The Three Worlds – Heaven, Earth, and the Dwat

More than once readers of “The Horizon Keeper” have asked me to delve into the Cosmogony of the Black People. In other words, readers want to know what the Ancient Egyptians’ model concerning the coming-into-existence (i.e. origin) of either the Cosmos, or the “reality” of sentient beings (namely, humans) was all about. Readers do get an inkling from Neruamun’s adventures that there are several worlds out there – planes of existence or consciousness – and that these are more mysterious than what appears in print on the face of the page.

Being a novelist, my preference is to keep the metaphysical to a minimum and the action to a maximum. This way, when I deal with the higher stakes, with the “big picture,” with the “greater questions,” I don’t drag or slow the story down. That’s why I play around with and speculate on such lofty matters exclusively on my blog, instead of in my work.

So what was their model? Basically, the Three Worlds were all-encompassing spheres (akin to Aristotle’s “Crystal Spheres”) originating in Heaven (1^st World) and descending down through the Dwat (2^nd World) and then so far down until we reach our terrestrial globe, the Top of the Earth (3^rd World). There are four “Shadowlands,” yet the Dwat consisted of three of them, namely, the Earth Shadow, Lunar Shadow, and Solar Shadow. Schematically, the Three Worlds seem to adhere to a series of concentric circles, and conceptually might have looked something like this:

 

Sacred Science as Comparative Religion

The more we compare cosmological functions, concepts, and the metaphysical bent of varying cultures – between peoples, across continents, over the great span of the ages – the more these “religious” concepts resemble one another. Essentially, the Black People, like all other peoples of the world, developed from earliest time, from their onset, a “religious framework” – a Sacred Science – the “Knowledge of the Things in the Dwat.” With it, they explored the Cosmos and the various planes of consciousness, and thus fulfilled themselves as human beings.

Then, once everything checked out, they propounded the idea of a whole series of subtle planes or worlds (dimensions of existence) which, from a centre (the First Source), interpenetrate themselves and the physical globe upon which we live. This cosmogony includes the solar system (which they knew well through the “seven planets” of Hermetic tradition), and all the other denser, physical structures of the universe. Naturally, as with the Hindus before them, this cosmological interpenetration of planes culminates in the universe itself as a physical structured, dynamic and evolving emanation (through a series of steadily denser stages, becoming progressively more material and embodied).

Heaven, the First World, is where the Dwellers of the Horizon “live,” the neteru, the perfected “gods” (purified beings with an evolved, higher consciousness) who teach and guide humankind (albeit, indirectly in this day and age). As incomprehensible as Heaven may be, like “infinity,” we are more accustomed to this concept because it is often imitated in the West through Christian tradition. Heaven to us is a kind of Nirvana… a sort of “terminal” or “end stop” in evolution (although in reality everything continues to even more sublime hierarchies and further incarnations of worlds or “lokas” to come).

The Dwat (2^nd World), on the other hand, is subtler and more complex. This “loka” is composed of what we in the West would regard as the lower Spiritual Plane (in Hindu and Jain esoteric tradition there would be many “spiritual regions” or “lokas” that would overlap the Egyptians’ concept of the Dwat).

As I mentioned above, of the Four Shadowlands (Sky, Solar, Lunar, Earth Shadows) the Dwat is composed of the last three. Roughly, they can be compared to Buddhist cosmology and their Kama, Rupa, and Arupa lokas (in Western esotericism, they have similar Hindu names, and represent aspects of the Mind and Astral Planes, as in Kamaloka, Rupaloka, and Arupaloka).

Not to get buried by the labels for unnameable things, let us just say that the regions encompassing the Dwat, for example, the Solar, Lunar, and Earth Shadow (in descending order), would be analogous to the Astral Plane and the lower regions of the Dwat (the lower Lunar and Earth Shadows) would be the Etheric Plane, until we reach the hard, rocky crust of the Earth, or the Material Plane at the “Top of the Earth” (3^rd World), as the Black People called it.

One can’t be but mindful and alert to avoid confusion when investigating the esoteric aspects of religious experience, in its many forms, which are universal to all human beings. It’d be nice if this brief exposition could clear up some conceptual doubts, but it can just as easily create new ones… Which explains why I don’t spell these things out in the narrative! I’d rather have you “see” the Shadowlands as one enters them at death, or through the heka of the Pure Ones, rather than tell you about it… as I’m doing now…

But since I’m in an expository mood, let us continue and see how much we can garner of the Sacred Science (religion + science) of the Black People. Keep in mind that the Ancient Egyptians were “masters of secrets” and they knew what the Cosmos was composed of (consciousness) and that they developed Sacred Geometry, Mathematics, Medicine, Engineering, and many other branches of the Seven Arts we today call “science.” The Greek philosophers merely inherited all of this good stuff from the Kemetian Temple, although some (e.g., Plato, Pythagoras, etc.) were initiated in the secrets of their Sacred Science…

In The Beginning There Was The Word…

What was the Ancient Egyptians’ cosmogonic myth? What did they believe constituted the origin and development of the universe, the solar system, or the earth-moon system? To begin with, it should be noted that the Black People believed “Creation” was an ongoing phenomena and that it was continuously expanding throughout the universe (like the expanding shockwave of the theoretical Big Bang).

Often, I want to fathom the secrets of their Sacred Science, but I find myself floundering in the depths of their Metaphysics (and I can hardly tread water in the shallows, much less at the deep end). The Black People, of course, had more than one Creation Myth, probably more than a half-dozen “origin” tales or myths, depending on the deity worshipped in each city and in each of the forty-two sepats (provinces) lining the banks of the Great River.

Lord Ptah, the old creator neter from Men-nefer (Memphis) and the Delta region (Lower Egypt), for example, is one of the key players in the more popular stories. Ptah was also known as the “First Source,” or the “First of the Neteru,” and he may have been a later hybridization of the primordial neteru Tatenen and Sokar – and there’s a whole other story in that fusion!

According to the Memphite Theology, Ptah conceived the world by thinking with his heart (wisdom-of-the-heart) and gave ankh (life) through the heka (magic) of his Word (his hekau). It’s worthwhile to note that this version of Creation coincides neatly with John 1:1 in the New Testament: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Sometimes we don’t know where true inspiration comes from… 

Lord Ptah was the neter of Creation, as well as the patron of craftsmen and coppersmiths, since these artisans created material objects by thinking, feeling, and willing. In other words, by thinking, feeling, and then using their hands (the will), just as Ptah did in creating the Cosmos, the artisan recreates the cosmos on Top of the Earth (i.e., “will to power” is still, onto this day, the only way to create anything in the material world).

If you are the creative type, I hate to burst your bubble – especially for those who believe they “create” anything in the virtual world of the digital, in cyberspace – you ain’t doing diddly-squat! Consider first that you can’t create without the use of your hands (i.e., punching the keys on a keyboard is not the “hands on” part of the process I’m referring to). Without your hands active in its development, you can’t create objects with any substantiality or permanence for anyone to enjoy either… It’s only Art when it’s “plastic”; i.e., made manifest in the material world through the use of your hands (and then only after much thinking, feeling, and willing has gone into it, in order to transform matter through the divine force inherent in your soul).

What did I tell you? We’re into the Metaphysical realm now – the rabbit hole where words to describe phenomena we may experience are found wanting. We’re in the demesne where descriptions don’t cut it – where comparisons are tenuous and misleading.

Yes, we live in an age of materialism that is both shallow and superficial (i.e., in a world that is a mile wide and an inch thick). Foreground events, mostly of an illusory nature (Maya) titivate our five senses and keep the real world from entering into our consciousness – into our thinking, feeling, and willing – where we can grasp “reality” and thus become more human.

Nevertheless, if your blood is thicker than water, then you may appreciate where the Black People were coming from – from the plenitude of a noble heart and the most practical aesthetic imaginable.

A Little Messier Than the Big Bang

Basically, Ptah THOUGHT and then using his hands, MASTURBATED in order to bring forth the Cosmos (i.e., the Three Worlds). Again, another story has it that it was Atum, the Creator Neter of the south, who created Shu (air) and Tefnut (water, moisture), and who, by masturbating brought forth the entire Universe. Thus Atum became the “underlying substance of the world,” what I call “dark matter” – the stuff of the Cosmos.

Now that we got the messy part out of the way, and the first act of Creation completed, then a variety of things occurred. From that First Source (divine semen) the whole Cosmos sprang forth. It’s a more realistic and more practical approach than the Big Bang, yet it’s nothing short of the Big Bang in its power and scope. I just love the image of the splattering jism of Ptah, or Atum, the old stud, still flowing out there, floating to spread in cosmic space… very much ankh in its most primordial and substantial sense… everlasting, still creating, pure puissance!

To the Black People the Cosmos was One. The world (Earth), the sky (Heaven), and what lay in between, the Dwat (Shadowlands), were, like everything else, part of a “trinity” of forces, functions, and processes they understood intimately. The Three Worlds, Heaven, Earth, and the Dwat, like all the theological “trinities” up and down the Nile, responded to the same Numerical logic that everything else in the Cosmos answers to.

From the One came Three – not Two!

The One begat Three… From Ptah’s ejaculation the Cosmos emerged. If we use sacred number to figure it out, we can see that Ptah (the First Source) released his semen, spit, tears, or whatever other bodily function you care to imagine (the Second Source), and in their divine combination, created the Third Source – namely, the Cosmos or the Three Worlds. Another way to look at it is – Spirit (Willing) brought forth semen (the “inner life” of (Feeling) and this “combination” transformed itself into the world (Thought). That pretty much sums up Evolution.

The "Trinity" of Ancient Egyptian cosmogony (as in Christian theologies) was represented holistically and symbolically by the joining of the male principle (Father or neter) to the female principle (Mother or neterit), which begat the "Son" (the third principle or neter, and the resultant "creation" of the material world). That pretty much wraps up yet another theological derivative we've expropriated from the Black People and have made our own.

“Let us beware of thinking the world is a living organism. Likewise, let us beware of believing the universe is a machine,” thus Nietzsche would have it. That the Earth is a living being is obvious, because we treat it like all living organisms – with malice and hostility. The Black People harboured no antipathy towards the natural world, none of the contemptible scorn we heave upon nature today… In the past four decades, the world has lost 50% of its vertebrate wildlife (and let's not even think about the medicinal plant species that have gone the way of the dinosaur). We're "anti-Life" and that is essentially the difference between us and the Black People!

We violently trash the world, like greedy materialist that we are. Preferring to make believe that the Earth, the entire Universe, is a ghost-less machine. This we do in order not to feel the pangs of conscience or any remorse for our actions and omissions. Should we see the Earth as a living organism, it is only to see it exploited – enslaved like all the other organisms upon its surface (this we call “stewardship” of natural resources). Now that the gears have come off, all that's left to us and our progeny is a useless heap of garbage. 

[Let me stand on my soap box for a moment: “There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke,” as Bob Dylan once told us. Beware of these herd-animals, these materialists who think they’re here once for a spin on the merry-go-round and who give a gnat’s ass for what they leave behind them. Yes, you know who they are, those who profess most loudly the modern religion (of the moral equivalency of Capitalism with Christianity). They are the ones who’ll burn the Earth down in an instant for their fifteen minutes of “fame and fortune” – who are themselves mostly grotesque versions of living organisms (i.e., those pudgy, white males of the corporate and political class, and their female impersonators).]

Now that we’ve had our bit of fun skewering the godless and getting in a sideways elbow jab at the arrogant few… let me conclude by saying that we’ll explore the Three Worlds of the Black People in greater detail in the near future. Ancient Egypt holds many secrets, and even a cursory understanding of Heaven, Earth, and the Dwat, will illuminate many other aspects of their cosmogony as well as their Sacred Science, and that can only work to our benefit in future discussions on the subject.