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__If you look below you will find the Table of Contents, Preface, and Chapter
1 of "The Death of Gods in Ancient Egypt" by Jane B. Sellers.

For an enhanced and revised copy of the the entire second edition of this
book in electronic form, including all illustrations, use this link (if the
link is not working, email me at [1]sellerseclipse at aol.com for information
about obtaining a copy):

[2]Article on the Ma'at website outlining some differences between me
and Hancock & Bauval.

You may also email [3]sellerseclipse at aol.com for more information.

This is from Jane Sellers' comment at amazon.com regarding her book:

Out of print for over three years, the only information has been through
such New-age writers as Graham Hancock and Robert Bauval, who I feel have
misrepresented my ideas. This work is not about astrology, although the
zodiac must be discussed, nor is it about any numbers being encoded by
the ancient Egyptians, as reported by these writers. In fact I had
written just the opposite, pointing out that the number 72 was inserted
into the story of Osiris by Plutarch, which would be after the time of
Hipparchus, which would mean that the information was 'out there.'
Unfortunately, my reporting of the interest by [other] ancient cultures
in certain numbers, as discussed by writers such as Joseph Campbell, and
my wondering about an alternative use for the outdated sky calendars
buried with Seti I and Ramesses IV seem to have won me a place in the
hearts of those whose ideas have no support from me. I have long felt I
should defend my book, and to that end I have labored for a year to bring
forth a revised and updated version. This version has additional
illustrations and supporting computer images of the precessionally
changed sky over key predynastic settlements. This is for those
interested in seeking a verifiable origin, or basis, for the Egyptian
belief system, and is a serious and thoughtful investigation.

_THE _

DEATH OF GODS IN

ANCIENT EGYPT

AN ESSAY ON EGYPTIAN RELIGION

AND THE FRAME OF TIME

_JANE B. SELLERS_

Copyright © Jane B. Sellers, 1992

Revised and Updated Edition, 1999

All rights reserved.

Jane Sellers has spent much of her sixty years questioning puzzles in
the fields of Astronomy and Ancient Near Eastern Civilizations, dual
interests that fueled a search for the threshold of Egyptian beliefs
and led to a testing of the theory advanced in _Hamlet's Mill._She has
traveled to the deserts of Egypt and the Empty Quarter (where it
spills into the United Arab Emirates) for an appraisal of dawn
risings, and to such places as Surabaya;, Java, and recently, the
Black Sea, for the observation of solar eclipse phenomenon Following
studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, she earned her
BA at Goddard College, Vermont, and went on to study Egyptology at the
University of Chicago's Oriental Institute. She winters in :Portland,
Maine, and summers at Ripley Neck, a nineteenth-century enclave
`downeast' on Maine's rocky coast. `There the night skies can be as
clear as in the desert, and no one minds if you read the Pyramid
Terxts out loud to the seagulls.'

This is the form of him whom one

may not name, Osiris of the mysteries,

who springs from the returning waters.

Temple of Isis at Philae

_CONTENTS_

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgements

A Necessary Preface

A First Guide through the Murky Landscape of Egypt's Gods

_PART ONE: THE STORY AND THE CELESTIAL DOME_
1. BEGINNINGS
2. A NECESSARY FOUNDATION
3. THE INHERITOR OF THE THRONE
4. A NECESSARY FOUNDATION: DA CAPO
5. ALLOWABLE QUESTIONS?
_PART TWO: EGYPTIAN WRITINGS AND THE QUIET SUN_
6. `MIGHTY IS YOUR STRIKING POWER'
7. `WHO THEN IS IT?
8. THE PYRAMID TEXTS
9. THE 80 YEARS OF THE GODS' CONTENDING
10. `WHAT THEN IS THIS?'
_PART THREE: THE TIME OF CRISIS_
11. THE JUDGMENT OF THE COUNCIL OF THE GODS
12. BIRTHDAY OF COMPLEXITIES & SECRET OF THE WILL
13. THE DIVINE FALCON AND `RT
14. A SECOND GUIDE
_PART FOUR: THE THRONE OF FIRE_
15. DEATH AND REBIRTH OF A CONSTELLATION--A SUMMARY
16. OSIRIS GIVEN THE `SILENT LAND'
17. THE KING OF THE WOOD
18. CHANGES IN THE WORLD ORDER AND THE HURLED THUNDERBOLT
19. `THAT DAY OF UNITING THE TWO LANDS'

_PART FIVE: THE FRAMEWORK OF TIME_
20. THE SUCCESSION OF WORLD AGES
21. THE CIVIL CALENDAR --A DEEPLY FELT CONVICTION
22. SIDETRACKED ON THE TRACK OF TIME
23. PURE CHANCE OR CONCEALED NUMBERS?
24. THE DISCOVERY OF A BARLEYCORN
_PART SIX: THE ANCIENT BEGINNINGS_
25. ASTRONOMICAL GLEANINGS FROM THE SED FESTIVAL
26. THE SED FESTIVAL, PART II
27. `IWNW'--`THE BIRTHPLACE OF EVERY GOD.'
28. SCENE IN THE MUMMY CHAMBER
29. A SENSE OF CONTROL: THE LITANY OF RE & OTHER TEXTS
_PART SEVEN: THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES_
30. THE BROAD HALL OF THE TWO TRUTHS
31. RITUAL REGICIDE?
32. EMPTY TOMBS
33. MORE DATES AND AKHENATEN'S ECLIPSE
34. THE CONSUMING INTEREST IN THE CELESTIAL UNIVERSE
35. THE PROMISED RETURN
36. RITES OF OSIRIS

Epilogue

Chronology

Reference notes

Selected bibliography

Index

_ILLUSTRATIONS_
Fig.1. Images of Osiris
Fig.1a. An Early Representation of Sahu-Orion
Fig.1b. The Mysteries of Osiris (from the Temple of Osiris at
Dendera)
Fig.2. The Belt of Orion (detail from The tomb ceiling of Senmut,
Fig.3. `A Jubilant Morning -- He Has Arisen!' (from the Papyrus of
Ta-Shed Khonsu, Clergy of Amon-Re Dynasty 21,)
Fig.4. The Death of An Osiris - (from the Papyrus of Tent-diu-Mut,
Clergy of Amon-Re Dynasty 21.)
Fig.5. Osiris of the Mysteries.' (from the Tomb of Sennedjem,
Dynasty 19)
Fig.6. The Rising of the Great God - (from the Papyrus of
Bak-en-Mut)
Fig.7. Osiris in the `Holy Persea in the Palace of the Sun.'
Fig.8. `His Two Faces in the Mysteries,' The Dual God Horus and
Seth. (from the Book of the Gates.)
Fig.9. The Udjat Eye -- Symbol of the Power of the Uraeus (from
the Temple of Denderah.)
Fig.10. The Falcon's Eye -- Horus's Eye Below the Horizon._
Sometimes labeled the `Collar of Horus' and represented_ _from the
Old Kingdom onward_
Fig.11. Horus, `The Avenger of His Father.' (Stele from the 21st
or 22nd Dynasty)
Fig.12 The Eye of Horus as the Ultimate Host. (from the tomb of
Peshedu, Deir el-Medina, Ramesside Period.)
Fig.13. The Descent of Horus to Take His Eye to Osiris.
Fig.14. Horus Gives His Eye to the Deceased Osiris Accompanied by
Horus's Birth in the Solar Barge. (from the coffin of Hent-Taui.)
Fig.15. Birthplace of Child Horus - (from the Papyrus of Her-Uben
A, Clergy of Amon-Re, Dynasty 21.)
Fig.16. Another Depiction of Horus's Descent
Fig.17. A Second Contact Diamond Ring Effect.
Fig.18. A Third Contact Diamond Ring Effect.
Fig.19. `In The Arms of the Abyss' (from The Book of What is in
the Netherworld. tomb of Ramesses VI.)
Fig.20. `The One Being Born' (from The Book of What is in the
Netherworld, Tomb of Ramesses V!.)
Fig.21. 'The Great God Makes His Transformations' (from The Book
of What is in the Netherworld).
Fig.22. `He Becomes the Great Khepri.' (from The Book of What is
in the Netherworld, Dyn.20.)
Fig.23. `The Great Secret' (from The Book of Caverns, Dynasty 20.
Tomb of Ramesses V1)
Fig.24. `One Face Falls On Another'
Fig.25. The Corona of the Sun.
Fig.26. Harpoon or Thunderbolt?
Fig.27. The Eye of Re.
Fig.28. An Annular Eclipse.
Fig.29. The Cat of Re Slays the Serpent
Fig.30. The Spark of Life -- The Triumph Over Death. (from the
Temple of Hathor at Dendera.)
Fig.31. Hoeing the Earth.
Fig.32. The Square Zodiac (from the Temple of Hathor at Dendera.)
Fig.33. The Circuit of the Walls -- The Running With the Will.
Fig.33a. King Den Performs the Ritual, Dynasty 1, c. 2900 BC.
Fig.33b. King Zoser Performs the Ritual, Dynasty 3, c.2700 BC.
Fig.34. The Falcon's Eye Below the Horizon
Fig.35. The Sun God and the Djed Pillar of Osiris
Fig.36. Predynastic Representations of the Falcon and the Scorpion
Fig.37. Cover of Death of Gods in Ancient Egypt
Fig.38. Representation of the Egyptian `Caduceus'
Fig.39. Sites at the Threshold

_SKY CHARTS AND COMPUTER PRINT-OUTS_

_DIAGRAM 1_ _ORION AND TAURUS_
_DIAGRAM 2_ _SCORPIUS_
_DIAGRAM 3_ _BADARI, THE MORNING SKY_ _MARCH 23, 4868 BC._
_ _ _

THE EIGHTY YEARS OF THE GOD'S CONTENDING

__DIAGRAM 4a_ _BADARI, THE MORNING SKY_ _MARCH 23, 4867 BC._
_DIAGRAM 4b_ _DIASPOLIS PARVA, THE MORNING SKY_ _MARCH 23, 4867 BC._
_DIAGRAM 5_ _BADARI, THE PREDICTED TOTAL ECLIPSE_ _JULY 27, 4867 BC._
_DIAGRAM 6_ _NEKHEN, THE PREDICTED ANNULAR ECLIPSE_ _MAY 26, 4864 BC._
_DIAGRAM 7_ _BADARI, THE PREDICTED TOTAL ECLIPSE_ _AUGUST 6, 4849 BC._
_DIAGRAM 8_ _NEKHEN, THE EQUINOX MORNING SKY_ _MARCH 22, 4788 BC._
_DIAGRAM 9_ _BADARI & NEKHEN, THE PREDICTED TOTAL ECLIPSE_
_APRIL 16, 4787 BC._
_DIAGRAM 10_ _ARIES, THE CONTINUING EFFECTS OF PRECESSION_
_DIAGRAM 11_ _SIRIUS, SOLSTICE MARKER & HERALD OF THE INUNDATION _
_DIAGRAM 12_ _ORION'S EQUINOX ABSENCE, ALDEBARAN MARKS THE VERNAL
EQUINOX_
_DIAGRAM 13_ _SCORPIUS MARKS THE AUTUMNAL EQUINOX _
_DIAGRAM 14_ _THE CONSTELLATION LEPUS_
_DIAGRAM 15_ _THE PLEIADES_
_DIAGRAM 16_ _ANTARES AND THE HEAD OF SCORPIUS NORTH OF THE MILKY WAY_
_DIAGRAM 17_ _ORION AND TAURUS SOUTH OF THE MILKY WAY_

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I wish to express my appreciation to the late Lovell Thompson,
publisher of _Hamlet's Mill_, for his early encouragement and help
with this book.

I also wish to thank Wayne C. Annala, President of Stellatron and
author of _Lodestar_, an astronomy software program. His help was
invaluable for the understanding and dating of the observable changes
in the sky due to precession.

Lodestar supplied the necessary data which, when used with the
visibility requirements derived from work of Bradley Schaeffer of the
Goddard Space Center, enabled the determination of dates of heliacal
risings of stars, dates that would shift due to this phenomenon.

I wish also to thank Wayne Annala for providing me with two programs
that allowed the prediction of ancient eclipses.

I am deeply indebted to those Egyptologists whose translations I have
so liberally used. The majority of Pyramid Texts in this work were
translated by R. O. Faulkner, as were the selections from The Coffin
Texts. Writings from the Book of the Gates, The Book of the Caverns,
The Book of the Two Ways and The Litany of Re were translated by
Alexandre Piankoff. The spells from The Book of the Dead were
selectively chosen from both Thomas George Allen's 1976 translation,
and the far older version of E. A. Wallis Budge. The specific sources
are given in the reference notes.

I specifically wish to thank the following for giving permission to
quote from certain works:

Aris & Phillips Ltd: R. O. Faulkner, _Egyptian Coffin Texts_, Vols.
I-VI. Copyrights ©1973-1978.

Astronomy: Jay M. Pasachoff, The Hour of the Midnight Sun in
_Astronomy,_ Vol. 1, No. 1, Aug. 1973,

E. J. Brill: J. Gwyn Griffiths, _Osiris and His Cult, _Copyright
©1980_._

Brown University Press: O. Neugebauer and R. A. Parker, _Egyptian
Astronomical Texts_, Vol. I.,

Copyright ©1960.

Cambridge University Press: John Maynard Keynes, Newton the Man, in
_The Royal Society Newton_
__
Tercentenary Celebration
, 1947.

Columbia University Press: Henri Frankfort, _Ancient Egyptian
Religion_, Copyright ©1948 by Columbia

University Press. NY. Reprinted by permission.

Cornell University Press: Erik Hornung, _Conceptions of God in Ancient
Egypt_: _The One and the Many_,

Translated by John Baines.English translation Copyright ©1982 by
Cornell University Press.

Egypt Exploration Society: R. O. Faulkner, Lamentations of Isis and
Nephthys, _Journal of Egyptian_
__
Archeology.
By permission.

Societe D'Etudes Orientales: Excerpt from De Godsdientstige Beteekenis
van de Gesloten Perioden by W.

Brede Kristensen, in _Aarbericht Ex Oriente Lux_, Vol. II, Leiden,
1943. Reprinted by permission of

Societe d'Etudes Orientales.

Faber and Faber Ltd: William Golding, _An Egyptian Journal_ Copyright
©1985 by William Golding.

Reprinted by permission of Faber and Faber Ltd.

Hermann Kees, _Ancient Egypt_, English translation Copyright ©1961 by
Faber and Faber

Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Inc.: Robert Graves, _The White Goddess_,
Copyright © 1948 by Robert Graves.

Renewal copyright © 1975 by Robert Graves. Reprinted by permission of
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Inc.

J. G. Ferguson Publishing Company: Francis Huxley, _The Way of the
Sacred_, Copyright ©1974 by Aldus

Books Ltd. Permission granted by J.G. Fergusen Publishing Company,
Chicago.

David R. Godine: Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend,
_Hamlet's Mill_, Copyright ©1969 by G.

de Santillana and H. von Dechend. Reprinted by permission of
publisher.

Grove Press: Serge Sauneron, _The Priests of Ancient Egypt_, Copyright
©)1960 by S. Sauneron.

Translation copyright © 1969 Ann Morissett. By permission of Grove
Press.

Houghton Mifflin Company: Archibald MacLeish, `The Metaphor,'
published in _The Human Season_:
__
Selected Poems
1926-1972, Copyright ©1972 by Archibald MacLeish. Reprinted by
permission of

Houghton Mifflin Company.

Island Press: Richard E. Byrd, _Alone_, Copyright ©1938 by Richard E.
Byrd, renewed 1964 by Marie A.

Byrd. Alfred A. Knopf: John Updike, _Roger's Version_, Copyright ©1984
by John Updike. By

permission of Alfred A. Knopf.

Reprinted with permission of Macmillan Publishing Company and A.P.
Watt Ltd on behalf of Trinity

College, Cambridcge, from _The Golden Bough_ by James George Frazer.
Copyright ©1922 by The

Macmillan Publishing Company, renewed 1950 by Barclays Bank Ltd.

M.I.T. Press: Brecher and Feirtag, Editors, _Astronomy of the
Ancients,_ Copyright ©1979 By permission

of M.I.T Press.

Microsoft Press: J. T. Fraser, _Time, The Familiar Stranger_,
Copyright ©1987 by J. T. Fraser.

Oxford University Press: R. O. Faulkner, _The Egyptian Pyramid Texts_,
Copyright ©)1969. By permission

of Oxford University Press.

Peters Fraser & Dunlop: Arthur Koestler, _The Sleepwalkers_, Published
by The Macmillan Company.

Copyright ©1959 by Arthur Koestler. By permission of Peters Fraser &
Dunlop.

Reprinted by permission of Princeton University Press: Alexandre
Piankoff, translation with Commentary,
__
Egyptian Religious Texts and Representations
, Bollingen Series XL: _The Tomb of Ramesses VI_,

Vol. 1, 1954. _The Litany of R_e, Vol. 4, 1964. _The Pyramid of Unas_,
Vol. 5, 1968. The Wandering of

_the Soul_, Vol. 6, 1974. Copyright Princeton University Press.

Routledge: Erik Hornung, _Conception of God in Ancient Egypt: The One
and the Many, translated by _

John Baines. By permission of Routledge.

Simon & Schuster: Carl Sagan, _Contact_, Copyright (c)1985 by Carl
Sagan. Reprinted by permission of

Simon & Schuster.

Thames and Hudson: R. T. Rundle Clark, _Myth and Symbol in Ancient
Egypt_, Copyright ©1978 by

Thames and Hudson. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.

By permission of University of California Press: Miriam Lichtheim,
_Ancient Egyptian Literature_. Three

Volumes. Copyright ©1973-1980 Regents.

H. W. Fairman, _Triumph of Horus: An Ancient Egyptian Sacred Drama_,
Copyright © 1974 H. W.

Fairman, Derek Newton and Derek Poole.

Mark Twain, _A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court_. Mark Twain
Library. Edited/translated by

Bernard Stein. Copyright ©1984 by The Mark Twain Foundation.

University of Chicago Press:

Thomas George Allen, _Book of the Dead_, Copyright ©1976.

Henri Frankfort, _Kingship and the God_s, Copyright ©1948, 1978.

Hermann Kees, _Ancient Egypt_, English translation. Copyright ©1961.

John A. Wilson, _The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man_, Copyright
©1946.

University of Oklahoma Press: Zaki Y. Saad, _The Excavations at
Helwan_, Copyright ©1969 by

University of Oklahoma Press.

Viking Penguin: Joseph Campbell, _The Masks of God: Oriental
Mythology_. Copyright ©1962 by Joseph

Campbell, renewed Copyright ©1990 by Jean Erdman Campbell. Reprinted
by permission of the

publisher, Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Books USA Inc.
A. P. Watt Ltd.:Reprinted by permission of A. P. Watt Ltd. On behalf
of the Trustees of the Robert Graves

Copyright Trust from _The White Goddess_: by Robert Graves.
Copyright©1948 by International Authors N.V.

John Wiley & Sons: Franklyn W. Cole, _Fundamental Astronomy_ Copyright
©1974 by John Wiley and

Sons.

There are others to be thanked, of course, but especially, I am
indebted to Dr. Lucian W. Minor, who spent long hours on a translation
problem, to Adam Ogden, who spent long hours helping with computer
problems, and to the late Dr. James J. Brophy, who taught me that the
true length of a paragraph is never as great as I had believed.

PICTURE CREDITS

The author wishes to thank the following for granting permission to
use their photographs:

British Museum, Courtesy of the Trustees: 35 (from Veronica Ions,
_Egyptian Mythology_); 37 (from

T.G.H. James, _Ancient Egypt, The Land and its Legacy_, Fig. 29).

Brooklyn Museum, (65.3.2 Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund) 10 (from Fazzini,
_Images for Eternity_, Cat. No.

1123, 1975).

Egyptian Museum: 33b.

Egypt Exploration Society Committee, 33 a.(from Joseph Campbell, _The
Masks of God: Oriental_
__
Mythology,
Fig. 10, who reproduces from W.M. Flinders Petrie, _The Royal Tombs of
the First Dynasty_,

Vol. II.)

Giraudon: 11 (from Veronica Ions, _Egyptian Mythology_)

Barry Gordon: 17, 24, 25, 27.

Jas. Haynes: 28.

Andre Held: 29. (from Christine El-Mahdy, _Mummies, Myth and Magic_).

Lehnert and Landrock, K. Lambelet and Co: 12.

The Macmillan Publishing Company: 1a and 7.(from W. Max Mueller,
_Egyptian Mythology_, Figs. 57

and 24).

Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2. All rights reserved. Photograph by
Egyptian Expedition.

Mitsuo Nitta: 32 (from Claudio Barocas, _Monuments of Civilization_,
Fig. 108). Photograph © Mitsuo

Nitta, 1967. All Rights reserved. Reproduction arranged through
Kodansha Ltd., Tokyo.

Princeton University Press: 3, 4, 6, 8, 13, 14, 15, 19, 20, 21, 22,
23, 31, 34. (Figures are from two volumes

of Alexandre Piankoff, _Egyptian Religious Texts and Representations_.
Vol. I, Figs. 28, 65, 97, 118, 119,

122 executed by Mark Hasselriis, Copyright ©1954, 1982 by Princeton
University Press. Vol. III,

Figs. 42, 50, 51, 62, executed by Mark Hasselriis and Pierre Clere.
Plates 1, 7, 16, 20. Copyright©1957 by

Princeton University Press.).

Tiara Observatory, 16.

Trans-Ocean Photos Inc.: 18.

`It is not the beliefs and religions which circle around and fight

each other restlessly; what changes is the celestial situation.'

( Santillana and Dechend, _Hamlet's Mill)_

. _____________ .

_A NECESSARY PREFACE_

The totality of life and death was the mystery

at the center of all mystery religions.

(W. B. Kristensen, Aaebericht Ex Oriente Lux)

The Egyptian religion predates the `mystery religions' of Kristensen's
quote, but it too can be said to have this mystery at its center.

Descriptions of the religion of ancient Egypt leave much to be
understood, and interpretations of this belief system leave much to be
desired. Because the whole of the Egyptian funerary beliefs are firmly
established when first encountered, researchers are deprived the study
of the religion's early development, a lack of material that only adds
to the difficulties of comprehending this complex religion. It is also
true that the task of the interpretation of these beliefs has become
secondary to the pressing needs of both philologists and historians.

This is the study of the possible origins of the Egyptian religion. It
might also be called a study of the neolithic belief system that
preceded it. But it is much more than that. It is in part, an
investigation into the earliest human capacity to observe, measure,
and predict the celestial changes that result from the phenomenon
called the precession of the equinoxes. It is also an investigation of
the religious writings of historical times and a search for
indications of an awareness of the continuing alteration of the
heavens.

Scholars of prehistory suggest that early man did not regularly
observe celestial motions, still less record and transmit such
information. It has been asserted that even in early historical times
ancient skywatchers would not have noticed the changes brought about
by precession.

An appreciation of the simple observations needed for the realization
of this movement will develop with an understanding of the altered
arrival time of key star groups, a late arrival time that results from
this phenomenon. The consideration that the Egyptian religion had at
its earliest roots the awareness of such changes becomes difficult to
ignore once this understanding is secure.

All stellar positions change because of precession, although many will
recall only that the north celestial pole migrates around a circle in
the sky and as a consequence, the star designated as pole star changes
over millennia.

More quickly noticed is the date on which a star first rises after its
seasonal absence, especially those stars that appear to travel on or
near the path of the sun. This `first rising,' or heliacal rising, is
always just before sunrise. Orion once returned to the skies in early
spring but today, watchers must wait until the pre-dawn skies of late
summer for this constellation's return.

If a belief that ancient cultures based certain of their myths on the
observable results of the precession is to be supported, the
continuing differences in the sky should be reflected in the religious
compositions written during the nearly three millenniums of Pharaonic
history in Egypt.

Could such myths have originated in the observations of pre-literate
sky-watchers? Would such information be considered important enough to
be preserved in an oral traditio
n?

It is known that the movements of the heavens were a necessary part of
priestly education from early historic times. Specific stars warned of
the approach of sunrise: the appearance of the sun god, Re. Every
important moment in the course of the sun was accompanied by
prescribed rituals, and certain dates were to be noted and marked with
special rites.

We know that in historical times an important position for an Egyptian
priest was to be the ''hour-watcher'' or _''imy-wnwt''_ and this
priest can be imagined, with no difficulty, to be following a long
tradition of observing the star or constellation that announced the
impending rising of the sun. Of prime importance was the establishment
of the exact periods of time before sunrise, and of course as the
hours of the night passed, all those responsible for such things as
the preparations of the food offerings had to be awakened in advance..
All must be ready for the ever important moment.

It was at the moment of sunrise that a purified priest, the king's
substitute, would remove the statue of the god from the `holy of
holies.' It was a ceremony of great solemnity, and it was to be
performed at the precise instant that the sun emerged on the horizon..
Heliacal risings of stars of course, were not the only important
`benchmarks. `Every important moment in the course of the sun called
forth a special ceremony.'1

The magnificent panopoly of the sky moves with great regularity, and
it can be said that nothing on earth can possibly rival its harmony.
Therefore, irregular occurrences, such as eclipses and the results of
the slow backward movement of the precession, while surely bringing
terror to some, would have been a challenge to those chosen to furnish
reasons.

The precessional movement, once understood to be an ongoing
phenomenon, dared those distant thinkers to take its measure, and the
evidence suggests that this they did.

It is my belief that myths were the carriers of information of
celestial movements and events, and that they existed for a long time
before being put down in written form. However, when the oldest
writings are read, readers of these ancient texts are left with the
impression that some were written by learned and wise men, others by
the very frightened and superstitious. The knowledge that is central
to the religion and essential to the timing of holy days and religious
ritual seems nowhere available in the strange boasts and soaring
litanys. Only after study and exposure do we learn to recognize the
key words of the peculiar vocabulary of mythology.

Observations of the heavens took place and were recorded in the
temple, but that is not to say that observations had not been made and
remembered before the temples were built. Earlier, and before writing,
the transmission of knowledge and data depended on the effectiveness
of the spoken word and the memories of the few.

In Plato we read that when the Egyptian god of words brought Pharaoh
the gift of writing it is not received with great enthusiasm. Pharaoh
says that remembering will be lost now that anyone can carry his
knowledge on paper.

Remembering is a wonderful mental exercise, but memory consists of
several different types. One type, the specific, is distinguished by
the bringing together of all particular facts of an observation, but
without relationships noted or judgements made. Another, the
systematic, expressly notes relationships and is exemplified in an
anecdote that Jerome L. Lettvin relates about the great Indian
mathematician Ramanujan.2

G. H. Hardy is visiting the dying Ramanujan and notes the license
number of the cab that brought him to the hospital. He remarks that it
was 1729, and how uninteresting a number it is. But Ramanujan replies
that, on the contrary, it is the first number that can be expressed as
the sum of two cubes in two different ways. Lettvin adds, `Hardy is
terribly moved, for he sees that Ramanujan knows numbers as we know
our friends, each set off by fine, yet important distinctions.'

The written words were intimately known by the Egyptian scribes and
the construction of each word was considered a mirror of a divine
mind. Obvious similarities, such as those revealed in puns, do not
seem to have been considered accidental, and the wisdom of the priests
was necessary to discover the divine meaning of both the obvious and
the subtle connections. It is apparent from their writings that these
early people were distinguished by their search for relationships of
word with word and designation with designation.

The ancient Egyptians sought to remember their past and believed that
the older the writings, the more sacred. With this reverence for the
old, and for the sacred word, for that is what the Egyptians
considered their hieroglyphs, they could not discard their first body
of beliefs as their religious concepts broadened. Instead, keeping the
original gods and original stories, they made those the very ground of
their mythology, and onto these beginnings, they attached abstract and
complex ideas.

The religion grew in complex and convoluted forms and when met in
written texts what is found is a contradictory mix of lofty discourses
on the origin of gods and the destiny of the dead, side by side with
incantations believed to possess a power in themselves.

It has been said that Egyptians would not be Egyptians if they had not
preserved the old along with the new. I believe this evaluation
applies just as much during the many centuries preceding historic
times as it does for the two thousand years of Egypt's greatness. It
has also been said of Egypt's religion, that it is as `alluring as a
will-o'the-wisp by reason of its mystery and even in spite of its
absurdity.'3

In the several millennia before the time given as the beginning of
writing, and during the centuries when the precessional effect caused
obvious changes to the arrival time at the eastern horizon of the
stars of our constellations Orion and Taurus, I suggest that the early
inhabitants of the Nile valley preserved the old in a strong oral
tradition. It is the belief here, that at the threshold of their
religion, the characters of their major deities, Horus, Seth, Isis and
Osiris, would all be found, in simplistic forms perhaps, but clearly
indicating their original stellar origin and the trauma that
precession brought about.

It has only been a short time that we have been able to study the
writings of these remarkable people. The Rosetta Stone was discovered
in July of 1799 and it was not until 1822, through the diligent and
inspired work of Thomas Young and Jean Francois Champollion, that the
decipherment of the enigmatic hieroglyphs finally became possible.

In the nineteenth century, untranslated religious texts were
everywhere; most were carved on monuments found throughout the country
while others were written on rolls of papyrus, long buried and
increasingly being unearthed by the archeologist's spade. In 1880
workmen on the plain of Sakarra, just over 32 miles southwest of
Cairo, penetrated the pyramid of Pepi I, a sixth dynasty pharaoh, and
in 1881 a newly cleared fifth dynasty pyramid of Unas was entered.
Both added more texts.

These pyramid tombs differed in an important way from the three famous
pyramids at Giza that had preceded it. The tombs built for the fourth
dynasty rulers had no decorations of any kind on the inner walls.
Unas's and Pepi's pyramid were treasure chests of inscriptions. Their
corridors and chambers were covered with line after line of
perpendicularly arranged hieroglyphs, with traces of paint still on
the carefully and deeply cut images. Little was known at that time of
Egyptian grammar or vocabulary but a preliminary translation by G.
Maspero soon followed.4 This achievement was remarkable and exciting
indeed.

Following closely on these discoveries, four additional pyramids at
Sakkara were opened, and they were found to have similar texts
inscribed on their walls. These inscriptions are collectively called
the Pyramid Texts, the world's earliest complete body of religious
writings. Since their discovery, translations and grammars have
proliferated, and the knowledge of the Egyptian language has come to
stand on a firm scientific foundation.

Concerned voices, however, have been heard protesting a perceived lack
of interest in interpretations of the religion itself. In 1948 Henri
Frankfort, noted research professor of Oriental Archaeology at the
University of Chicago, wrote:

Egyptian religion aroused the interest of theWest long before the
hieroglyphs were deciphered. The fabulous antiquity of Egyptian
civilization and its stupendous ruins have always suggested a
background of profound wisdom. . . . But the decipherment of the
documents has disappointed centuries of expectation . . . the texts
introduce us to an apparent jungle of religious matter, so
impenetrable to our understanding that Egyptologists have increasingly
shunned the task of interpretation.

. . . Erman gave in 1905 a masterly but patronizing account of weird
myths. . . . Breasted . . . described in 1912 a `development of
religion and thought in ancient Egypt' towards ethical ideals which
pertain to biblical but not to ancient Egyptian religion. Since then
interpretation has lagged. . . . The most prolific writers-Kees and
his followers - assumed towards our subject a scientist's rather than
a scholar's attitude; while ostensibly concerned with religion, they
were really absorbed in the task of bringing order to a confused mass
of material.5

Frankfort pointed out that men of this school have dominated the
subject since the nineteen-twenties and he accused them of
responsibility for the widely accepted view that religion was always a
consequence of political power. He accused them of being unable to see
the wood for the trees.

Frankfort sought coherence in the Egyptian doctrines and
a'corresponding unity in the domain of the spirit.' He wrote, `It is
possible to view the monstrous as well as the profound in Egyptian
religion, with amazement perhaps, but also with respect.'6 The
situation has changed little since then. Despite additional material,
translators have continued to complain about how studies of these
texts are directed. In 1952 an English version of the Pyramid Texts by
Samuel A. B. Mercer was published. In 1954, the first of a six-volume
English translation of various religious texts from tombs and papyri
was offered by Alexandre Piankoff. In 1969 texts from all five
pyramids were translated into English by R. O. Faulkner. His English
translation of the Book of the Dead was published in 1972.

In 1954 Piankoff wrote:

Egyptology is a young science. Yet since the decipherment of
hieroglyphic inscriptions by Champollion, it has already undergone a
rather stormy evolution. As an instance, the approach to the study of
Egyptian religion has passed without transition from one extreme to
another. For the early Egyptologists this religion was highly
mysterious and mystical. . . . Then came a sudden reaction: scholars
lost all interest in the religion as such and viewed the religious
texts merely as source material for their philological-historical
research.7

Alexandre Piankoff died in 1966, with the last two volumes of his
translations well enough along to be published posthumously in 1968
and 1974. Thomas G. Allen's work on the new translation of the Book of
the Dead was also published posthumously. he died in 1968. Henri
Frankfort has also died recently.

As long as philological concerns are the focus of research, will
students be encouraged to attribute value to such speculative
considerations as the origins of these religious beliefs? Scholarly
journals have only recently shown some trend in that direction.

Egyptologist Siegfried Morenz observes that there is a by-product of
the investigation of this ancient religion and its origins:

Preoccupation with a particular religious creed may open up avenues
for an understanding of religion as such, just as the student of a
foreign language or culture will often thereby obtain a profounder
insight into his own language and culture. I have become convinced
that Egyptian religion can fulfill the same purpose for those who
immerse themselves in it.8

In this book I will detail an investigation of texts of the ancient
Egyptians and their connection with astronomical movements and
phenomena. I will suggest that crudely recorded and orally transmitted
accounts of these movements and phenomena served as the origin of the
basic myths centering on Osiris, Egyptian Lord of the Dead, [fig. 5]

and his son, Horus [fig. 11].
_Note:_ Figure numbers are not in sequence.

I will further suggest that certain of these observations galvanized
the predynastic world, a world in which celestial observations became
more imperative and religion became more complex. Precession, an
astronomical fact, results in observable changes in the sky which can
be demonstrated and dated with current computer programs. For ancient
skywatchers this was an extraordinary discovery and until they gave
meaning to this movement the stability of their world was severely
threatened. The skies were out of kilter: the axle of the heavens had
shifted, and most certainly the stars were finally understood to be
irrevocably on the move.

I will propose that certain phenomena present during a total eclipse
of the sun profoundly influenced their myths and that a unique period
of awareness and happenstance led to the union of the two mysteries. I
believe that the accounts of the `eighty years of contending' between
Horus and Seth for the vacated office of Osiris, [fig.4]

and the story of Horus' descent with his Eye, [fig.13] both have their
origin in a highly unusual predynastic period. These conjectures will
be supported by computer projections and the ancient texts and
artwork, with an emphasis given to skies over the ancient settlements
of Badari and Nekhen.

Perhaps the most curious, and certainly the most questionable, result
of this investigation is a correlation between computer predicted
total eclipse dates over Upper and Lower Egypt in historic times and
the conjectured beginning dates of dynasties and certain reigns, dates
that experts in Egyptian chronology have arrived at by using other
means.

The absolute certainty of these dates may be lacking, but the
suggestion of a correlation may yield an additional clue in the task
of understanding the religious beliefs of this ancient culture.

It is my aim to supply two basic unifying themes that will make the
Egyptian belief system more understandable. The Egyptian religion has
always been viewed as Egypt's strength but it is a religion whose
origins are completely unknown. If these can be identified, not only
the writings, but the whole of this ancient culture. the drawings and
paintings, the funerary and festival rites, and the architecture and
the government, will all be less dimly comprehended.

I will argue that neolithic sky watchers observed, recorded, and
studied the complex movements of the heavens. A new awareness of the
thought processes that were necessary to accomodate the celestial
changes -- changes on which the original story of the death and
rebirth of Osiris was based -- will give us a different vision of the
intellectual activities of preliterate cultures.

During the period in which these matters were labored over, I was
often asked what I was working on. In one effort to clearly explain, I
had a Monty Python vision of opening the top of my questioner's skull
and dumping into the brain, all at once, the prerequisite astronomical
and Egyptological data, which of necessity must come first. Only after
this could the excitement of possible answers to old problems in
Egyptology be shared, answers that suggested themselves as a result of
understanding the movements of the stars, both in their usual, and in
their precessional direction.

But there can be no short cut. The necessary facts must be presented
thoroughly and simply, step by step. The questions must be as fully
understood as their possible answers. For that reason the reader is
cautioned to be patient with objections. It is hoped that finally,
thorough explanations will have been given for all troublesome
concepts, and that most contrary beliefs will be less firmly held.

At the end of the preface of _Hamlet's Mill_ which was an earlier, and
more general exploration of this same premise, Giorgio de Santillana
reminds the reader that `He that will have a cake out of the wheat
must needs tarry the grinding.'9 No truer advice can be forthcoming.

ADDENDUM

I had long pondered this revised edition to _The Death of Gods in
Ancient Egypt_, [fig.37] first published in 1992 by Penguin Books.
There had been many mistakes in the original edition; some mine, some
my editor's, but the incentive to rework the manuscript was due to the
publication of _The Message of the Sphinx_, by Graham Hancock, author
of _Fingerprints of the Gods_, and Robert Bauval, author of the _Orion
Mystery_.

In all three of those books extensive references were made to my own,
giving some readers the impression that _Death of Gods_ supported the
theory that they were presenting.

While appreciating their mention of my work on precession, and
although precessional reasons for the death of Osiris are cited, they
explain the mythical details of Osiris's death, as given in the
Egyptian writings, by circumstances very different from what I believe
to be the correct impetus for this important story.

I insist, on the basis of existing evidence, primarily the Egyptian
star clocks, that early sky watchers , especially this early, were
horizon watchers. Hancock and Bauval have conjectured that instead,
early Egyptians were watching transits, long agreed by scholars to be
a later development.

The celestial configurations to support the early date of 10,500 BC as
that of the Egyptian `First Time' are interesting, but these
configurations, while being present at the end (or the beginning) of
the precessionally caused differences in the height of Orion's
culmination, have nothing to do with the date for the origin of the
Egyptian story of Osiris being _drowned in his own water. _

But then, establishing that date was _my_ concern. The point of their
theories is quite a different matter.

To state, as they do, that "In the light of what we now know it is
hard to imagine that the reference to Osiris coming `into earth' could
signify anything other than a physical construction of the `body of
Osiris on the ground' on the west banks of the Nile--in the form of
the great Pyramid fields" decidedly ignores both an Egyptian
expression for dying, and the precessional explanation of Orion's
unexpected failure to appear above the eastern horizon.

As intriguing as an end of an Ice Age date for the Sphinx might be, in
the search for the origins of this remarkable belief system, the
Egyptian texts must be given close and scrupulous attention.

One other thing I feel is important to say clearly.The number 72 first
cropped up in Plutarch's account of the Osirian story. I wrote of it
to suggest that by Plutarch's time (AD 45 to 120) the priests of
Egypt, from whom Plutarch received the story, knew that the story was
concerned with precession's backward movement, a movement that by 120
BC was widely known, thanks to Hipparchus..

That is a great deal different than saying that the number 72 was
contained in the original Egyptian tradition.

Given my educational background, (and my age), I am hardly a `New
Ager'--except as that phrase relates to a conviction that ancient
cultures came to believe that a change in the principal `markers' of
the year signaled a change in their gods and the advent of a new
epoch.

I have always been apologetic and embarrassed by the astrological
overtones suggested by the necessary discussion of star groupings (the
zodiac) in the ecliptical belt (the path of the sun), for I have no
personal interest in astrology. I do have a strong interest in
astronomy.

Otto Neugebauer, Professor Emeritus at Brown University, co-author of
the monumental _Egyptian Astronomical Texts, Volumes I-III_, and many
years associated with the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton,
has called the study of the religion, superstitions and astronomical
methods of earlier civilizations, _`The Study of Wretched_ _Subjects,'_
but having written that, he stoutly defends its necessity `if one is
to understand how ideas were transmitted.'10

Early man had singled out the sun, the moon, and the known planets as
his gods, and to say what part of this path a god occupied, a frame of
reference was needed. The star groups occupying the same area in which
these celestial bodies traveled handily provided this map. The dawn
risings of such groups could also be used as heralds of the appearance
of the sun, and in such a way, came to mark off the months.

I do not believe that these earliest thinkers about the heavens
understood what they were describing. I can believe that the earliest
stories attributing observed celestial phenomena to what was happening
to their gods, to be just that--to be an attempt to make sense of what
they were observing and to be an endeavor to remove the terror and the
confusion brought about by inexplicable happenings in the skies.

Primarily, I want to convince my reader of the origin of the two main
myths of the Egyptian religion.

Beyond that I can hope that my reader will be challenged, as many in
the past have been, to consider why the main characters in so many of
the world's myths share so many odd characteristics. Dechend and de
Santillana considered this, and although they never fully investigated
the myths of ancient Egypt, this provocative statement can be found in
the first pages of their groundbreaking book:
__
`
The intensity and richness, the coincidence of details, in this
cummulative thought have led to the conclusion that the tale of the
original master of the dreamed-of first age of the world had its
origins in the Near East.' __

_A FIRST GUIDE THROUGH THE MURKY LANDSCAPE OF EGYPTIAN GODS_

OSIRIS:

Worshipped as a very early god of Egypt. Said to have ruled wisely and
benevolently in a golden age, bringing civilization to the land. He
was murdered by his brother Seth, who coveted his throne, and avenged
by Horus, son of Isis and Osiris. Although celebrated as risen, he
became god of the dead. In one of his aspects he was called `SAHU.'
Through work on ancient Egyptian Sky Calendars, this is widely
acknowledged to correspond to our constellation ORION, the Hunter with
upraised arm. Osiris wore the crown of the South (Upper Egypt).

_ISIS:_

Sister of Osiris and his devoted wife. Mother of the younger Horus,
who was conceived after miraculous words were spoken over the body of
Osiris by Isis and Thoth, the Ibis-headed god of wisdom and words.
Under her name of `SPDT,' one of many titles denoting a specific
aspect or role, she is positively identified as SIRIUS, the brightest
star in the heavens, found at the foot of ORION.

_SETH:_

Brother and murderer of Osiris. Egyptian mythology tells of the gods
originally awarding Seth southern Egypt after Osiris's death. In the
Memphite Theology, we hear of eighty years of contending between Horus
and Seth and the equal division of power existing between Horus and
Seth is abolished.The South, as well as the North, is given to
Horus-son-of-Osiris.

_HORUS-THE-ELDER:_

Conjectured here to be the Horus who was awarded the North (Lower
Egypt) in the far distant time when Horus and Seth had ruled equally.

_HORUS-SON-OF-ISIS:_

Born in the sun. Awarded the whole of Osiris' previous domain, the
North and the South. Portrayed as child with his finger in his mouth.
He grew to manhood and avenged his father's death in the most
important combat of the eighty years of contending: the one in which
he sacrificed his Eye. He later took his Eye down into the Netherworld
to present it to Osiris. All rulers of Egypt were called by a Horus
name while living, and when deceased they became `an Osiris.' In
burial texts the dead have their name preceded by the title Osiris and
translators of such texts merely indicate this as `Osiris, N.'

UPUAUT, UPPER EGYPTIAN OPENER OF THE WAY

(jackal headed)

Created at time of awarding rule to Horus-Son-of Isis.

_Part One_

._________.

THE STORY AND THE CELESTIAL DOME

CHAPTER 1

BEGINNINGS

In attempting to track his devious thought through the jungle of crass
ignorance and blind fear, we must always remember that we are treading
enchanted ground, and must beware of taking for solid realities the
cloudy shapes that cross our path.

(James Frazer, _The Golden Bough)_

The quest for an understanding of ancient thought is both fascinating
and frustrating. Although the search carries the investigator ever
further back in time and although the journey may deepen one's feeling
of kinship with the past, any perceived understanding must always be
accepted as incomplete. The theories directed to the beliefs of
pre-literate peoples must be understood to fall short of full
certainty, and the most deeply felt convictions must aspire only to a
reasonable degree of probability.

Having used the right and proper cautionary phrases I will now proceed
to lead the reader on a highly speculative journey.

Unknown are the origins of Egyptian myths and such origins lie
possibly buried and hidden in a distant prehistoric age. In such an
age the memory of important events would have been transmitted by the
telling of tales, and the movements of celestial objects would have
been vastly more mysterious to observers than they are today.

In 1969 Giorgio de Santillana described _Hamlets Mill_, An Essay on
Myth and the Frame of Time_''_, as a _''_first reconnaissance of a
realm well-nigh unexplored and uncharted.1'' Professor of the History
and Philosophy of Science at M.I.T., he realized, as did Frazer, the
inevitable fact that we can never put ourselves completely in the
psyche of ancient man. we can never quite feel the wonder and terror
of unexplained events that quickened his heart and raced his mind.

De Santillana and co-author, Hertha von Dechend, Professor of the
History of Science at the University of Frankfort, presented a complex
but frustrating analysis of the world's ''great myths_.''_ They put
forth the conclusion that all are of a common origin, and that the
phenomenon known as the precession of the equinoxes is the basis for
the many ancient stories dealing with the death of gods and their
subsequent resurrections.

The ideas put forth by the authors have long seemed deserving of a
more accessable explanation, and the theory has suggested a deeper and
more specific investigation. Since the publication of _Hamlet's Mill_,
Santillana has died, but interest in this theory have not.

References to Hamlet's Mill and the theory that it presents are
frequently found in popular science works such as _Coming of Age in
the Milky Wa_y (1988) by Timothy Ferris, Professor of Astronomy at
Berkeley. Other works, such as _The Language of Archaic Astronomy_ by
Harald A. T. Reiche have indicated a continuing respect for this work.
This article is included in _Astronomy of the Ancient_, edited by
Kenneth Brecher, Associate Professor of Physics at MIT, and by Michael
Feirtag, member of the Board of Editors of _Technology Review_.

Scholarly writers from disciplines other than astronomy have also
discussed Hamlet's Mill. a presentation of its theory can be found in
Francis Huxley's _The Way of the Sacred_ and an expression of
indebtedness is given by John Crowley, author of the 1987 prize
winning novel, _Aegypt_. These facts notwithstanding, co-author Hertha
von Dechend, though continuing research on the many pieces of this
puzzle, has not produced a comprehensive second reconnaissance into
this sparsely charted territory, or at least not one that is
accessible to the general reader.

Philip Morrison, Professor of Physics at MIT, reviewed _Hamlet's Mill_
(in 1969) for ''Scientific American''. He wrote,

''It...has the ring of noble metal, although it is only a bent key to
the first of many gates.''2

To my knowledge, no one has taken this bent key and applied it
specifically to the myths of ancient Egypt, myths believed to have
originated in the murky past before the written word and that
constitute a base for a religion that lasted several millennium in
historical times.

In Morrison's review of _Hamlet's Mill_ he also wrote: ''A golden age
may be a perpetual component of man's wishes, a part of his
unconscious, but there was a genuinely luminous period around 6000 BC,
not on earth but in the sky. At that time the area of the sky where
the plane of the ecliptic crosses the celestial equator was occupied
by both the Milky Way and the bright stars in the Belt of Orion.
Despite this, Santillana's book took but a cursory look at the
religion of the Egyptians, a religion that pinpointed Orion [diagram
1] as an aspect of Osiris, one of the most important gods in the
Egyptian pantheon.

I suggest that Orion's precessionally caused failure to appear in _his
place_ at _his proper time_ gave rise to long centuries of an oral
tradition of Osiris' death.

I believe that Osiris's death, being a death of a celestial god, was a
death much more awesome and much more incomprehensible than that of a
historical figure. The fact that these events were celestial, made his
resurrection not only possible, but a certainty.

If we are to uncover the shared thread that can lead us to the
understanding of a long lost heritage, this idea must be subject to a
deeper and more rigorous exploration.

In the enigmatic and confusing religion of these dwellers of the Nile
valley there are two events of prime importance; the death and rebirth
of Osiris, and the sacrifice, for Osiris by his son, of the all
important _Eye of Horus._ Although the sacrifice of the son's eye in
order to give the hero his soul, and its promise of eternal life for
all those who are _well equipped_ with it, seems peculiarly Egyptian,
the story has vague echoes in subsequent world myths.

If the traditions connected with Osiris and Horus originated in the
pre-writing millennia, and if their origin was in the observable
results of this majestic movement in the heavens, then the quest
should be to find textual support of such a thesis.

Such support should reflect the fact that in the span of time from
early known settlements in the Nile Valley, to the final demise of
Egypt's religion, a span of almost six thousand years, the
precessionally caused late arrival times of important stars would have
affected subsequent key star groups after the initial trauma of the
backward movement of Orion.

If the myths reflect these subsequent precessional results, surely the
link between ancient resurrection beliefs and the changes in the sky
are strengthened. The long period of ancient Egypt's history provides
an unusual testing ground for such a theory.

The Pyramid Texts from the Old Kingdom and other mortuary writings,
such as the Book of the Dead (The Book of Going Forth By Day), the
Book of the Caverns, and the Litany of Re, will all be examined with a
firm commitment to the belief that the ancients looked to the heavens
for their gods, and that what was happening there was infinitely more
important in forming their religion than anything that was happening
on earth. To be sure, the Egyptian religion of historic times can be
called a sun-centered religion, but it is the belief of Egyptologists
that in the predynastic era the main worship at Heliopolis, later the
cult center for the worship of the sun-god Re, was that of the stars.

Egyptologist John A. Wilson explained that in the earliest mortuary
writings, which we have named the Pyramid Texts, the destination of
the dead was the area of the circumpolar stars swinging around the
North Star.3 This is true, but when one reads these texts, it is
apparent that an important, and perhaps intermediary, hope was for the
deceased to rise with Sahu-Orion. [fig.1a] This does not take away
from the fact that the ultimate hope of the deceased would be to
become one with the stars that never perished, the _''Akhus.''_ The
dead became Akhu through the funerary ritual, and with reference to
their tombs they were called _''_well equipped transfigured
spirits.''4 Akhus were believed to possess light, and light was seen
as a precondition of life.

These _''_shining beings_''_ were believed to occupy the circumpolar
area -- an area called Dat -- and an area untouched by death.
Circumpolar stars never disappear for a seasonal absence, nor is the
effect of the precession as obvious in this region as on stars on or
near the path of the sun, the ecliptic.

Wilson wrote, _''_As time went on, and as the dominant mythology of
the sun spread its weight over the nation, the region of Dat shifted
from the northern part of the sky to the underworld.''5

The possibility that at the roots of the story of Osiris can be found
the observable workings of the precession points to powers of
observation long denied our neolithic ancestors. If we are to make an
intelligent judgment about this, we must ourselves understand exactly
what was happening in the skies over Egypt in the millennia before
writing appeared, and then determine if such happenings could and
would be noticed.

The story of Osiris was never told in any connected form by the
Egyptians in either religious or secular writings. Most sources cite
Plutarch (c. 45 AD to 120 AD) who repeated the tale when the Egyptian
religion was thousands of years old and when the strange markings that
were carved on the monuments the Egyptians had left could no longer be
read. Missing are some important and crucial elements, and some of the
incidents related by Plutarch are not verified in the known Egyptian
texts.

Here then are the barest bones of the story, as bare as the facts are
in the ancient writings, where very little detail is available. The
conclusion can be made that either the complete story was assumed
already known by everyone, or that the facts were drawn from
incomplete, and only partially understood accounts. In the Pyramid
Texts, the story of Osiris seems to have been what is called, in
modern religious terminology, a _''given.''_ His story was accepted on
faith, and its origins were vague and mysterious.

Until recently many Egyptologists had insisted that the worship of
Osiris was non-existent before the Fifth Dynasty (c.2501-2342), since
the Pyramid Texts found in the tomb of the last ruler of the Fifth and
in the tombs of Sixth Dynasty kings contained the earliest mention of
this god that had been found. . However much points to the different
conclusion that Osiris's story was cloaked in the veil of distant
antiquity even at this early date. The discovery at Helwan of a very
early Djed symbol and the `girdle of Isis' (Isis being his female
counterpart) shows that during the Archaic Period (Dynasty I and II)
Osiris's cult already existed. Noted Egyptologist, Walter B. Emery
wrote: `...the myth of Osiris seems to be an echo of long forgotten
events which actually took place.'6

I believe that the Egyptians were a people who needed and depended on
a vision of an unchanging universe. Their attempts to record and
explain a deviation in the very order of things has been sadly misread
by investigators. This is the story, as clearly as I can present it:

OSIRIS WAS RULER OF EGYPT, ISIS WAS HIS SISTER-WIFE, AND SETH HIS EVIL
BROTHER. SETH KILLED HIS BROTHER, OSIRIS, AND CAST HIS BODY ENCLOSED
IN A COFFIN INTO THE NILE. ISIS RESCUED THE COFFER AND HID IT; SETH
FOUND IT, CUT UP THE BODY INTO FOURTEEN PIECES AND SCATTERED THEM
ABOUT EGYPT. THE GRIEVING ISIS WANDERED ALL OVER THE COUNTRYSIDE,
GATHERING UP THE PARTS OF HER HUSBANDS BODY AND THEN, WITH THE HELP OF
NEPHTHYS, HER SISTER; ANUBIS, THE JACKAL-HEADED GOD OF EMBALMING; AND
THOTH, GOD OF WISDOM AND WORDS, PUT TOGETHER THE DISMEMBERED BODY,
WRAPPING IT IN LINEN BANDAGES AND UTTERING SACRED WORDS, OR MAGICAL
SPELLS. THEN ISIS FANNED THE BODY OF OSIRIS WITH HER WINGS AND REVIVED
HIM LONG ENOUGH TO CONCEIVE THE CHILD HORUS.

Although it becomes prominent in the myth at a much later stage, the
episode of dismemberment does not figure in the earliest tradition.
The fourteen pieces into which his body was said to have been cut may
represent the fourteen days of the waning of the moon, and also the
fourteen days of the moon's recovery. Later mathematical texts show
that fractions, on which most of Egyptian arithmetic was based, were
taught using the symbol of the Eye, with each part representing a
fraction of the whole.

Osiris is now made ruler of the dead, never again to occupy his former
throne. However, in the Passion plays that later, non-Egyptian writers
were to describe for us, and in certain writings and drawings from
walls of Ptolemaic temples, the finding of the body is greeted with
cries of _''_Behold, he has risen!'' Indeed, the earliest texts we
have, the Pyramid Texts, speak of the dead rulers as ''rising like
Osiris.'' He has risen, but his ''office'' is to be occupied by his
son. He has risen, but his nature has changed.

ISIS SECLUDES HERSELF FOR THE DURATION OF HER PREGNANCY AND THE CHILD
HORUS IS BORN IN A SECRET PLACE. HE GROWS TO MANHOOD AND IN AN EVENT
VIVIDLY DESCRIBED AS THE DAY OF THE BATTLE BETWEEN THE TWO FIGHTERS
(OR SOMETIMES BETWEEN THE TWO COMPANIONS), HORUS DOES BATTLE WITH THE
MURDERER OF HIS FATHER
.

This fight is clearly regarded by the scribes as an event shrouded in
mystery. In the Book of the Dead, especially in Spell 17, important
because it gives a detailed account of this battle, glosses added by
later scribes ask _''What then is that?''_ and _''Who then is he?''_
The glosses and interpretations by countless generations of priests
were the accepted way of looking for truth and resulted in complex and
multiple answers.

HORUS LOSES HIS EYE IN THIS BATTLE AND SETH LOSES HIS TESTICLES. HORUS
AND SETH HAD ENGAGED IN SUBSEQUENT QUARRELS OVER A PERIOD OF EIGHTY
YEARS DURING WHICH THE OTHER GODS HAD BEEN SORELY VEXED TRYING TO
DECIDE WHICH OF THE TWO TO BE THE RIGHTFUL HEIR TO THE VACATED
''OFFICE OF OSIRIS
.''

It is disconcerting that some Egyptologists accept an early date for
the conflict between Horus and Seth more readily than for the origin
of the stories of Osiris. This acceptance is based on what are
believed to be representations of Horus and Seth dated to a millennium
before historic times.

A primitive prototype of the falcon on a serekh, the typical
representation of the god Horus, is dated to what is called the Naqada
I culture, with a conjectured date of 4000 BC. A serekh is a structure
with a niched facade, an architectural detail believed to have been an
early innovation from cultures to the east, such as Mesopotamia or
Susa, and employed on both the palaces of early kings and on their
mastaba tombs.

A Seth figure found in a predynastic cemetery is also dated this
early, and artifacts, such as pottery, maceheads, palettes, and jar
sealings, all attest to the possibility of very early cults of both
deities.7 Certainly, by the time of the Naqada II settlements (c.3500
B.C ) the religious significance of the falcon is established beyond
doubt.

The battle between Horus and Seth is told as rising from a dispute
over who would inherit Osiris's office, and suggests the existence of
the Osirian story at least as early as the worship of Horus. The
ancient texts relate that Horus takes the Eye that he sacrificed down
to Osiris in the Netherworld. By giving the Eye to his father he gives
him eternal life and Osiris is now _''well equipped.''_

Egyptologist J. Gwyn Griffith solves the problem by contending that
the story of the conflict of Horus and Seth, although it must be dated
to a predynastic era, has no connection with the story of Osiris.8 He
suggests that the two were not originally a composite, while conceding
the strong likelihood that the cult of Osiris began in or before the
First Dynasty. My investigation will link the two myths and insist
that Osiris's death is the earlier of the two stories.

In the Chester Beatty Papyrus from the reign of Ramesses V, dated
1160-1154 BC (over a thousand years after the Pyramid Texts), we find
an irreverent account of the conflict between Horus and Seth. The tale
told in this papyrus obviously concerns gods rather than human beings,
and we are told that the argument between the two continued, much to
everyone's eventual boredom, for eighty years.

If the stories of the gods dealt with celestial events, something must
have been happening in the skies over Egypt, and happening repeatedly
for a lengthy period of time. (This account will be examined in depth
in the chapter _Judgment of the Council of Gods''_)

Clearly here, one cannot suppose the battle to have had anything to do
with the observable but slow results of the precession. Another
solution must be sought. I will present a possible origin of the
second story and will demonstrate that elements of both myths are
invariably present in later myths of other cultures wherever the tale
of the uprooting of the World Tree and the advent of a New Age,
however disguised, is told.

Egyptian myth also indicate that at one point the Eye of Horus is
lost. Certain texts refer to a search like that for the body of
Osiris, but the Eye is found and it is then that Horus takes it down
to to his father, Osiris,

In the resurrection of Osiris, Egyptians saw the promise of an eternal
life for themselves beyond the grave. The deceased assumed the title
of Osiris and if family and friends would do for them what had been
done for Osiris, such as the giving of offerings, all of which
represented the sacrificed Eye, the deceased would live for ever.

In understanding the celestial counterpoints of these two myths we may
be given a key to the better understanding of the religious beliefs of
the Egyptians. We may also discover, not only a sturdy thread that
links the world's various tales of death and rebirth, but the
mathematical constructs that appear to be encoded in the myths of
other ancient cultures.

It is time to take the bent key that this theory represents and
discover the names of the many gates it can unlock. It is time to
re-discover the story that was once both the science and the history
of the ancient world, and it is time to understand the enigma of why,
and how, the memory of this ancient body of beliefs came to be so
completely and thoroughly forgotten.

Here is a [4]link to the The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism search
engine on their web site. Besides _The Death of Gods in Ancient
Egypt_, they list many resources for ancient as well as modern Egypt.

References

1. mailto:sellerseclipse at aol.com
2. http://maat.paradoxdesigns.com/sellers_maat.html
3. mailto:sellerseclipse at aol.com
4. http://www.egyptbot.com/