For All The Gold of Nubia

For All The Gold of Nubia

What can possibly be said about gold that hasn’t been said already a million times, and with about as many adjectives tacked on? Lustrous, precious, aurulent, honeyed, glorious, blissful, ad nausea… Curious thing, isn’t? Why is gold so prized? Where does gold actually come from?

My suspicion has always been that the where made it priceless… I mean, where gold came from originally, made it so precious.

 The Black People said that gold was the “skin of the neteru” (the skin of the gods), and therefore a sacred material. It’s hard for us to imagine what the “sacred” meant to the Ancient Egyptians (or to any other peoples of antiquity). We’re a civilization notorious for holding nothing sacred – with perhaps the exception of money (in which we trust more than in God). Our kitschy materialism would offer up nothing that would be recognizable to the Black People as sacred. Our modern practice of religion would seem to them merely a decadent, mummified form, devoid of any recognizable spiritual element.

But that’s not nearly all… According to one early myth (maybe from the pre-dynastic period), gold appeared on Top of the Earth as the result of the Tears of Râ. The “tears” were of joy and the manifest love of the neter. A much later myth (from the Middle Kingdom and New) when these “tears fell to Earth…” Lady Aset (Isis) was stirred to compassion and decided to cure Lord Râ. It was a painful scorpion sting…

For the cure song to be effective, clever Aset required Lord Râ divulge his secret name… As a result of her healing, Lady Aset gained great power and was from then on the Mistress of Heka, or of “medicine” and “healing.” If you’re going to gain a secret name, might as well get it from the highest deity around – the living Sun Disk, the Hidden One.

Anyway, I digress… What do these myths have to tell us about the origin of gold or of the Tears of Râ? These myths seem to point to the Sun as the original source of gold. Of course, it wasn’t just the Black People who had figured this out – there’s hardly a civilization, culture, or religion known to us, which did not deem gold to be a gift from our guardian star!

Anything that’s travelled 150 million kilometres (93 million miles) to get here, has to be something special…

Gold in the Trinity of Metals

Sacred Tradition assigns cosmic origins to all the metals on earth – one metal to each of the “seven planets”; i.e., Sun=gold, Moon=silver, Mercury=mercury, Venus=copper, Mars=iron, Jupiter=tin, and Saturn=lead (by early Medieval times, these correspondences and affinities shifted; e.g., Jupiter=bronze, Mercury=iron, but we’re sticking with the old stuff). Earth, naturally, didn’t figure amongst them, since it was at the centre of the system, the focus of their cosmogony. There’s a lot to be said for the geocentric arrangement of the planets in relation to the metals, which our modern science denies (and only picks up on fortuitously in the “atomic weight” of these metals in the Periodic Table. This too is ancient knowledge… and perhaps gist for another mill, another time).

Having grown up a “scientist” – Science was my dogma and religion – it’s funny to note, and a trifle sad too, just how little authority modern/physical science has in the 21^st Century. Not even the powers-that-be, who most benefit from its distortions, pay it any heed (and the science behind Global Warming is not the only orphan in the bunch! Denial has many scions, doesn’t it?). In fact, one can safely say that the present “political” rules – this entire political generation (and class) – are the least educated in the sciences and have the least interest or belief in it (or for that matter of knowledge of any kind). In that regard they’re all rubes and it’s simply a question of the lesser of the least… How else can you starve entire populations of your own citizenry and sleep at night? Well, it’s easier when you happen to be ‘asleep’ all the time…

Getting back to our top three – the Trinity – which are the three “cosmic” metals – the most cherished and the most valuable according to tradition. These are gold, of course, silver, and copper. Taking into account the entire mineral kingdom, only these three metals aren’t originally of this planet (Earth, where we’re now standing). Again, this seeming coincidence is expressed today in our knowledge of their atomic weights, since these three form the “backbone” of the Periodic Table (another lucky strike!).

Copper you say? Yep, it’s special for many intrinsic reasons, which we won’t get into, except in relation to the “mother” planet that engendered the metal. Here, we’re concerned with gold… which is heady enough stuff for us mere mortals.

Just the facts, ma’am... Gold = Au-79 – Melting point = 2,850°C (5,162°F).

Why even mention melting point? It’s the only relevant fact that appears in science books or even in the entire Periodic Table. Why? There’s only one furnace big enough and potent enough to create gold, to make/forge gold, and that’s the Sun.

If Gold were composed of “atoms” it would have 79 “isotopes” floating around. If it were thus made – we’d be able to radioactively reproduce (“germinate” or “grow”) all 79 of them, like we do with all other metals. But with gold, we can artificially reproduce 28 of them only – beyond that, we’re out the “envelope” of Maya. The physical limits of earthly materiality are thus imposed upon us.

Why only 28 isotopes and not more? The number “28” is significant – and not just in Alchemical terms. We can’t reproduce the other 51 isotopes because we have neglected something both obvious and important. We have neglected the satellite closest to us – the “planet” Moon – which traverses through all its phases in 28 days, and more importantly, its orbit gets in the way between us and the Sun. It’s the “silver” of the Moon that also interferes, if you will.

Without the Moon (and its Wisdom) we can’t make or “grow” gold the way the Ancient Egyptians did. This is the “secret” of Alchemy (the “Philosopher’s Stone” as misinterpreted by us knuckleheads since the Fall of Rome, onto Medieval times, and even today).

Gold As Your Own 'Personal' Neter?

What did the Black People know? I presume quite a bit, since they had Wisdom. Wisdom comes from the Moon. That’s where Lord Djehuti (‘Thoth,’ to the Greeks, also called ‘Hermes’) resides with his consort, Lady Ma’at (Truth). Wisdom paired with Truth gives ankh. And, what is this Wisdom? It’s the inexhaustible source which shines on the Earth from 150 million kilometers away.

The Sun, our little star, is our own “personal neter.” Love (Sun) paired with Truth (Moon), gives us Wisdom. Lady Ma’at (Truth) is the necessary ingredient we must bring to the game of life to make ‘heka’ (magic) happen. Heka is sacred…

To know what Wisdom is one has to know what is sacred first. From the grasp of the sacred, all else follows. The Black People grasped the divine and developed a perennial sacred knowledge, and from their efforts a subtle and sophisticated Sacred Science grew up.

Many thousands of years later, folks like Plato and Pythagoras, amongst others, initiated in the Temple saw the Truth in Love. That’s where they got it in the first place. In their formative years, no self-respecting philosopher would have done without the pilgrimage to the Great River (most notably Alexandria, since thanks to Alexander the Great it was the only Hellenic tourist spot open then – the Club Med of the day). A few, like Plato and Pythagoras made it to Waset (Thebes) and got the real deal – they became initiates of the Sun Mysteries.

Like many other philosophers, prophets, shamans, and roustabouts, la crème of the great Academies had to get their Knowledge from somewhere. That’s where they got the “lo and behold” formula we all know today (Love + Truth = Wisdom – and its ‘opposite’ – Wisdom = Love of Truth).

From this wonderful union between Lord Djehuti (Wisdom) and Lady Ma’at (Truth) we get sacred knowledge on Top of the Earth. Lady Ma’at begat Lord Khonsu, the neter of the Moon, and the ‘holy’ Trinity was formed (Earth and Sun, and Moon). We get all knowledge, once could say, all our intellectual meanderings from the Moon. Who’s a lunatic? We all are… if we even bother to think.

Phooey, you say?

Fu and phooey all you want. But this tiny bit of sacred knowledge – the chemical marriage of Earth and Sun (to beget Moon) – allowed the Black People to make gold in 28 days. Nothing to sneeze at… since this was how our Alchemy started. And our perverted magic doesn’t hold a candle to it. We can’t even dream of anything like it. Our decadent magic (science) can’t actually produce gold at all, only the phony, plastic ‘chips’ of the global Casino… But that’s just fools’ gold!

By the end of the Black People’s “golden age” (1450 B.C.) they could make it in 14 days. Beat that at the roulette table…

Yet, this was something else... electrum (alloy of gold and silver, which sometime later was attributed to Jupiter – by who else? The Greeks and Romans, of course!). I have the sneaking suspicion that our Ancient Egyptian goldsmiths were also able to deal with platinum and the “platinum” group of metals as well. But don’t ask me how! The melting point of platinum is 1,760°C, or 3,200°F, so... you’d have to have a lot of Heka going for you (and a hell of a kiln!) to make that work.

The Nub of the Gold of Nubia

Be that as it may, the Black People called the unique metal “nub,” and we’ve inherited that word for the region where it was principally obtained – Nubia – the Land of Kush, the original “Golden Land.” If you interpret the archaeological evidence narrowly, I should have said “mined” because by the time of the Middle Kingdom, it was exploited already in a modern sense. But we shouldn’t extrapolate from such mining sites that this was in any way the criminal activity it is today in the hands of the Corporations we support daily with our offerings.

The interpretation that the mines being exploited in Nubia were a royal “monopoly” is already bordering on the absurd. Such monopolies didn’t exist until Greek and Roman times, when it was indeed an “imperial monopoly.” The most you can say is that it was a temple monopoly (like the Bank of England). Because all the gold ended up in the “house of the gods” as an offering.

An offering to whom? To the gods, who else?

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To be banal about it, we could see them as the “temple treasuries,” or the Fort Knox(es) of the Black Land. The temples contained the gold from Nubia, which fed the neteru, and consequently all of the Black People. Then, it was transformed by goldsmiths and artisans into exquisite jewellery. The workshops of the temple were numerous and brimmed with specialists, both craftsmen and craftswomen (the Temple of Amun (Karnak) had 80,000 Pure Ones and tens of thousands of them were artisans). At the onset of the Iron Age (ca. 500 B.C.), when the Sacred Science of Kemet reached its peak, it delivered the technique, technology, and talent of the temple in the service of metallurgy, and many other arts, and such marvels haven’t been seen since those days.

As with all transitional periods, the end of the Bronze Age brought with it the Iron Age and the ascendancy of the ram-headed God of War (Ares to the Greeks), and the great Blasphemy which continues to this day. After the Persians invaded the Two Lands (Cambyses II, 525 B.C.), the Tears of Râ disappeared. Not only was the gold taken, but miraculously, the neteru vanished from the Top of the Earth along with the plunder.

No Gold, No Gods!

The Black People were not only bereft of their gold, but of their neteru, who had walked among them – they were gone with the Gold of Nubia. Presumably, the neteru followed their ‘skin,’ but they were not loved as they had been loved in the Land of Love (some say the gods died love-sick because no one loved them any more).

The Blasphemy that set it off was the plundering of the temples for the first time. Gold had never before been stolen either. Who would do such a thing? Who would take the skin of the neteru for themselves? Not even a ravenous creature of the night would. What sacrilege would come next? 

Half a millennium before our era, the Age of War had begun with grand larceny. It was the first big heist -- the greatest gold reserves in the world at that time. I mean, a really big heist. Forget Ocean’s Eleven. That was easy in comparison, like all Hollywood stunts.

No one resisted the robbery. Who can resist utter stupidity? They just took the stuff and left. How daring. That’s “free enterprise” for you.

The pilfered gold was taken back to Sausa and points beyond in the great Persian Empire, or so one is to suppose. Little good did it do old Cambyses II. The neteru were still within their skin and were not all too happy to have to leave their “house,” with the good service and punctual meals and libations and all (I didn’t mention the entertainment, did I? They missed that a lot!).

 According to all accounts, Cambyses II may not have gotten all the gold back home. This may be legend before it’s myth, but Cambyses and his army disappeared in the desert – in the western desert (home was east, by the way). Some say Cambyses wanted to reach the gold of the sun before it set. Others, the more sanguine, believe the curse of the neteru got them caught in a sandstorm before they reached their next oasis. Either way, he died of lack of moisture… the way the neteru dole out Karma on the greediest among us – they harden their hearts until they’re all shrivelled and dried up.

Any wonder the Conquistadors would be lured tens of centuries later by the legends of rivers of gold in America? Don’t want to think poorly of the dead, but maybe this Cambyses was just a little too grabby? Chew before you swallow, you know what I mean? Maybe he was the precursor, the prototype, of our modern banker or hedge-fund manager…There’s always a pioneer out there.

What If the Neteru Only Left Us Their Gleaming Skin?

What the gods give, we have to give in return – that’s the deal, in case anyone has any doubts on the matter. Because of the sacred nature of the material extracted, gold mining was a restricted activity and limited in scope. Most likely, gold was found directly on the surface areas, near alluvial sands and gravel as well as more mountainous areas where deposits of “tell-tale” quartz rocks and ores indicated promising sites for exploitation.

But river beds – including the Nile’s – must have been the primordial location for accessible gold to be found. In other words, the Great River must have been the first place where gold was extracted, in sufficient quantities, to make another walk to fetch water worthwhile…

Because the neteru were generous with the Black People is not to say that they lacked the technical know-how, or the capacity, to deal with more advanced mining techniques (since some of their mines in the eastern desert were “vein” mines up to 300 meters deep). What I mean is that gold must have been so abundant that it was unnecessary to go to such great lengths to extract it until later times (after the Iron Age).

And if you’ve seen any of the elaborate gold jewellery produced by the Black People, maybe in a museum or exhibitions, the effort was worth it. The pieces that have survived stand as real artistic prodigies, unsurpassed even by modern techniques. Not only in gold production, but also in its artful application, the Black People were unmatched – the thickness of the gold leaf they used was 6 microns (0.006 mm) – achieved through gold “beating” by hand throughout the Two Lands. The technical confidence of these masters is something to marvel at…

One has to stand in awe of this wondrous, cosmic metal. Its existence is tied to a profound mystery, as sublime as any great truth, since it has to do with our own origin. It makes one wonder what would happen if all the gold in Fort Knox, and what has been stolen elsewhere, were to be returned to the temples (well, the Temple would have to be rebuilt first, but that’s a minor detail).

If the gold were returned, the gods would return, and things just wouldn’t be the same after that… 

Evolution Gave Me Indigestion!

What would you guess is the modern “ailment” most people complain about? I’ll give you a clue: it’s not foot sores or headaches – although it could and will soon be. Another clue – it has to do with your tummy (and that whole process). Indigestion generates an estimated $10 billion in sales of antacid tablets and liquids in the U.S. alone. Why so much indigestion?

It has to do with our being human. And that you can blame on Evolution. The purveyors of DNA as the answer to every riddle concerning humanity and its development, seem to think it had something to do with the genetics of the agricultural revolution (a subject we’ll look into closely in the near future). Everything from the tougher fibrous by-products of agriculture to the state of modern affairs are probably to blame.

According to the DNA wonks, Evolution is giving us indigestion, and worse, I might add – irritated bowel syndrome. The culprit? Agriculture! Imagine that! Who would have thunk it? The sowing of seeds was going to deal with our digestive system, force us to “mutate” in order to digest roughage – we’d eat grains whole from then on in.  

It’s all pretty straight forward. Biologists and even evolutionary biologist believe that we are what we eat.

We Eat What We Are

I’m not so sure… Personally, I think that’s not quite true. We eat what we are, would be more like it.

I should mention a priori that I’m not concerned in this discussion with our modern penchant for eating too much, or of gluttony, per se. I’m not referring to plain old gormandizing or even the very modern resurgence in obesity among our population. Although it’s true that historically, especially in ancient times, obesity was a rarity (it was a sign of status which only the king and the highest of nobles could aspire to with pride). Obesity, and its causes, are very recent phenomenon (in historical terms).

No, I’m thinking more along evolutionary terms. We do not take digestion very seriously, despite the fact that all we human actually do is digest our environment. Albeit slowly… It’s taken us millions of years to eat our way to who we are (not the other way around as most folks believe).

We eat what we are in the same way that we evolve into what we are. In other words, you can’t have a simple molecule (or anything else for that matter) that “evolves” into something complex. For that to take place in nature, one would have to “add” something – scientist add a “mutation” to explain how the simple “flips” into being something more complex.

But that’s essentially cheating. A “mutation” is nothing but a contrivance – a “magic trick” to explain something that can’t possibly happen. Nothing evolves from the simple (or a simple state) to a complex state or form. If it were so, mutations would be the rule, rather than the exception. But it’s not the first time that Science, and we humans, have built entire fantasy worlds based on the exception to the rule… Digestion is the rule, mutations are the exception (if indeed they ever happen at all – I don’t believe in accidents and coincidences like our modern scientists do). Like Einstein said: “God doesn’t play dice.” Poker yes, dice no (13^th and 14^th Commandments, which never made it onto the stone tablets Moses brought down the mountain).

Now back to our food… and our lousy eating habits.

Digestion is like Gravity

Digestion, in a crude as well as a refined way, is what biological organism do (esp. the “higher” mammals on the food chain) – everything else – reproduction, etc. is secondary. It’s how the environment is dealt with at the most intimate and basic level. If you can’t eat it (your environment) and process it – you’re by definition in an “unfriendly” environment not conducive to the propagation of life (if not downright lethal!).

That’s just the way it is. Digestion is like Gravity on the earth. It’s a kind of “gravity” in action within an organism. It “absorbs” and “tears down” the stuff that is your medium and in which you live. If you look at it practically, all functions of a living organism are ancillary to digestion. Inhalation, exhalation, secretion, excretion, and whatever else is done – processing heat, gases, liquids, mass, etc., even at the molecular level – are all digestion in one way or another.

Just as Gravity is the source of entropy and decay in our planet (and most likely in other similar orbiting spheres out there in space), probably the “game changer” in other, as yet unknown and profound ways, digestion makes up the same type of imperative in living organisms. And, the more sophisticated the organism, the more digestion plays a role – until you get to the top of the food chain and find that without digestion, thinking is impossible…

As my plumber used to say: Sh*t happens! Well, my mechanic used to say the same thing whenever I brought my car in.

You can’t say this in polite company, but fortunately, I don’t keep such company any more…

In whichever direction Evolution may tend (up or down, sideways, or obliquely), in the material plane, in the physically real, the evolutionary stream obviously pulls “down”. To quote my plumber again: “Sh*t flows downhill!” We must contend with the force of gravity not only when we walk, but when we eat. That’s why we are de-evolving, but you wouldn’t know it from what you hear from scientific circles these days.

Digestion is as inescapable as Gravity, and no complex organism can deal with its environment as a whole or as a microcosm without it. Digestion is gravity as far as biological entities are concerned…

Evolution is Digestion

That Charles Darwin, probably a sufferer of indigestion himself, didn’t take digestion into account – by far the strongest, most imperative factor in “natural selection” – has more to do with where he came from (Victorian England), than anything else. We shouldn’t be dissuaded from taking digestion seriously simply because it has to do, invariably, with “potty” issues (or “waste”). We ought to see digestion for what it really is – the linchpin of Evolution itself!

But what is natural selection really? As any three-year old will tell you: If you don’t eat your veggies, you die! That’s the first rung of the ladder – all else follows from that. You certainly can’t become anyone else’s food if you don’t eat something first… If you choose the wrong food, you die too (as we’re learning to our chagrin), but that’s another problem.

And, rightly so, especially when it comes to the more “advanced” animals. Can’t live in an environment that can’t be dealt with; i.e., digested. If only the waste we create today were the result of digestion (of the organic sort), we wouldn’t be in such dire straits, dealing with the destruction of the planet (not that we’re dealing with it, we’re just busy denying it!).

Whatever your religious persuasion may be, we may be able to agree on the following: There appears to be with us on this planet, what we’ve called three, separate “kingdoms” (besides the Kingdom of God, naturally). Let us review what these are – the mineral kingdom, the plant kingdom, and the animal kingdom (to which we may or may not actually belong).

Therefore, looking at it grosso modo, our role in Evolution has been pretty mundane. Our contribution to Evolution has been of a purely culinary nature. It worked something like this:

1.      First Phase – Plant Kingdom: Millions upon millions of years ago, we overcame our fellow plants once we developed a body harder than theirs (we were fish or amphibians). This we achieved by eating said plants. We were quite good at eating up all the plants because they were easy picking for us – they’re so slow, they barely move. That helped a lot.

2.      Second Phase – Animal Kingdom: Millions of years passed again. It was now time to deal with and surpass our fellow animals. Everything was different right off the bat. We had to stand up to eat, otherwise, no long digestion between meals (and no chitchats by the fire). The fare was different too – tougher, and practically uneatable unless cooked (there go the trees!). But worst of all, the food moved! We had to chase the damn things to eat them! Now that was a trick we had a hard time with, but we used to have more time in our hands back then.

3.      Third Phase – Mineral Kingdom: Time passed again and then things got really tough for us – really hard. The Stone Age happened. Things were harder, but a little more familiar. We’ve eaten the plants, eaten the animals, and now we’re chewing off the rocks. But to deal with the hardest of the substances, we had to “overcome” the Plant and Animal Kingdoms first. Through them we extended our digestion so we can “digest” all that’s mineral on this planet (especially carbon!).

4.      Fourth Phase – Human (?) Kingdom: Time will do its thing, as it invariably does, and we’ll be confronted with ourselves and a changed world. This is the time when restaurants won’t improve and neither will the cuisine (I’d stay away from the “soylent green” on the menu). Some call this phase the “war of all against all,” and with the bad culinary etiquette we’re bound to be inheriting, I’d be up in arms too!

Evolution is just the process of eating (digestion) – don’t let a molecular biologist, or an evolutionary biologist tell you otherwise. We’re the ultimate eating “machine,” and far more voracious than locusts, believe me!

The Source of Indigestion

Our proclivity today is to overeat. This is in keeping with our Evolutionary mandate, so to speak. We have a lot to chew on and the sooner we get through the task, the better. Every “overcoming” on the evolutionary “ladder” leaves its negative residual (or waste, as in excretion), which must be dealt with in a post-facto kind of way (in the following evolutionary phase).

In the first phase of our evolutionary process, the “residual” was the plant in us, which went to feed the animals we would later consume. In this early stage, we were pretty much like today – gluttons. We consumed everything whole (except for the cellulose in the trees, they were made of sterner stuff). We burned the trees to make up for it when we finally got around to dealing with the last phase, the Mineral Kingdom (although in this case, the last will be the first, but that’s a subject for another day). And this is how Evolution is tied-up together.

We had to master the Plant Kingdom before we could do the same with the Animal Kingdom in us. That taken care of, we used the power of the plant and the animal in order to “overcome” the Mineral Kingdom (although we’re not quite through yet!). Today, we’re cheating a little because we’re using machines to digest stuff, and then belch it all out into the air and water.

But that’s not what our ancestors did. Like ants are doing today (they also want to get on the train), our ancestors digested the entire upper crust of our planet.

We’ve “destroyed” the Earth before and we’ll do it again. Four times already, according to the ancient tradition – three more to go. When it comes to death and destruction in all its modes, we’re the “king on the mountain” on this planet. We chew down people, animals, stones, and after digesting it all, we excrete hubris and death on all living things. Our very breath is toxic (carbon dioxide). We can’t even breathe without killing.

It so happens that it was the “second phase,” our surpassing the Animal Kingdom, which was our greatest evolutionary leap. Why? Because to “overcome” the Animal Kingdom, we had to stand up 90° to the horizon. Think of it, we were the animals that roamed the earth and to “go beyond” the “animal” we had to turn the horizon on its end… That way, we could catch them easier (we’re slower than they are, and some claim we’re stupider too!).

Yep, it’s hard to imagine. Nothing stands up, except us chickens! But what other reason did we have to stand up straight? And why are we the only “animal” that does so (no, the giraffe isn’t standing up straight – its spine is still nearly level to the horizon, like all the higher animals and reptiles). Chimpanzees and primates (even the “Lucy” variety) don’t stand. They’re hips don’t allow it. Moreover, they were the failed versions we discarded on the way to standing up… Experiment and then modify, until you get it right – that’s the motto!

Well, we had to stand up in order to digest better… The longer we digest the better we live, and digestion is also tied to our longevity. Why doesn’t that surprise me? There’s more to this than meets the eye. Things to ruminate on as we tackle the agricultural revolution in Ancient Egypt. But that’ll have to be next time… Bon apetite! But keep the Alka-Seltzer handy…

Yet Another Ghost Story

It’s that frightening time of year again... No, not tax time! Although that’d be close. 

It’s Halloween, and that brings us face to face with our not-so-hidden fears. Whether your beliefs tilt towards the traditional and the Pagan or the “Christian” variety, it makes little difference. Irrespective of your superstitious tendencies, you’re also coming up on the “Day of the Dead” (the first of November for those prone to the latter). For Hallows’ Eve always precedes that ominous day – the ultimate “day after.” Where will you spend those twenty-four hours?

One thing about our decadent Western Civilization, we certainly don’t want to deal with the dead and the issues they leave behind. The consequences of History, you might say (especially our own “personal history”). We have our friends’ ‘tweets’ to look at instead, which are more “pressing”…

And here’s a fact that ought to raise some hairs and pimple your skin. We modern Westerners are the most ignorant and superstitious people that have ever walked the surface of this planet (and I include the Neanderthals in that grouping). In humanity’s entire history (not to mention evolution!) no one has ever had so many fears and foibles to deal with on a day to day basis.

Our superstitions have their origins, of course. They come from our past. Therefore, we attribute OUR superstitions to those that went before and blame them for our “unfounded” fears. Well, you know what happens when you blame ghosts for your own shortcomings. Yep, they come back and bite you in the ‘you know where’…

And to make matters worse, we have no “coping mechanism” to deal with ghosts. Sadly, no Ghostbusters’ hot line to call. That’s because no human culture before ours paid so little heed to the dead as we do. We simply have no respect for them.

The Day of the Dead

Why should we? We had no respect for the dead while they were alive, why waste our time now? Isn’t that like closing the barn after the cows have gone? Our shallow values and our bromidic culture have no place for them or for our ancestors either. Unlike our ancestors, whose lives were guided by their progenitors across countless generations, we’re more than glad that they’re not around to tell us what to do!

I still don’t know why people hang their skeletons in the closet, instead of burying them in the backyard, under the tulips or guardiolas, like respectable people do. Closets, especially built-in ones, are so small these days, and skeletons take up a lot of otherwise useful space in there, that you’d think people would be more practical about these matters. And under the guardiolas is apropos, I might add, since these beautiful flowers are native to Mexico, where they do celebrate the “day of the dead” (el día de los muertos/difuntos). We gringos don’t know what we’re missing.

We keep piling things on… Evermore, like the Raven said. More bad Karma on top of bad, especially vis-à-vis the dearly departed. In light of the fact that every lie is a murder – another skeleton in the proverbial closet – we ought to be a little less disdainful. All the big and little lies we’ve told, the frauds we’ve perpetrated, that’s something else we carry around, dangling from our necks, adding to our unease. Another shibboleth that betrays our fears and gives us away.

But that’s not good news for us, if you think about it, because the deeds of the past don’t go away. Unless, of course, we do something about them… like “burning off” the Karma we’ve heaped up during our short existence – especially the bad variety – by doing some “good” somewhere. Take that as a “moral lesson,” if you will.

Yeah, I know, you scoff…  Because you tell yourself that these fears and superstitions are “existential.” We have turned these fears into novels and horror movies, but that little sleight-of-hand on our part – this childish attempt to fool ourselves – doesn’t mean they aren’t there. We can, of course, disown them more readily when they’re “collective” and in the cultural milieu, and that’s how we keep our petite superstitions from overwhelming us during our waking day. But there they are, nonetheless, in their manifold appearances (manifesting themselves in everything from headaches to clinical depression) and they’re not going away.

You’re probably saying: Why bother? I’m having too good of a time lying, ripping people off, and kill anything that moves (I have to eat, don’t I?). I’ll take care of the bad stuff once I’m on the “other side.” In the meantime, I’m going to enjoy my one and only time in the spotlight.

You have no idea what a spotlight that is…

It’s no skin off of my nose if you do or don’t, but it’ll be skin off of YOURs. Despite your brave face (from here, it looks like a noseless one to me), everyone pays the piper. The ghosts and denizens that “live” there, in the “hereafter,” the ones who’ve suffered your “fun and games,” are waiting patiently for you to arrive in all your splendour.

Consider that a heads up…

What Are Ghosts?

Ghost, ghouls, and goblins, demons and hellions, eidolons and other incorporeal beings are always there, on the other side of that invisible veil that separates the living from the dead. And what are ghosts if not some glimmer or trace of what’s left of the dead?

If you were living 5,000 years ago (or earlier), you’d know exactly what a ghost was. Ancient Egyptians knew them to be the memory of the dead, namely, what was left of their ka-doubles (the “etheric remnant” of light which ignited the living person’s experiences while alive, including their memories). That’s why it was important to the Black People to keep their identity after death – to remember what they had NOT done (the negative confession they were to give while their hearts lay on the Scales of Ma’at (Truth) in the Land of Amentet, in the Dwat.

Their thoughts, feelings, and deeds, were remembered through their “secret name,” the name that would identify them to the denizens of the “netherworld” as a “resurrected Osiris,” blameless of all wrongdoing. They didn’t have to recant their misdeeds because they enumerated the 42 things they did not do (btw, these 42 items were eventually dwindled down by those who followed to the Ten Commandments – a kind of memory mnemonic for those lost in the Netherworld). Without your secret name you’d be lost in the darkness of ignorance, completely unconscious, from the instant you entered that lightless world without the aid of your sense perceptions. How could you have any sensorial perceptions once you left your physical body (the khat) behind?

But that’s not scary enough, is it?

Technically speaking, ghosts don’t actually last as long as we imagine. In ancient times they were gone in a matter of days, so people had little trouble from ghost and other eidolons. If someone died back then, and you hadn’t lied to them, cheated them, or worse, they’d be gone in a few days and no one would be the wiser for it. In fact, if you prayed to them when they died, and gave them bread (they were called “offering loaves”) they would stay away from you until you yourself died, and then they’d be nice enough to accompany you and guide you to the Guardian of the Threshold (that would be Lord Anpu (Anubis) or Lord Wepwawet, the Opener of the Ways).

But that was then, and this is now – thousands of years later. Things have changed quite a bit since then (more than a few “reversals of values” later, you might say). And, when you think about how many people you’ve lied to in the course of one day (which is tantamount to a violent murder to any ghost in the world of the spirits), and then multiply that by all the days you’ve been around people on this planet, your list of ghost could be quite long. And, God forbid if you’ve done worse than lie, like actually murder someone… Well, now that’s a little scarier…

The key to understanding ghosts, even in our day, is if we understand them as a “memory.” That’s why they “come back,” because they forgot something, someone, a thought, a feeling, an unseen object (to the ghosts themselves, naturally). And, it’s that memory which brings them back to haunt the place where they died. But ghosts, like people, are very mobile these days. Did I mention that they’re also prone to haunt the person that lied to them?

Yes Virginia, they also come back because they remembered something… that “little white lie” you told them, which in the “other world” is a gigantic axe cleaving their forehead!

It’s all very mysterious to us in this present age of materialism, because we believe that there’s nothing that exists which can’t be seen or touched (by our sense organs). And conversely, nothing exists if it can’t be seen or touched. So logically, ghosts don’t exists. Have you touched any ghosts lately?

You probably have…

They’re In The Attic

You may not have seen them, but you have certainly heard them… they’re usually in the attic, where you keep the objects of your own memory. That’s why they’re up there, scrounging around, like rats, which is what you think you really hear when they scamper over the ceiling joists. They’re ghosts, not rats, trust me.

And when you get the nerve to go up there with a torch and point its narrow beam of light around in the dark, and you actually see rats, be assured that the pesky rodents are being “guided” by that very same ghost you lied to. The ghost just happens to be looking for something… and yes, they’re up there every night. Of all the nights of the year tonight and tomorrow night should be the hairiest in that regard.

That’s because the dead come to us every night and feed on our dreams… that’s where we keep count of the many and varied lies we’ve told. But, it’s best not to think about that… especially, this time of year.

What Do THEY Want?

Ghosts want what everyone wants. In two words – “pay back.” Just like the living, the dead thirst for Justice. Herein lies another lesson we ought to take from antiquity.

The Black People were, above all practical people, and therefore, “harmonious” people. They knew how to deal with this “balance” between the Dwat and the Top of the Earth (i.e., the dead and the living), and they did so by first “keeping the peace” in the Land of the Living (in their own Black Land and between all the living Black People). Over time, the problem was doing the same with their neighbours (the so-called Nine Bows), the Red People, the White People, and the Green People. But that’s another story – what Hagel called the “aim of history” – the story behind “history” itself (if you believe in such things).

That’s why one of the most highly regarded, and venerated, neteru in the Land of Love was Lady Ma’at (she’s the goddess of Truth and Collective Justice). Why “collective justice”? Because Justice, like Truth, is never a matter that concerns a single individual or a small group of individuals (that’s one of the fundamental errors we make as a result of our short-sightedness, our vacant values, and our superficial, modern thinking). Despite what “Relativism” or “Positivism” tell us, the ancients knew there was but one Truth. There can never be one “truth” for one person and another “truth” for another. Likewise, there can’t be “justice” if it’s only for one individual. If one individual (or small group, like a class in our society) enjoys “justice,” then no one else enjoys it and there’s effectively no justice at all. In other words, Justice concerns every individual, it has to inform the totality of humankind. It can’t be an “individual” matter. (Only in our decadent society can such an aberration be conceived, which explains why we enjoy neither justice nor peace.)

Every soul that dies today screams out for Justice. One can be poetic about it and say they clamour for Peace (since one can’t happen without the other). They want “peace on earth” above all things because they keep suffering what we suffer while we’re doing what we’re doing. And, what are we doing? We’re killing one another in hordes. We think the lies we tell are just “words” blown in the wind and will disappear the second we utter them… We’ve always been good at lying to ourselves first (it’s that little rehearsing we do before we lie to the next guy).

The dead are like the lies we speak, they never go away. Those who have gone before us are waiting there on the other side of that gossamer veil. The souls of the dead keep coming back and they want justice. We ignore them at our peril – especially in this day and age! This has to do with the “economy of the universe,” something that we don’t quite have a grip on. Somehow we still believe we can get more than we put it.

This “economy” between the living and the dead, was always known in antiquity, because the only way the dead could “rest in peace” was if there was some kind of peace among the living. But, as I said earlier, today we don’t give a gnat’s ass what the dead want. How can we? We don’t even care about the living! As a matter of fact, we’re dispatching the living to the “other side” at such a dizzying rate that the noise level over there in the Netherworld is getting rather loud. (If you really want to know the true cause of “Global Warming,” my friend, start looking into that!)

Don’t forget, all ghosts want but one thing – Justice!

Now you can be very afraid…

Funny, that’s what the living want too. I don’t know what the disagreement is all about. Do you?

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.