juliecucciawatts
Over the weekend I held an intensive study for some students in the Chicago area. The group got to see a movie I created about my trip to Egypt last November and then we delved into the idea that the Egyptian Funerary texts were not just for the dead pharaoh but were also useful to the living. The funerary texts may well have been used by the living pharaoh as well as the priesthoods to journey to the "far world" This premise is the feature of a fairly new book by Jeremy Nadler called Shamanic Wisdom in the Pyramid Texts.
Understanding the Egyptian concept of Time.
The Egyptian view of time and eternity was not like the view we have today. They did not view time as people in the 21st century do, the future stretching infinitely in front of us and the past infinitely behind us. They did not have a heaven above and hell below them.
Time was seen as a blending commingled phenomenon. There was neheh cyclical physical time –the seasons, the cycle of stars in the sky, which was infinite and there was djet a world where time was suspended a place where there was no time this was an eternal place. The worlds of djet and neheh were commingled though one did not see djet it was always there. Djet and neheh were all part of the perfection and state of eternal harmony of the universe known as maat.
Part of the perfect harmony of the universe was the rising and setting of the sun. The place on the horizon where the sun rose in the morning as well as the place where the sun set at night were considered sacred like a doorway to the ‘far world’ this doorway was called akhet meaning ‘horizon’. This doorway led to the place called the Duat ‘the far world’. Everyone in Egypt was responsible for working toward maintaining maat. However it was the responsibility of the pharaoh to maintain maat. Temples built in Egypt aided the pharaoh in maintaining maat and served as a gateway to the ‘far world’ as temples served as a link between the earth and the sky.
The Duat or the ‘far world’ was the place where one went at death it coexisted with the physical world, it was not seen as separate but a world that existed simultaneously with the physical world. In effect the Egyptians had a rather shamanic world view and funerary texts once thought to aid only the dead may have in fact been mean for the living as well. And may have been used in rites by priests and priestesses to journey to the far world.
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Then we used a spread I created based on the 12 hours.Doing the spread before we knew what the questions were was fun and surprising.
Journey Through the Dwat- Tarot Spread
12 hours of the Journey of the Sun (pharaoh)
We found the best way to do this is to shuffle and pick 12 cards place the cards in an arch starting from the right side and going left dipping down and around like the bottom half of a circle. See jpg image attached.
Then read the questions in Part 2 of this thread.
Understanding the Egyptian concept of Time.
The Egyptian view of time and eternity was not like the view we have today. They did not view time as people in the 21st century do, the future stretching infinitely in front of us and the past infinitely behind us. They did not have a heaven above and hell below them.
Time was seen as a blending commingled phenomenon. There was neheh cyclical physical time –the seasons, the cycle of stars in the sky, which was infinite and there was djet a world where time was suspended a place where there was no time this was an eternal place. The worlds of djet and neheh were commingled though one did not see djet it was always there. Djet and neheh were all part of the perfection and state of eternal harmony of the universe known as maat.
Part of the perfect harmony of the universe was the rising and setting of the sun. The place on the horizon where the sun rose in the morning as well as the place where the sun set at night were considered sacred like a doorway to the ‘far world’ this doorway was called akhet meaning ‘horizon’. This doorway led to the place called the Duat ‘the far world’. Everyone in Egypt was responsible for working toward maintaining maat. However it was the responsibility of the pharaoh to maintain maat. Temples built in Egypt aided the pharaoh in maintaining maat and served as a gateway to the ‘far world’ as temples served as a link between the earth and the sky.
The Duat or the ‘far world’ was the place where one went at death it coexisted with the physical world, it was not seen as separate but a world that existed simultaneously with the physical world. In effect the Egyptians had a rather shamanic world view and funerary texts once thought to aid only the dead may have in fact been mean for the living as well. And may have been used in rites by priests and priestesses to journey to the far world.
--------
Then we used a spread I created based on the 12 hours.Doing the spread before we knew what the questions were was fun and surprising.
Journey Through the Dwat- Tarot Spread
12 hours of the Journey of the Sun (pharaoh)
We found the best way to do this is to shuffle and pick 12 cards place the cards in an arch starting from the right side and going left dipping down and around like the bottom half of a circle. See jpg image attached.
Then read the questions in Part 2 of this thread.