = Ignorance 2 Destruction = Knowledge 3 Dissolution = Experience 4 Reintegration = Understanding 5 Integration = Wisdom FROM: JANA HOLLINGSWORTH Dear Michael, Not only was this the usual excellent note on Egypt, but I was most impr-essed by your concise description of failed initiations. You have touched on a topic only a few Pagans are willing to think about. Too often initiation in Wiccan and other Pagan groups has become a spiritually meaningless ritual, and the worst part is that people don't even know the difference. Then there are all these novices with no qualifications "self-initiating" themselves. I was once initiated as a Dianic Witch, but it didn't "take." I never refer to myself as a Witch or a Wiccan. I am a Pagan, and I don't need to be initiated for that. So many who use the name Wiccan Could use, in the pants, a good kickin'. A Pagan I am! I'd give each dam Self-proclaimed Wiccan a lickin'. Jana, Pagan and Proud! FROM: MICHAEL POE Except for those very few hereditary witches, most of Wicca is new (1940s and later) and as such, much of it is from books and people who taught themselves from books and then taught others. All of the spiritual exercises and goals that need to be done to be truly initiated are usually missing (unless you are lucky enough to be one of the few who was disciplined enough to intuitively done all the right things first. I have been to many Wiccan initiations and while a few have been magical, none have been fully effective, and most have been more like a Catholic mass, all pomp and circumstance and no magic. That's also essentially true of white people learning shamanism, they don't get the teachers that really know. Ancient Egypt had 14 traditions in which the majority of them were magical ones. After more than 30 years of studying ancient Egypt, even I can't tell you about the proper initiations of several of the traditions; but at least I now have the spiritual exercises and whole initiations for some of the them and in the group that I am involved, we have done a couple of them. Most Wicca systems that I am aware of need to spend more time on the spiritual and magical development of the individual. Some ancient Egyptian systems took a minimum of a year to two years of spiritual exercises before the person cast their first spell. The priests had the ability to make people astrally project at will, for example. It's also a mistake being too eclectic. For example, Mercury is equated with Thoth by the Greeks and Romans, but while they did share some powers and attributes, they were not the same. 8 track tapes and regular cassettes both play music, but try putting a 8 track tape into a cassette player! Isis, for example, is never invoked as a Great Mother Goddess unless she is holding baby Horus. NEVER! I have seen many Wiccan ceremonies where they use the wrong Egyptian god/desses in their rituals, or the wrong god/desses forms for the powers they are invoking. Remember, that despite some current thinking that it's only the associa-tion in your mind that counts, and if you want to invoke Sekhmet with a knife (for example) as a gentle mother goddess, she will appear as that; it just isn't so. This is coming from people who have never been properly initiated. The prevailing thought up to 10 years ago is that if a form and function of a god/dess has been worshipped for thousands of years by hundreds of thousands of individuals, including those properly initiated, then that form and function will always override what one individual or group over a few years may invoke. The thoughtform was constructed in the Astral plane and is extremely strong, and a few people who have decided that (usually through ignorance) he/she had a different form or function, will never be able to compete with the stronger form. Which is probably why many eclectic Wiccan magic doesn't work or work well. They don't know what they are drawing from, and instead of trying to get the vast astral power out there to work for them, it works against them, or else their own little power will be the only power they will be able to tap into. Michael ---------- FROM: BRENDA RYAN I was wondering about those temples that have been moved, do they still retain the power. Is it in the temple building itself or in the ground upon which the temple stands? As you know, the temple at Abu Simbel had been moved during the building of the Aswan Dam but I think you mentioned it one time as a power spot. Also, I was more impressed with the temples and tombs in Upper Egypt than in the pyramids and the Sphinx. In fact, the Great Pyramid was musty smelling and claustrophobic so I didn't go all the way up. My friend thought I was missing out on the opportunity of a lifetime, but I just wasn't impressed. I didn't "feel" anything there. The tombs in the Valley of the Kings were another matter. I felt completely comfortable going all the way down in the tombs that were open and was much more in awe of the whole area. FROM: MICHAEL POE To make a short answer long, let me respond by this: Back in pre-dynastic times, the priest/esses had no stone temples, they worked outside (or later, in mud and dabble temples) and cast circles; hence their name; "People of the Circle". Eventually they had temples of sun dried brick, but still retained the name. During the Dynastic period they were building temples out of stone. Now the stone temples, if you have seen them, are covered with figures of the gods and goddesses and religious texts and invocations. The walls became the psychic circle of protection and were imbued with their own power. Despite the fact that the magical group no longer needed to cast circles for protection from without or raise power within (as the temples walls did that), they were still called the "People of the Circle". Some traditions just won't die! So, yes, the temples themselves, despite having been moved, are still full of power as the walls themselves is the stone circle of power. Now you might ask, well, that makes sense, magic being used in them for thousands of years, but what about the power spot it was originally built over, if any? Well, of course, the temple, being built over the power spot and with all the magic working in it for hundreds or thousands of years, the power from the spot would seep into the temples walls. That power would still be there if the temple was rebuilt. Remember that the ancient Egyptians would someti-mes take an older temple apart and incorporate the stones into the walls of another temple far away. That is the method of getting stones already imbued with power and "precharging" the new temple with power. So yes, any temple that has been moved still retains it's power. Michael Imagine if you will, a temple 2/3 of a mile long and 1/4 mile wide, 6 stories tall. The courtyard, big enough for over 4 football fields surrounded by a high, 2 story wall. You enter through 20 foot high doors encased in gold into the courtyard at night. The court-yard is done in highly polished black granite, so well polished that it reflects the milky way. It is like walking in space! In the middle of the courtyard is a full size tree, made with trunk and branches of blue lapis lazuli, and leaves of turquoise. A dream you say? No, for it was the Temple of Ra at Heliopolis, built around 1800-1900 bc, and shown to Greeks during 500-200 bc. And if you think that was a truly magical and awe inspiring courtyard, imagine what was inside the huge covered temple that took up over 1/2 of the area! Complete with it's secret corridors and chambers, etc. Also, you are familiar with Egyptian temples in Egypt, but did you know that Egyptian temples also existed in Lebanon, Syria, Greece, Delos, Crete, Italy, Spain, France, Britain and Germany? The ancient Egyptians in addition to doctors, also had specialized surgeons, psycholo-gists, OBGYN's, midwives, vets, brain surgeons (with 80% success rate in trepanning, dentists, herbalists, in addition to their botanists and ethnographers. The Temple is the House of God. The Body of Man is the House of God, therefore the Temple is the Body of Man. (from temple of Amon). In nature, everything is linked with everything else, and you are a part of nature. Obser-ve outside, observe inside, you begin to see the relations between things. The ancient Egyptians didn't worship animals. They had sacred animals, but what they worship was the Divine Principle made manifest in that animal. Hence, the Serapis bull symbolized the Divine Principle of Strength. The Baboon of Thoth for two things: Society (baboons have, among the animals, one of the most complex societies), and of Contemplation (Baboons will sit and watch the Sun rise, among other things). Horus with the Hawk, one who sees or watches the earth from above, and sees it extremely well (hawks and birds of prey have a binocular vision of about 7x power); Hence the celestial Horus eyes were the Sun and the Moon. The attributes of Bast and of the Cat is very close. And so, to the Egyptian, while man is an example of ALL the powers of all the god/ desses; certain animals manifest specific powers, and manifest them more than man. Hence they worship the power behind the animals. Observe outside, observe inside, you begin to see the relations between things. An animal does not reason, it experiences directly. Man is deceived by the incomplete testimony of his senses and his reason and has allowed the instinctive consciousness to atrophy without having learned to use his intuitive faculties which to the Egyptians, is the wisdom of the heart. Therefore there are ancient rituals to strengthen the heart. Raise your eyes to know what relates to the laws of the heavens, Look around you to study the principles of nature, Look inside you to determine your attributes, to integrate your personality, and identify it with the heavens and nature, One can cast your heart ahead on the Chosen Way, then go and retrieve it, and let your steps loyally follow its voice. The Egyptian Way of Life is of Harmony; Within the All-Inclusive Unity of God/desses, Nature and Society; Man can move with Dignity, Safety and Happiness. The Egyptian essential Unity in the conviction that man can find immortality and peace by becoming part, or as one, with the perennial cyclic rhythms of Nature, a recurring movement, part of the established and unchanging Order of the Universe. With the occasional exception, I will start posting notes on the different traditions; The Ceremonial Tradition, the Philosophical, The Arts and Crafts, the Hermetic like, the Wiccan like, the Alchemical, etc. Stuck in between will be the occasional hymn to a god/dess, observations on astronom-ical god/desses; parts of man, temple structure, etc. Make any comments or questions that you want that are related. Michael Ankh em Maat