This is the blog of Paul R. Boudreau and Lloyd M. Dickie on the use of myths in support of personal development and self-study.
“No one translation conveys the full sense of the original,” replied Pisces. “In an earlier chapter of these books of Moses it was shown that because Adam, the Universal Man, was created in the image of God, he has within him both active and passive principles."
Page 80 - Awakening Higher Consciousness: Guidance from Ancient Egypt and Sumer
Quote: "When contradictory elements appear, they invite a possible synthesis, which #Jung called enantiodromia."
Page 91: Awakening Higher Consciousness: Guidance from Ancient Egypt and Sumer
It is well recognized that the Ancient Egyptians had connections with higher energies: that they developed a symbolism that was metaphorically sensitive and that their cosmology was extremely advanced. But above all else they had a highly developed sense of spirituality and knew about alerted states of consciousness. With all of this acceptance of their higher knowledge, why do people still interpret the famous “Weighing of the Heart” symbolism as a story about the dead?
We accept the Egyptian’s use of metaphor in their representations of their neter/gods as a mix of both human and animal forms. The Sphinx is the best-known representation of a form that is a mix of animals: lion and human (Figure 1). It is never suggested that the Ancient Egyptians witnessed such a literal beast prowling around their settlements. This is just one example of the many available metaphors found in the writings, carvings and images of Ancient Egypt.
Figure 1. The Great Sphinx of Giza created with human and lion characteristics.
When we examine the famous image of the” Weighing of the Heart” (Figure 2) with our normal lazy worldview, it can be viewed as a fanciful image of an elaborate set of scales balancing the weight of the heart against that of a feather, attended by strange creatures.
Figure 2. An image of the Weighing of the Heart theme from a Ptolemaic Tomb, Deir el Medinah, Egypt. From left to right are the neters/gods Maat, Horus, Anubis and Djehuty/Thoth. Sitting onto of the scales is a Hamadryas baboon representing Djehuty as A'an the principle of equilibrium.
Modern-day references to this prominently displayed theme interpret it as representing the weighing of a dead person’s heart after they die. The neters/gods in the image have been said to be acting after the person is dead.
But why would anyone expect a literal heart, either dead or alive, to weight the same as a feather? Why is this theme not seen for its symbolism, as similar in intent to the many other images created in the course of the rituals, practices and teachings valued by the Ancient Egyptians?
This makes no sense at all. Clearly we need to be more alert to the nature of the symbolism. We argue that in keeping with the well-accepted symbolic foundation of Ancient Egyptian teachings, this image is certainly a metaphorical reference pertaining to our living conscious being.
To the Ancient Egyptians the heart is the location of our emotion, thought, will and intention (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egyptian_concept_of_the_soul). The feather is related to the great neter Maat (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maat) who is seen in Figure 2 standing to the left of the scales. Maat is associated with concepts of truth, balance, order, harmony, law, morality, and justice. Maat is the rational in us; the heart is the irrational. The Weighing of the Heart image is drawing our attention to the necessary recognition and resolution of opposite influences within us. Consistent with what we say in our book “Awakening Higher Consciousness” (Dickie and Boudreau, 2015) this resolution of opposites needs to be appreciated on a higher level.
Based on our personal direct experiences, we see the Weighing of the Heart as a metaphor for the living individual’s work on developing consciousness. The effort required to find a balance and resolution between our irrational sides represented as the heart, and our rational sides represented as the feather, is consistent with an awareness of the need for seeing the contrasting higher energies within ourselves.
Consistent with the Pyramid Texts where the Pharaoh “has departed alive” (Naydler 2004), the image of the Weighing of the Heart is not about a dead and lifeless heart, but is a representation of what a living person needs to be doing each and every moment of a life: developing the awareness of our own being, and constantly weighing our different internal functions in relation to this objective.
References:
Cliff Dunning has interviewed one of our great influences John Anthony West on his program Earth Ancients: https://youtu.be/nRfuVY8c2jo.
He mentions an earlier documentary on the dating of the Sphinx (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbUsGnMUH2Y) and his intent to produce a new, updated production.
Lloyd was on one of John's expeditions that carried out the geophysical survey around the Sphinx.
Quote: “The Sumerian and Egyptian myths directly influenced the Judaic culture and formed the bases of some Old Testament stories, which, in turn, influenced present-day Western culture. That is, we in the West can trace our cultural roots directly to myths written down some 4,500 years ago! But the challenges modern societies face lie in understanding what these myths are telling us and determining how we can make use of them in our everyday life to awaken our higher conscious.”
Page 205 in Awakening Higher Consciousness http://awhico.com
1) The first great megalithic stone circles were built by hunter-gatherers at Göbekli Tepe. They deliberately buried their construction 7,000 years before we see any evidence of city-states in Sumer, the constructions of Old Kingdom Egypt or the structures of Stonehenge (http://www.andrewcollins.com/page/articles/Gobekli.htm).
2) The great Egyptian pyramids never contained mummies. Like us, the Ancient Egyptians buried their dead in tombs: https://awhico.com.com/blog/egyptianpyramidmysticism. We are still trying to figure out the real purposes of the pyramids.
3) Modern civilized components such as literature, libraries and codified laws were well established in Sumer millennium before the Babylonians or Greeks: https://awhico.com.com/blog/egyptianpyramidmysticism.
4) In North and South America humans were happy and productively “farming” long before Europeans arrived. The area was densely populated with healthy and civilized people http://planet1051.com/ancient-louisiana-city-poverty-point-is-as-old-as-the-pyramids-in-egypt/ or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1491:_New_Revelations_of_the_Americas_Before_Columbus.
5) Much of sub-Saharan Africa was densely populated before Europeans “arrived”. We are still trying to understand the many, many, many stone circles in southern Africa: http://www.thesouthafrican.com/200-000-year-old-city-found-in-southern-africa-set-to-re-write-history/.
6) Hunter-gatherers continue to persist in highly evolved cultures around the world today. They may be the most resilient form of human cultures. See what Graham Hancock says about them: https://youtu.be/aDejwCGdUV8?t=2h23m4s.
Wow - what a great conversation yesterday with Susan Danz on myth and spirituality.
Podcast online here: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/susan-larison-danz/2015/12/02/paul-r-boudreau-awakening-higher-consciousness
So you think you know where we’ve come from. So you think that modern humans in their civilized worlds are the top of the heap. Here are five things that you missed about early humans and how impressive they were!
1) There have been a many species that walked on two legs, made tools and buried their dead. Neanderthals had brains roughly the same size as ours.
Figure 1. Comparison of a Neanderthal skull (left) with that of a Homo sapiens (Credit: Nathan Holton). Photo credit: https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn15042-why-did-neanderthals-have-such-big-noses/
2) Not all life before agriculture was short and hard. Blombos Cave in South Africa has provided evidence of the beginning of our cultural evolution around 100,000 years ago. They enjoyed cushy lives with lots of food and free time for artistic expression.
Figure 2. Blombos Cave ochre processing toolkit included this shell of Haliotis midae with pigment in it. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blombos_Cave)
3) Thinking that evolution placed modern humans on the fast track to success? Try this fact on for size. Modern humans, Homo sapiens sapiens, have resulted from the interbreeding of Homo sapiens, Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) and Denisovans (Homo sapiens ssp. Denisova) around 40,000 years ago. This interbreeding has been critical to our survival.
Figure 3. The Evolution and geographic spread of Denisovans as compared with other groups. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denisovan)
4) About 12,000 years ago something happened to the earth that changed everything. The last Ice Age glaciers receded, large mammals like the sabre tooth tiger in the Americas and the wooly rhinoceros in Eurasia went extinct. At least one other human-like species, Homo floresiensis, were strong enough to survive until this time. The World-wide damage could have resulted from a solar plasma ejection or an impact event - and it is likely to occur again.
Figure 4. Species that went extinct 12,000 years ago. From left to right, sabre tooth tiger, wooly rhinoceros image from cave paintings and Homo florenciensis on the right compared to modern human size.
5) And do you think that farms and cities are necessary for humans to excel? Hunter-gatherers created the oldest dated megalithic structure around 12,000 years ago in modern day Turkey at Göbekli Tepe – 7,000 years before Old Kingdom Egypt or Stonehenge.
Figure 5. Göbekli Tepe archaeological site in Turkey showing megalithic stones place in circular arrangements. Note the size of the pillars in the middle of the photo compared to the people on the edge of the site to the left of center (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Göbekli_Tepe).