Category: quote

Ra rules the air and the gods invisible. The book of law lies in his hands. The speech of his lips falls lightly into being. His word enters the world. “Creation,” says he. “Destruction. Power invisible. Glory. The house of heaven is the house of man. No walls stand between heaven and earth. You are no farther from me than from your own hot breath.” At any moment you enter heaven by saying, “I am a temple of Ra.” Love is his light; compassion the light of the world. Ra is fire. Joy is the sky. His heart beats forever. The white clouds of his thought pass over the sky and water.

“Awakening Osiris,” by Normandy Ellis; the final paragraph of the chapter titled “Greeting Ra.” (via ankhudjaseneb)

This passage really struck me for some reason, so I just wanted to share it! C:

(via nassadii)

Eating meat in large quantities was not looked upon with particular favor and drew rebukes. During one of the conflicts that periodically agitated the world of the gods, Sobek, the crocodile, surprised a band of enemies and massacred them. A victim of his natural inclinations, he unhesitatingly devoured them all; but he carried their heads back home with him as proof of his exploit. The gods rushed toward him, shouting, “Prevent him from eating them (the heads), give him bread!” One can imagine the expression on poor Sobek’s face.

Daily Life of the Egyptian Gods by Dmitri Meeks and Christine Favard-Meeks, translated by G.M. Goshgarian (via obsidianservant)

On the other hand, it was true that the crocodile emerged from the waters like the sun god himself; facing east it basked in the early morning sun as though paying homage to the deity, and that it attacked the fish which were commonly viewed as the sun’s enemies according to Egyptian mythological thinking.

Reading Egyptian Art, A Hieroglyphic Guide to Ancient Egyptian Painting and Sculpture by Richard H. Wilkinson (via obsidianservant)

As Hornung notes, then, Maat is not only nourishment for the Divine but for humans and “for all creatures an element of life as indispensable as bread and water.” In this context, Maat-doing came to be conceived as an offering of Maat in both the sense of a ritual of worship and an ethical practice. The ritual, of necessity, presupposed and required the ethical practice. For the ritual has no meaning or validity without the Maat-doing that is both ethical practice and spiritual nourishment. The conception and expression of Maat-doing as offering Maat to God evolves in the First Intermediate Period. Texts fiom tombs at Dendera, as noted above, provide the earliest evidence of this concept. The treasurer, Meni, says of his offering Maat as an ethical practice and spiritual gift:
“I judged between two brothers in order to satisfy them.
I listened to the words of the needy.
I removed the cry of the needy.
I rescued the wretched from the hand of one stronger than he.
I spoke what the great loved and the small praised.
And I spoke truly so as to raise Maat to its lord.”

Ma’at, the Moral Ideal in Ancient Egypt by Karenga
(via smarmychristopagan)

Egypt possessed yet another god of warlike tendencies, SET.
Few gods are so famous as he is, and yet his
origin is entirely unknown to us. Tradition
has introduced him as well as Horus, the
ancient sun god, into the Osiris myth, and has
blurred and confusedboth presentments. Horus
becomes the son, and Set the wicked brother
of Osiris, who is defeated by Horus, but it is
exactly in this apposition of the two gods, that
we find an indication of an earlier character for
Set, t o which we possess other clues. When
we find the two divisions of the country
designated as The two halves of HOTUS and Set,
and when according to an ancient title the
ruler of these two divisions is styled HOTUS and
Set, it appears that we have met with some of
the numerous survivals of that far-distant time
when Egypt was divided into two opposing kingdompr. Probably
Set was then the protector of the kings of Upper Egypt and
F ~ ~ . 25. **,.
(Berlin, 13186.)2 0 A HANDBOOK OF EGYPTIAN RELIGION
Horus of those of Lower Egypt. The animal by which Set is
represented or whose head he wears, was considered in later
times to be a donkey, although at least it could only have been
a caricature of one. Probably it was intended for some animal
with which the Egyptians of historical times were not familiar.

A handbook of Ancient Egyptian Religion (via the-typhonian)

The ancient Egyptians did not take the condition of Ma’at in their world for granted. It was
always seen as an effort, indeed, as an ongoing, daily struggle engaging both humans as well as the
Netjeru. A central theme in the mythic vision of Ra crossing the sky in his day-barque was the danger
confronted and overcome in the person of the chaos-serpent, Apep or Aapep (referred to in Greek as
“Apophis”). It was this cosmic enemy of creation who was utterly opposed to all that exists. It was he
who threatened the equilibrium of Ma’at.

Eternal Egypt

The Ancient Egyptian Concept of the Soul

For the ancient Egyptians, their body and soul that made up the ‘being of man’ consisted of nine parts. There was the physical form and eight immortal or semi-divine parts that survived death. Each of these nine parts survived after death and required provisions and protection in the afterlife. Each required sustenance and shelter if the deceased should not die a second time. These nine parts consisted of:

· Khat (Kha) – the physical form
· Ka – the Spirit of Emotional Body
· Ba – the Soul
· Khaibit – the shadow
· Akhu (Akh, Khu, Ikhu) – being of light
· Sahu – the incorruptible spiritual body
· Sekhem – the life force
· Ab (Ib) – the heart
· Ren – the true name.

http://www.per-ankh.co.uk/featured_articles/the_book_of_the_dead.asp

On the other hand, it was true that the crocodile emerged from the waters like the sun god himself; facing east it basked in the early morning sun as though paying homage to the deity, and that it attacked the fish which were commonly viewed as the sun’s enemies according to Egyptian mythological thinking.

Reading Egyptian Art, A Hieroglyphic Guide to Ancient Egyptian Painting and Sculpture by Richard H. Wilkinson (via obsidianservant)

Just like people, the gods had roles and responsibilities, jobs in the cosmos that only they could perform, as well as limitations. The gods of ancient Egypt were not omniscient and not omnipotent, but they could manifest themselves in different forms simultaneously, allowing them to remain in the sky or the afterlife realm of the Duat, while sending their bau to appear on earth.

…

A god’s responsibility was unique, a cosmic role in the created world that no other deity could perform. Nut ensured the sky continued to exist. Shu’s force kept the sky and ground separate. Hapy governed the inundation’s yearly occurrence. Osiris enabled new life to spring from death – universal regeneration. The god Min ensured fertility. Because each god’s role was unique, if a god wished to perofrm another god’s function, the two had to ‘inhabit’ one another – a process called ‘syncretization’ by Egyptologists, and described as the gods ‘resting’ in on another by the ancient Egyptians. Gods were not all-powerful, and thus needed to the ‘force’ provided by another god’s responsibility to perform certain functions. So, for the god Amun to perform a fertility role, he and Min – god of fertility – inhabited one another temporarily to become Amun-Min, a new god who was at once both. Similarly, Amun, who embodied invisible and hidden power, might join Re – visible power – to form the all-powerful Amun-Re, the totality of visible and invisible power, the ‘king of the gods.’ In the middle of the night, the dying sun god joined with Osiris, to be empowered by his regenerative energy. The two gods then separated again, allowing the regenerated sun god to continue on his way into the dawn sky.

pp 111 – 113, The Egyptian Myths by Garry J Shaw (via satsekhem)