Dear Don,
The canopic jars are odd, you know. The early ones had human heads, then they began to be representations of Anubis, and eventually became the better known sons of Horus… all four jars always protected by the goddess. Their history pretty much mirrors the journey of the soul, don’t you think?
Each jar was associated with one of the cardinal points and contained the lungs, liver, stomach and intestines. Back to the ‘lights’ again… and it puts yet a different slant on ‘inner’ and ‘outer’…
The heart was not placed within the jars though, but was left in the body as it was the most important of the organs. The brain was simply discarded; not unlike the Christian symbolism in the hagiographies and paintings… the martyrs had their heads removed, the Egyptians just stirred up the brain and whipped it out through the nostrils.
They, of course, believed the heart to be the source of the emotions, much as we speak of it today, as well as the root of both memory and personality. Crucially from our perspective though, considering all our beheaded saints, they also saw it as the seat of wisdom, the home of the soul… and the place through which the gods spoke.
The Egyptian systems still have so much to offer. The body serves a purpose and must be cared for, yet alone cannot reach the Fields of Ra. The brain… our intellect… cannot get you there either… But bringing the personality and the emotions to the place where the gods speak…
Not unlike the three centres we use in the School, really… How many times have we spoken of the necessity of uniting the centres in the heart?
I like the Egyptians… their down to earth attitude to the body and its translation to the heavenly fields via the quality of the heart… ‘fully human, fully divine’…
Oh dear… you got me started again… you know what I’m like with the Egyptian stuff! I’ll shut up.
The Beast has not been well… though appears to be back to normal now and harassing the feathered denizens of the garden. I am convinced it is a ploy to get me to cook chicken…
Still managed to kidnap the whole dozen tennis balls in one go, though…
See you soon,
Love,
Wen and Anu x
I love ancient Egypt. Check out the weighing of the heart ceremony. Fascinating.
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I’ve been fascinated by Egyptian myth, symbolism and ritual since I was very small and my grandfather let me look at the photographic plates in his books. It was this lifelong love affair that led me to write The Osiriad, that retells the central sequence of the mythology surrounding Isis and Osiris.
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This is really some fascinating and wonderful stuff. The Egyptians were an incredible people, even with their human flaws that we all possess. And like some other cultures I have read about, the idea of an after-life and the respect for what they believed constituted life was pretty amazing and thought out in what they did with the knowledge they gained over lifetimes. Thank you much for this wonderful post.
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The ancient cultures still have a lot to teach us…
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where did we loose all this amazing knowledge and reasoning…. becoming more enlightened and civilised ….I think not . I am enthralled !
P.S I hope Ani is okay now. ❤
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A lot of these ancient beliefs are now called by more scientific names…and we conc=veniently forget that they are not modern breakthroughs in understanding, but were known by many ‘primitive’ societies.
One of the things we will be doing at the Lord of the Deep workshop is looking at the depth and complexity of the knowledge of human psychology…and ecology… back in the day sof ancient Sumer. I think you will find it gives a lot of food for thought. xx
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I am totally convinced that I will learn a great deal. I look at the world sometimes and wonder have we actually learned anything . We to my mind have regressed! ❤️💜
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I am often inclined to agree with you 😉 xx
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Reblogged this on Stuart France.
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