Blog #7: Egyptian symbolism in the Milky Way?

1.     We are interested in the spiritual aspects of ancient wisdom in our book. In this blog we explore the possible symbolism found in the stars by the Ancient Egyptians that relates to our personal development and awakening of higher consciousness.

2.     In our last blog, “The Constellation Geb, the Egyptian Cygnus”, we considered that the layout of the Ancient Egyptian constructions on the Giza Plateau are laid out to possibly reflect both the constellations Orion, representing Osiris, and the constellation Cygnus, representing the neter of the earth Geb.

Figure 1A. Map of the pyramids with an overlay of the stars of the constellation Cygnus/Geb.

 Figure 1B. Star chart of the constellation Cygnus/Geb.

Figure 1C. Image of the neter Geb.

3.     The constellation Cygnus/Geb lies on the Milky Way that the Egyptians associated with the neter Nut.

Figure 2. Modern day image of the Milky Way with the constellation Cygnus/Geb on the right just above the horizon (http://www.dailygalaxy.com/.a/6a00d8341bf7f753ef01a3fd401485970b-pi).

4.     Nut and Geb are often shown in images with Nut filled with stars stretched above a reclining Geb.

Figure 3A. Typical representation of the reclining neter Geb under the neter Nut full of stars stretched above.

Figure 3B. A star chart showing the co-location of the constellation and the Milky Way which runs from the top left to the bottom right of the image.

5.     In our last blog we recognized the findings of Schwaller de Lubicz,  Naydler and Sullivan that symbology often explores relationships through the juxtaposition of multiple images. In this case we look at the possible symobology where Cygnus, The Milky Way and Orion can represent Geb, Nut and Osiris.

 6.     In this case, on one side of the night sky we see Cygnus representing Geb the original creation of the world. Geb is sometimes represented as the goose that lays the World egg. Geb is shown in Figure 3A as lying under Nut, represented by the Milky Way. On the opposite side of sky we have represented for us Osiris as the constellation Orion slightly separated from the Milky Way in his re-membered and risen form following his journey through the Duat/Milky Way.

Figure 4. The Milky Way represented as a straight-line feature through the middle of a sky map showing constellations of interest to a journey through the Duat starting with Geb on the left and exiting as a resurrected Osiris on the right just below the Milky Way (http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/galchart.html).

 7.      The Milky Way can also be represented as a curved region through the sky as in Figure 5. In the figure we overlay a picture of Nut over a star chart of the Milky Way.

Figure 5.  The sky-goddess Nut covered in stars as the Milky Way. Cygnus/Geb is aligned below her head on the left and Orion at the birth point on the right. We include a number of other symbols associated with the Egyptian myths including the important vulture neter of mother earth, Mut, Scorpio as the snake neter Apep involved in challenging the soul in the Duat. In this orientation Orion lies just above the Milky Way on the right. Nut image from http://www.egyptartsite.com/photo/nut.gif, Milky Way image is modified  from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caldwell_catalogue.

8.     The symbolism of these images is made explicitly active and representing a process is seen in the Egyptian image of the sun being swallowed by Nut at sunset and being regenerated as it is passed through her body before being re-born at dawn the next morning.

Figure 6. Nut swallowing the sun on the left and delivering a rejuvenated sun on the right (http://ancientegyptonline.co.uk/nut.html).

9.     In this representation it is particularly interesting to note that the sun can’t be interpreted literally because it does not “travel the Milky Way” when it sets. It follows a different path called the ecliptic. The process represented in the picture must be seen symbolically.

10. While we are in no way experts in archeoastronomy, it is intriguing to consider the symbolism in the sky as it connects to our inner search for our higher Self. Finding this pattern in the sky captures the general theme of our internal development and connects with our experience of an inner creation.  On one side of the night sky we see the original creation of the world represented by the laying of the World egg by the constellation Geb on the Milky Way. On the opposite side of sky we have represented for us Osiris as the constellation Orion slightly separated from the Milky Way in his re-membered and risen form following his journey through the Duat/Milky Way. Little and Collins (2014) explore similar passage through the Milky Way in North American myths. Earlier Sullivan (1996, page 341) wondered ‘It may be coincidence that in Andean cosmology (and archaic cosmologies world-wide), the dead “return” through the bridge at Scorpius, the center of the galaxy, while the immortals, like Buddhists escaping the “wheel of karma” “leave” this mortal “coil” via the shortest route – beyond Gemini – to the highest heaven, beyond our galaxy.’

11. These views of the sky, as we interpret them, provide a potential symbolism of Geb, the Milky Way and Osiris as a symbol for the way of awakening consciousness as we live our lives today.  With proper understanding, these ideas could be a most useful map of our own personal development: beginning with the original creation of consciousness followed by a challenging passageway that potentially leads to our resurrected re-enlivened Self.

 13. The search is not in the stars or on the face of the earth, but in ourselves.

BUY NOW: https://www.amazon.com/Awakening-Higher-Consciousness-Guidance-Ancient/dp/1620553945/

References:

Dickie, L.M. and P.R. Boudreau. 2015. Awakening Higher Consciousness: Guidance from Ancient Egypt and Sumer. Inner Traditions.

Gregory, L., A. Collins. 2014. Path of Souls: The Native American Death Journey: Cygnus, Orion, the Milky Way, Giant Skeletons in Mounds, & the Smithsonian. ATA-Archetype Books.

Naydler, J. 1996. Temple of the Cosmos The Ancient Egyptian Experience of the Sacred. Inner Traditions.

Nayder, J. 2004. Shamanic Wisdom in the Pyramid Texts: The Mystical Tradition of Ancient Egypt. Inner Traditions.

Schwaller de Lubicz, R.A. 1998. Temple of Man. Inner Traditions.

Sullivan, W. 1996. The Secret of the Incas: Myth, Astronomy, and the War Against Time. Three Rivers Press.

Blog #6: Constellation “Geb” – The Egyptian Cygnus?

1.     While we are primarily interested in the spiritual aspects of ancient wisdom in our book, it must be recognized that there are other aspects of the Ancient Egyptian’s knowledge that are of interest to the modern World. The Giza Plateau is of particular importance. It is the location of the largest structures built by humans using incredibly large stones with great precision using building methods that are totally incongruent with our understanding of the tools of the time.

2.     We accept that the Pyramids of Ancient Egypt most likely served multiple purposes. As we discuss in Awakening Higher Consciousness, we see the earliest of human literature found in the Texts of the Saqqara Pyramids a few miles south of the Giza Plateau as offering guidance for awakening our higher Self though initiation (see Blog #1: The Greeks We Love, E.G. Plato & Pythagoras, Gained Wisdom From Egypt. They Weren't Interested In Dead People). But there is practically no writing in the three Great Pyramids of Giza.

3.     We have personally tested the proportions of the King’s Chamber of the Great Pyramid of Giza for its perfection in support of the production of musical tones that can be produced within it. In addition, some authors have suggested that the Great Pyramid was a power plant and/or that it generated a ionizing field in support of agriculture production. There is good evidence that the understructure included a ram water pump. And of course there are those who connect the whole structure of the pyramids to aliens and UFOs.

4.     Another aspect of the studies of the Ancient Egyptian constructions on the Giza Plateau involves a search for the logic behind the layout of these great structures. They were constructed with incredible accuracy and attention to detail, especially recognizing the immense stone blocks that were used in their construction. It follows that the builders paid equal attention to their spatial arrangement and the overall layout on the plateau.

5.     Robert Bauval developed the Orion Correlation Theory (OCT) in the early 1990’s.  It proposed that the layout of the three largest pyramids was fashioned to mirror the three bright stars in the belt of the constellation Orion. In the OCT, the Milky Way is said to be represented by the Nile River.

Figure 1A. Star chart of Orion with the Milky Way in the bottom right hand corner.

Figure 1B. Google Map image of the three great pyramids on the Giza Plateau. The Ancient Nile River occupied the right of the figure roughly where the present desert ends with the encroachment of Cairo city.

6.     An alternative interpretation of the Giza Plateau layout has been proposed by Andrew Collins (1999) who looked at the whole arrangement from the opposite side of the heavens as the constellation Cygnus. He proposed that the three great pyramids line up as the cross of the constellation Cygnus, (the Latinized word for  “swan” - http://www.andrewcollins.com/page/articles/cygnus_blueprint.htm).

Figure 2A. Map of the pyramids with an overlay of the stars of the constellation Cygnus.

  Figure 2B. Star chart of the constellation Cygnus.

7.     Although there is no swan in Ancient Egypt astrology, there is a bird in the Dendera zodiac - more goose than swan. The goose is the hieroglyph for the sound “gb” and is commonly found in the hieroglyphic writings and images of the culture.

Figure 3. Dendera zodiac showing a bird in the star chart.

 8.     The goose is a prominent feature in the earliest writings of humans by the Ancient Egyptians in the Pyramid Texts. The goose hieroglyph represents the neter or “god” named, Geb, the neter of the primeval earth, who is also referred to as the Great Cackler.  He was the “mythological divine creator goose who had laid a world egg from which the sun and/or the world had sprung” (Wikipedia.) When writing about this creation neter, might they have been drawing our attention to the symbol of the bird-like constellation that we now call Cygnus - the Great Cackler – Geb?

Figure 4.  Geb as cosmic goose. Papyrus of Userbet. Eighteenth Dynasty. (Naydler 1996)

9. Geb is often represented as an awkwardly reclining male figure stretched out on the earth beneath Nut. It is easy to see the top bright star of Cygnus representing the head of Geb and the side stars representing his outstretched arms..

Figure 5A. An Egyptian image of Geb stretched out beneath Nut.

Figure 5B. Milky Way - https://500px.com/photo/209884269/earth-day-aurora-by-rob-dickinson

10.     If the great pyramids are arranged on the Giza Plateau to represent Geb, then the Great Sphinx is in the location of the constellation Lyra. This constellation is often represented as a vulture.  To the Ancient Egyptians, the vulture represented the neter Mut as the creator mother principle. The constellation also includes the bright star Vega that was the pole star in 14,000 BCE.

Figure 6A. Star chart of the constellations Cygnus and Lyra.

Figure 6B. An outline of the Giza Plateau showing the relative position of the Great Pyramids and the Great Sphinx.

11. Mut was also represented as a lioness and we see that the body and hind end of the Great Sphinx is definitely of lioness form.

Figure 7. The hind end of the Great Sphinx with its lioness form showing the right leg, paw and tail.

12. So a lioness structure on the Giza Plateau representing the vulture constellation, Mut, in relation to the three Great Pyramids, representing Geb, would well represent that specific area of the sky. It places the creator mother principle, Mut, in close proximity to the male earth creation principle, Geb.

13. As for the question of whether the great pyramids themselves are representing Orion/Osiris or Cygnus/Geb, this may be regarded as a frivolous analytical attempt to shoehorn a complex symbology into a simple black or white dichotomous distinction. Schwaller de Lubicz in his book The Temple of Man finds on the temple walls many incidents where the builders of the Temple of Karnak carved a unified symbology on opposite sides of the same stone or on opposing walls of the same room (The Temple of Man, vol. 2 page 1000). He referred to these techniques as “transparency” and “transposition”.  Naydler (2004) found similar spatial relationships in the arrangement and layout of the Pyramid Texts upon the various surfaces within the Pyramid of Unas.

 14. For a culture with such a high sensitivity to spatial arrangement and complexity of relationships in their symbols, it is very easy to see that they may have used the Giza Plateau structures to capture the both constellations and a relationship between them – especially when we also note that the two are about 180 degrees from one another along the Milky Way. Similar opposition of sky features is strongly highlighted by Sullivan in his exploration of the Incas culture.  He found an important juxtaposition of the bright star Vega on one side of the sky to the important non-helical rising of the Milky Way on the other side of the visible sky on June Solstice 650 CE in Cuzco, Peru.

 15. While we are in no way experts in archeoastronomy, it is intriguing to consider the multiple interpretations of the layout of the Giza Plateau in search of phenomena that connects to our inner search for our higher Self. Finding a pattern in the sky that captures the theme of our internal development and connects with our experience of an inner creation. Such phenomena may have motivated the builders of the Pyramids to capture this most important information in their constructions.  On one side of the night sky we see the original creation of the world represented by the laying of the World egg by the constellation Geb on the Milky Way. On the opposite side of sky we have represented for us Osiris as the constellation Orion slightly separated from the Milky Way in his re-membered and risen form following his journey through the Duat/Milky Way. We explore the potential symbolism of Geb, Osiris and the Milky Way in our next Blog entitled: “Egyptian Symbolism in the Milky Way.”

 16. The search is not in the stars or on the face of the earth, but in ourselves.

16a. In 2023 new discoveries at Karahan Tepe in southeastern Turkey find unmistakable connections with Cygnus: Andrew Collins announces new find in Turkey

BUY NOW: https://www.amazon.com/Awakening-Higher-Consciousness-Guidance-Ancient/dp/1620553945/

References:

Bauval. R. and A. Gilbert. 1995. The Orion Mystery: Unlocking the Secrets of the Pyramids. Random House.

Collins, A. 1999. The Cygnus Mystery: Unlocking the Ancient Secret of Life's Origins in the Cosmos. Watkins.

Dickie, L.M. and P.R. Boudreau. 2015. Awakening Higher Consciousness: Guidance from Ancient Egypt and Sumer. Inner Traditions.

Naydler, J. 1996. Temple of the Cosmos The Ancient Egyptian Experience of the Sacred. Inner Traditions.

Schwaller de Lubicz, R.A. 1998. Temple of Man. Inner Traditions.

Blog #5 - Consciousness – to be or not to be

A blog post can’t be expected to explain consciousness. For that matter, neither can a book. Maybe even a lifetime of work is insufficient to fully explore this most important of life’s experiences. For now, maybe we can rephrase the question from the very removed and abstract toward the more immediate and personal. From “What is consciousness” or even “Am I conscious?” to “What is my consciousness?” This less direct form of the question allows us to find balance between the analytical and the individual, leading usefully to something that is intimately personal.

Let us start at the beginning: Although the seeds of consciousness must have been present in me when I was born, I certainly cannot claim to remember its existence either then or shortly after birth. So when did it arrive? How do we first encounter consciousness in our lives? How do we remember that moment of the creation of “my consciousness”?

My own personal memory of the moment is associated with a Christmas at the young age of around 4 or 5. I was shocked “awake” at the sight of Santa Claus– before I was “snug in my bed.” The visions of Santa passing me by awoke something in me that stays to this day – “I was there!”  The memory is locked in my mind - frozen in time. But what language do we have to refer to such personal awakenings of ourselves? It is difficult.

We easily use language to share our interactions with our physical world. Our common language is built primarily on such interactions. By drawing on past experiences, such as the taste of a great wine, a bite into a freshly picked apple, or the poignant smell of cinnamon at any time, we come to an agreement that we are talking about similar states and experiences. Even for some higher human emotions such as love, we can agree on what is meant by the phrase “They are in love” without quibbling too much about how their love relates to anything that I’ve felt in my life. From the phrase alone one can make reasonable predictions about how two people in love will act in situations. Yet it is not so clear why we should use the phrase “head over heels in love” as a means of communicating love? This second phrase highlights the difficulties in communicating the more than physical aspects of life.  

 But when it comes to the most important thing that makes us human, that of consciousness, we do not seem to have the language required. We mistrust our fleeting sensations and experiences of it. Descriptors such as “shocked”, “calm”, “satisfied”, “connected”, etc., are pulled from our other more daily experiences to try and capture some of the special nature of our experiences of consciousness.  In communicating the experience to others, we rely on metaphor and analogue. We rely on phrases such as, “It was like being aware of everything” or “Time seemed to stand still.”

We seem no better prepared to discuss consciousness with today’s language than we are to understand what ancient cultures of Sumer and Egypt might have used to capture and communicate their experiences and understandings from at least 5,000 years ago. The ancients drew on images that they understood. They spoke of journeys through the netherworld, talking with the gods and interacting with snakes. The stars and the sky play a large role in these communications of the Ancients. Many of their images have been carried forward through the ages and can be found in modern religious and philosophical concepts. With the right approach, they can be seen to capture useful images that contribute to my search for “my consciousness?”

In our book (Dickie and Boudreau 2015) we explore a number of creation myths that we see as relating to the awakening of consciousness; the creation of ourselves not the creation of the physical world. We work in the book to make best use of the languages of Sumer, Ancient Egypt and Hebrew to explore what they may have tried to record and pass on in regards to this awakening of our awareness of ourselves? It is not easy.

Skipping forward to modern times we see that the efforts to address human consciousness continues today. Needleman (2012) summarizes consciousness as humans’ birthright. Edinger (1984) states, “The purpose of human life is the creation of consciousness.” Needleman notes that although it might be our birthright, it doesn’t come easily. It involves suffering and yearning. Such thoughts of internal work and struggle are not easy to find in the mainstream daily activities of the Western World where one’s purpose is more often measured in terms of financial wealth and external security.

Needleman (2012) continues his development of thoughts on consciousness into a very personal sphere. He distances the concept of God from that of the distant grouchy old man on a cloud to present the God concept as a more natural all surrounding motivation of our world. Kauffman (2010) arrives at a concept of God that is tied to the amazing creativity that we experience in the World, in Nature and in ourselves. In both cases they talk of a very personal, intimate relationship.

The ancient methods of meditation are clearly directed at exploring one’s personal consciousness. The new concept of “mindfulness” that is finding some current mainstream acceptance may be a useful way forward in the general education and exposure of humans to their more sensitive internal experiences and movements.

 In some kind of very brief summary, we can say that the characteristics of consciousness that help me to answer the question “What is my consciousness?” include:

• Calming
•  Connecting
•  Remembering from moments of grace in early life
• Requiring “conscious labor and intentional suffering” (Gurdjief)
•  Fleeting (Plotinus)
•  Centering
• Experiencing life at a higher level that helps us distinguish conflicting lower energies. 

    But nothing fully captures what it is that makes me a human being - different from a rock or a bird. The challenge is to express that quality to myself as much as to others. And so I continue my work to experience Self.

References:

Dickie, L.M. and P.R. Boudreau. 2015. Awakening Higher Consciousness: Guidance from Ancient Egypt and Sumer. Inner Traditions.

Edinger, E.F. 1984. The Creation of Consciousness - Jung's Myth for Modern Man. Inner City Books.

Kauffman, S.A. 2010. Reinventing the Sacred: A New View of Science, Reason, and Religion. Basic Books.

Needleman, J. 2012. An Unknown World: Notes on the Meaning of the Earth. Penguin.

MacKenna, S. 1992. Plotinus The Enneads. Larson Publications. 

Graham Hancock's video gives us the latest on the 10,000 year old Gobekli Tepe.

In late 2015 Graham Hancock will bring out his new book, 'Magicians of the Gods', the sequel to his worldwide bestseller 'Fingerprints of the Gods'. In this lecture, recorded in March 2014 for Alternatives London at Saint James's Church in Piccadilly, he reviews his past work and shares some of the research for the new book.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcPgIphDWGY

Endorsement #1: Richard Nowogrodzki

“The material is interesting and deep, the writing is lively, and the illustrations are excellent.” Richard Nowogrodzki, Cornell University.

Dr. Lloyd Dickie in the Hypostyle Hall of the Temple of Karnak, Luxor, Egypt.

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Blog #4: Magic by any other name

What can we understand of Ancient Egyptian “spells”? Were they magic, medicine or prayers? Maybe they were all three?

Heka, the Egyptian neter/god of magic, is well represented in the writings of Ancient Egypt from the very beginning of their written literature in the Pyramid Texts circa 2,500 BCE into the New Kingdom writings (Ritner, 1993).

Figure. Heka attending Khnum. Heka appears directly behind the chamber room of Khnum, on the right-hand side, holding the snake’s tail. His hieroglyphic name is to the right of his shoulder. From the burial chamber in the tomb of Ramses I on the West Bank, Luxor.

Heka is recorded as being one of the first neters created after the world was formed. While Maat, the neter of cosmic order, love and justice, is well recognized in Ancient Egyptian culture, Heka her equivalent is rarely discussed. Together they are the first born after the great Atum initiates creation. Heka seems to represent that special spark of life that is necessary to animate matter into life. Literally the name means “activating the KA” or the soul. Versluis (1988) in The Philosophy of Magic emphasizes that the Egyptians considered magic an essential force of life.

So how could the neter of the essential force of life be missed in the general understanding of Egyptian culture? This most likely results from modern day’s difficulty in dealing with the more-than-material aspects of life. We have become a culture of “doubting Thomases” who refuse to believe unless we can all stick our fingers into physical wounds. Our unquestioning trust in science and engineering eliminates any attention to the more-than-physical, such as that which animates life – Heka.

There is no recognized word for “religion” in Ancient Egypt (Naydler, 1996 page 124). It is a modern concept that magic and religion are opposite extremes of one another. While organized religions continue to recite texts for the betterment of individuals and groups of individuals, “magical” texts are seen to be either foolish or aberrant depending on your point of view. Ritner (1993) explores the difficult task of distinguishing magic from established religion. One thing is certain, starting with the Romans, non-orthodox practices were and continue to be suppressed and oppressed.  Such oppression was still actively practiced with the persecution of witches into the 1700’s in America and the treatment of Voodoo practices into 20th Century New Orleans. One man’s religion can be another man’s magic – and vice versa.

Magic as medicine: Heka played an active role in Ancient Egyptian medicine with Heka’s priesthood administering to the sick with recitations, application of remedies and articles of belief. Egyptians used both surgical information as well as incantations (West 1993, page 120). While recognizing the obvious medicinal benefits of some medical practices such as setting a broken bone, modern studies are exploring the more subtle influences and benefits of what could be considered magic in health outcomes, such as the known effects of a patient’s positive attitudes. Alternatively, the “broken heart syndrome” or “dying of a broken heart” is an example of a non-physical negative stimulus that results in a very real and observable outcome (http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-28756374). Chinese acupuncture is only one example of mainstream modern day medical practices that some consider to be operating at the level of magic. While some subtle influences are being recognized as effective in addressing human health, many people around the world continue to purchase and use materials , such as magnet bracelets, that have not been proven to be effective by truly medical-scientific studies.  Some modern day medical superstitions, such as the use of endangered animals, even threaten components of our world ecosystem. As with our difficulty in agreeing on the application and usefulness of “magic” in the modern world, it is no surprise that we would have difficulties evaluating the role of Heka in a culture of 5500 years ago.

Magic as magic: There are many examples of scrolls, medallions and objects that were used in Ancient Egypt to promote good outcomes of the Pharaoh and individuals as well as to promote negative outcomes on the enemies of Egypt (Ritner 1993). It is not difficult to find examples of similar beliefs persisting in our modern day world. “Worrying oneself to death” may be an example of the modern day concept of magic. It is hard to know if a voodoo doll would hasten the process. Certainly the belief in the consumption of animal parts for good luck is resulting in real and disturbing threats to present day animal populations, such as some shark populations. Maybe it is part of the human condition to just want to do or believe something – as opposed to accepting a nihilistic point of view in which nothing really maters. Magic plays a role in the outlook of an individual and on societal levels.

So as much as we strive to force concepts into distinct boxes, Heka in Ancient Egypt is a concept that modern society can’t rip, tear and squeeze into a convenient classification that can be denigrated and ignored. Heka was the neter of both magic, medicine and of that which enlivens the soul of every living thing.

References:

Nayder, J. 1996. Temple of the Cosmos. Inner Traditions. Vermont.

Ritner, R.K., 1993. The Mechanics of Ancient Egyptian Magical Practice, Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization No. 54. Oriental Institute of University of Chicago. Chicago.

Versluis, A. 1988. The Philosophy of Magic. Penguin Books, UK. 

West, John Anthony, 1993. Serpent in the Sky. Quest Books.

Blog #3: Foundations of modern civilization - Sumer?

Initial development of agriculture in the Fertile Crescent area of the Middle East is often quoted as the roots of our modern day culture. We are also taught in school that the earliest forms of writings ever employed by humans come from the cuneiform system of Sumer who lived in the area. What we are not necessarily exposed to is that the ancient Sumerians invented many other present day cultural concepts that are still seen in modern day Western world, such as schools, libraries, legal writings and importantly philosophy and our worldview Kramer (1956). To properly understand our present day culture and worldview, it is critical to recognize the Sumerian culture as the unique creative and innovating impulse that laid the foundations for our modern day culture.

Cuneiform tablet showing the glyph “An” for sky or heaven in the upper left hand corner.

The Sumerians were a settled, non-nomadic people who survived on agriculture and lived in temple-centered city-states on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. The culture exhibited strong links between social and religious responsibilities. It is likely that the culture existed at least 5,000 years BCE – over 7,000 years ago (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumer).

While the Sumerians are often perceived as just one of several influential middle-eastern cultures that make up our cultural evolutionary line along with the later Akkadians and the better-known Babylonians, they deserve our special attention as creative innovators who initiated the cultural evolution that continues today in our present day western world.

Identifying Sumer’s real influence on our modern Western culture is somewhat difficult due to the implementations and modifications of their creations by the intervening subsequent cultures of Akkadian and Babylonian.

There existed strong cultural interactions between the Sumer and Akkad cultures. Over the period of the late 3rd and early 2nd millennium BCE, the Sumerian culture both coexisted and was conquered by the Akkadians. There is evidence for bilingualism in the Sumer and Akkad societies (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumerian_language). While the Akkadian spoken language generally became dominant into the 2nd millennium, the Sumerian persisted as a sacred, ceremonial, literal and scientific spoken language into the 1st millennium (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumer#language_and_writing).

Already mentioned is the cuneiform writing system that was first developed by the Sumerians. The later Akkadians and Babylonians employed the same cuneiform method of writing.

The same myths and cultural stories are evidenced in all three cultures Sumer, Akkad and Babylon. Although the story of the struggles and successes of the hero in the Epic of Gilgamesh is best known in a single comprehensive Babylonian writing, it originated much earlier in the literature of Sumer in several stories such as “Gilgamesh and the Bull of Heaven” and “Gilgamesh and Humbaba”: http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=c.1.8.1*#

While we trace law codes back to the well-known Babylonian Hammurabi’s Code, they truly originated with the Sumerians. Few of us can name the Sumerian king Urukagina for which there is evidence of his legal code of 600 years before the Babylonian work.

While the extensive interactions between Sumer, Akkad and Babylon tempt one to mash the Sumerian culture into a single cultural concept covering 3,500 years of Middle East history from the peak of Sumerian culture through the Akkadians and Babylonians of the 2nd millennium BCE, it is important to recognize the large differences amongst the three. Sumer pre-dates the Akkadians by at least 1,000 years and the Babylonians by at least 2,000 years. Sumerians were agriculturalists who lived primarily through farming. The Semitic cultures of the region such as Akkadian and Babylonian were primarily nomadic peoples who survived by moving around with their herds of sheep and goats. The difference in languages between Sumer and Akkad required bilingualism in their interactions. Mitchell (2004) highlights the extent of their language differences by stating that  “Sumerian is a non-Semitic language unrelated to any other that we know, and is as distant from Akkadian as Chinese is from English.”

It is fortunate for us that original Sumerian writings recorded on preserved clay tablets allow us to explore their culture in great detail. Clay tablets with cuneiform writing have been dated to circa 3,300 BCE (http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/edition2/cuneiformwriting.php). The oldest snippets of Sumerian writing appear as word lists intended for study and practice circa 3,000 BCE (Kramer 1956, page 3). Full historical and literature writings start circa 2,600 BCE.

The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature (http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk) provides transcriptions for the various Sumerian literary texts. The site deals with over 400 compositions from the late 3rd and early 2nd millennium BCE. Within the texts provided, there are many themes that modern day readers will find familiar.  The original World creation theme from the Sumerian culture is captured in the story “Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld” (http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.1.8.1.4#). Here we see the first recording of the separation of the heavens from the earth from the netherworld.  In regards to the netherworld, the Sumerians represent it an existence parallel to our regular existence into which beings can journey (“Inanna’s Descent to the Netherworld” - http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.1.4.1). The travel and/or existence of beings in the netherworld is similar to what is encountered in the Egyptian concept of the Duat and has some similarities with the much later Christian concept of Hell. The story of the great flood, including the ultimate saving of humans, is captured in “The Flood Story” (http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.1.7.4#).

Kramer (1956) presents at least 39 cultural aspects of civilization that were originated by the Sumerians and can still be found in our present day Western society:

• Education
• Schooldays
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• Man’s first cosmogony and cosmology
• Moral ideals
• “Job”
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• Labor’s first victory
• Aquarium. 

Although separated by 6000 years, the links between our modern world and the developments of Sumer are easy to see and should be given more attention by those interested in our cultural evolution.

 References:

Black, J.A., Cunningham, G., Ebeling, J., Flückiger-Hawker, E., Robson, E., Taylor, J., and Zólyomi, G., The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature (http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/) Oxford 1998–2006.

Kramer, S.N., 1956. History Begins at Sumer: Thirty-Nine Firsts in Man's Recorded History. University of Pennsylvania Press.

Mitchell, S. 2004. Gilgamesh: A New English Version. New York: Free Press.

Blog #2: WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT EGYPTIAN MATHEMATICS? THEY WERE DIFFERENT, MAYBE THEY'RE BETTER?

Old Kingdom Egyptian mathematics was quite different from our present day view of mathematics (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egyptian_mathematics). They used only positive numbers and used only unit fractions (e.g. 1/n). Egyptians pre-1740 BCE, like the later per-Hellenistic Greeks and Romans, had no “zero” character (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_numerals#Zero_and_negative_numbers). For these, and other reasons, the Egyptian system of numbers is often seen as inferior to our own. Yet, the Egyptians were able to construct some of the largest and most pleasing architectural structures known to man. We need to better understand and appreciate their system, both for its complexity and for its philosophical basis.

The Egyptians, and later Greeks and Romans, used characters to represent values in decimal systems:

The Roman system addresses the task of tallying, i.e. counting. It uses numerals made up of simple lines and strokes (http://youtu.be/Ik4yloCszYo). In contrast, the Egyptians used a much more complex system of numerals, particularly for characters higher than 100. Their use of a water lily for 1,000, a bent finger for 10,000, a tadpole for 100,000 and a kneeling man with both hands raised (perhaps the neter Heh) for 1 million are much more complex than the simple lines and curves of the Romans. Both the high values and the complexity of the characters of the Egyptian system seem beyond the requirements for simple tallying from which our system is said to have evolved. To even have a character for 1,000,000 is amazing! How long would it take a person to tally a million?  At one count per second, it would take 277 straight hours. Why would the Egyptian need such a number?

In regards to the use of a numeral for zero, the Egyptians did use a character for zero in accounting after 1740 BCE: nfr - 

The Ancient Greeks avoided the use of a character to represent “nothing”. Early Greek studies in mathematics, prior to the works of Euclid circa 300 BCE, involved both philosophical and mystical beliefs (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arithmetic). It seems that the Ancient Egyptians, and the Greeks who followed, couldn’t see a role for zero or “nothing” in their number system which probably reflects the strong linkage between their use of a number system and its necessary representation of their philosophy and world view. It wasn’t until the time of Ptolemy circa 70 CE that the Greeks began using zero as true numeral in their astronomy:  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_numerals#Zero).

For characters to represent number values the Greeks simply used their alphabet employing equivalence between letters and characters up to the value of 9,000. Our system shows many similarities to the Greek system that provides many numerals for efficient use in arithmetic calculations.

Modern day Western culture uses a base-10 system of numbers for calculations. As a result we use and need to memorize multiplication tables for the numbers 2 through 9. The Egyptians used a methodology based on the doubling of numbers to complete multiplication and division (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egyptian_mathematics#Multiplication_and_division). A system based on doublings is a powerful and relatively easy system to use as it requires only the 2-times table for all multiplication and division. It has been suggested that a similar system was used for multiplication of Roman Numerals millennia later. Egyptologist R.A. Schwaller de Lubicz was the first to explore the power of this system in addressing a number of complex algebraic equations with his French publication “Le Temple de l'homme” (Paris: Caractères, 1957) that is now available in English under the title “The Temple of Man (Schwaller de Lubicz. 1998). A system of doubling is reflected in our present day use of the binary system in computer technology.

Geometrically, architecturally and artistically, the Egyptians recognized the importance of using a triangle with sides measuring 3:4:5 to generate 90-degree right angles. Tied to this knowledge of the 3:4:5 ratios, the Egyptians essentially solved quadratic equations (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egyptian_mathematics#Quadratic_equations).

 Representations of irrational functions are found throughout Egyptian architecture and art. There are numerous examples of the use of the both Pi (π ) and Phi (Φ )in Ancient Egypt (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratio). Whereas Pi is taught to all school-age children for the practical calculation of the dimensions of a circle, the lesser-known ratio of Phi, also known as the Golden Section, is not so well recognized in Western culture. This ratio is found in many natural phenomena from biological structures to atomic-scale crystals (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratio#Nature). Phi is related to the fibonacci series that is often found in nature: http://vimeo.com/9953368.

Human endeavors by many artists, musicians, historians, architects, psychologists, and mystics have explored the use of Phi in their works.

The Golden Section is the ratio built on two quantities “a” and “b” such that the ratio of the smaller (a) to the larger (b) equals the ratio of the larger (b) to their sum (a+b).

Mathematically, the ratio is irrational with a continuing non-repeating series of numbers to the right of the decimal point: 1.68033 . . .  It is thus difficult to deal with arithmetically. Geometrically it is easily dealt with; represented as the ratios of lines, squares and volumes (Lawlor, R.  1982).

As an irrational number, Phi is tied to the concept of creation and generation in Ancient Egypt (Schwaller de Lubicz 1998).  Schwaller de Lubicz (1998 page 125) states, “Phi is a function and not a number.” This is an important distinction between the Ancient Egyptian and our present day modern Western systems, where we are interested in calculating particular values, whereas the Egyptian system seems more intent on capturing the nature of the broader functioning of the world around us.

Both the 3:4:5 and Phi functions in Egyptian structures and art were used throughout the 3-millenium duration of the culture starting at least 2,000 years before the work attributed to the Greeks such as Pythagoras that began only circa 600 BCE (Lawlor, R.  1982).

It is hard to believe that the Ancient Egyptians didn’t have an appropriately sophisticated system of math, geometry and algebra when seeing the size, precision and beauty of their constructions. We customarily regard what is early as likely to be primitive and inferior. It is difficult to avoid a pre-judgment of their different, earlier system as being somehow inferior to our later “development”. Thus we highly value our present use of numbers as concrete tools for calculating in an “objective” world. The Egyptian’s developed and maintained a number system for thousands of years that seems to contain subtler and broader meaning for numbers. For example, at one level in their use of Phi that is so wildly seen in the natural living biological world, we can see their attempts to capture a mysterious distinction between the existence of physical matter and the creation of the life-force with its new emergent properties (Schwaller de Lubicz 1998).

As with mysticism, there are suggestions that the Egyptians influenced the later development of the Greek mathematics that are so highly valued by the present-day Western World (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_mathematics#cite_note-LH-2). Thus, Greek mathematics are said to have begun with Thales, who was trained by an Egyptian priest!

In conclusion, it is not a question of whether any one mathematical system is inferior or superior to any other. It is rather a question of recognizing the seeming distance between our calculation orientation and the efforts of the Egyptians to connect with the natural and spiritual world that they considered important.  Schwaller de Lubicz (1998) makes the case that in spite of their building prowess, the Ancient Egyptians were not primarily interested in engineering and the concrete physical world.  Rather, their aim seems to indicate a desire to capture in their numerical system the broader nature of the creative and enlivening forces that make up us and our world.  It is difficult not to agree with him.

 References:

Lawlor, R.  1982. Sacred Geometry: Philosophy and Practice. Thames and Hudson.

Schwaller de Lubicz, R.A., 2011.  Le Temple de l'homme.

Schwaller de Lubicz, R.A., 1998.  The Temple of Man. Inner Traditions.

Schwaller de Lubicz, R.A., 1957.  Le Temple de l'Homme, (3 vol. en coffret) Édition Caractère, Paris, 1957. Réédition Dervy Livres.

Schwaller de Lubicz, R.A., 1998.  Sacred Science: The King of Pharaonic Theocracy. Inner Traditions.