Biblical Origins
In Ancient Egypt


Baptism

Massey - 'Ancient Egypt' - "    "How many sacraments hath Christ ordained in His Church?" is asked in the Prayer-book, and the answer is, "Two only as generally necessary to salvation-that is to say, baptism and the supper of the Lord".     And both of these were Egyptian thousands of years earlier.      The proof is preserved in that treasury of truth, the Ritual of the resurrection.     In the first chapter of the Ritual (Turin Papyrus) it is said by the priest, "I lustrate with water in Tat tu and anoint with oil, in Abydos".     We might call the Egyptians very particular Baptists for in the first ten gates of Elysium -or entrances to the great dwelling of Osiris the deceased is purified at least ten times over in ten separate baptisms, and ten different waters in which the gods and goddesses had been washed to make the water holy (Ritual, ch. 145).      The inundation was the water of renewal to the life of Egypt, and this natural fact was the source and origin of a doctrine of baptismal regeneration.      The salvation that came to Egypt in the Nile was continued in the Egyptian eschatology as salvation by water. ..I. give thee the liquid or humidity which ensures salvation", is said to the soul of the deceased (Rit., 155, I ).     They did not think that souls were saved from perdition by a wash of water or a bath of blood, but bodily baptism was continued as a symbol of purification for the spirit.     The deceased explains that he had been steeped in the waters of natron and nitre, or salt, and made pure-pure in heart, pure in his forepart, his posterior part, his middle, and pure all over, so that there is no part of him remaining soiled or stained.     The pool of baptism is dual in Amenta.      In one part it is the pool of natron, in the other the pool of salt.      Both natron and silt were used in preparing the mummy of the deceased, and the same process is repeated in the purification of the soul to make it also permanent, which was a mode of salvation.      The deceased says, "May I be fortified or protected by seventy purifications" (Mariette, Mon. divers, pl. 63, I), just as Christians at the present time speak of being "fortified by the sacraments of the Church".      "I purify myself at the great stream (the galaxy), where all my ills are made to cease; that which is wrong in me is pardoned, and the spots which were upon my body upon earth are washed away l' (Rit., ch. 86). "Lo, I come, that I may purify this soul of mine in the most high degree.      Let me be purified in the lake of propitiation and of equipoise. Let me plunge into the divine pool beneath the two divine sycamores of heaven and earth" ( ch. 97, Renouf).     The pool of purification and healing that was figured in the northern heaven at the pole, and also reproduced in the paradise of Amenta, has been repeated in the Gospel according to John (ch. 5) as the Pool of Bethesda.     In the Ritual (ch. 124, part 3) one of two waters is called the pool or tank of righteousness.      In this pool the glorified elect receive their final purification and are healed. They are thus made pure for the presence of Osiris.      The healing process was timed to take place at certain hours of the night or day.     The Turin text gives the fourth hour of the night and the eighth hour of the day.     But there are other readings.      The Manes, as usual in the gospels, are represented by the "multitude of them that were sick, blind, halt, and withered", waiting to be healed.      The elect or chosen ones are those who are first at the pool when the waters are troubled.     Hence the story of the man who was non-elect.

      It was a postulate of the Christians, maintained by Augustine and others, that infants who died unbaptized were damned eternally.      This doctrine also had its rootage in the mysteries of Amenta.      The roots have hitherto been hidden in the earth of eternity which has been mistaken for our earth of time.     We are now enabled to exhibit them above ground and hold both root and product up to the light like the bulb of a hyacinth suspended in a glass water-bottle.     These can now be studied, roots and all.     The flesh that is formed of the mother's blood was held to share in the impurity of the female nature.      It was in this sense solely that woman was the author of evil.     The Child-Horus born of flesh and blood was the prototype of the unbaptized child-that is, the child unpurified by baptism.     Without baptismal regeneration in Tattu there was no blending of the elder Horus with the soul or spirit of Horus divinized.      According to the Egyptian doctrine, the development would be arrested and the soul from the earthly body might remain a wretched shade that was doomed to extinction, or, in the Christian perversion, was damned eternally.      It was in Amenta that the dead were raised to inherit the second life.      The resurrection had no other meaning for the Egyptians.      And in the resurrection the Osiris is thus greeted: " Hail, Osiris! thou art born twice!      The gods say to thee: ' Come! come forth; come see what belongs to thee in thy house of eternity' "(ch. 170).      It is then that he is changed and renewed in an instant.

     Lake Meoris, sacred to the crocodiles in Egypt, was also a form of the lake which represented the place of birth that was commemorated in the mysteries and told of in the legends as the abyss of the beginning, the birthplace or fontal source of water=life.     A figure of the "abyss" or "deep" survives still in the "basin".      Large ewers filled with water were used for purificatory rites in the Babylonian temples.     These were called apsu, for "deeps" or "abysses".      Tanks were used by the Egyptians for their baptistries.     The baptismal font still images the fount of source.      As a mythical or celestial locality the Gulf of Eridu is a mundane form of the abyss that was in the beginning.

     To very primitive-folk urine was the first salt water used for cleansing, purifying, and healing.     The earliest soap was made from the alkali in urine - mixed with oil from the human skin.

      At the present time holy water is yet sained and made sacred by adding the ingredient of salt to water that is fresh.     Urine is also a means of purifying when the English schoolboy, about to bathe in the stream, will micturate down his left leg as a protective charm against the raw-head-and-bloody-bones, our form of the Apap monster, lurking at the bottom of the water.

      Entrance into the eternal city was preceded by baptism, with Anup, father of the inundation, as the baptiser and sprinkler both in one.     On approaching the two lakes the speaker says, "Lo, I come that I may purify this soul of mine in the most high degree.      Let me be purified in the lake of propitiation and equipoise.      Let me plunge into the divine pool beneath the two divine sycamores of heaven and earth". (Rit., ch. 97, Renouf.)      This precedes the sacrament or eating of the sacrifice consisting of bread, beer, and meat.     He also says, "Give me bread and beer.     Let me be made pure by the sacrificial joint, together with the white bread", that is, by partaking of the sacrament. (Rit., ch. 106, Renouf)

     When the priest says in the first chapter of the Ritual, "I baptise with water in Tattu, and anoint with oil in Abydos", the scene of the baptism is in Amenta, not on earth.     Rekhet, the place where the two divine sisters waited and wept for the lost Osiris, was a locality in the earth of eternity, but Rekhet was also geographical in Egypt.

      There was a double baptism in the ancient mysteries: the baptism by water and the baptism by spirit.      This may be traced to the two lakes of heaven at the head of the celestial river in the region of the northern pole, which were also repeated as the two lakes of purification in Amenta.     The manes says, "I purify me in the southern tank, and I rest me at the northern lake" (ch. 125).      They will account for the two forms of baptism mentioned in the Gospels.      John baptizes with water, Jesus with the Holy Spirit and with fire.      This twofold baptism had been represented by the two celestial lakes or pools that were configurated in the northern heaven which are to be read of in the Ritual (ch. 97) as the baptistery of Anup.     One of these was the lake of purification by water; the other by spirit.      This latter was the lake of Sa by name, in which the gods themselves were wont to be vitalized in their baptism.      Sa signifies spirit; the Sa was a divine or magical fluid which made immortal; and the baptism in this sacred lake of Sa was literally a baptism of the holy spirit.     The scene of the baptism by John can be paralleled in the Ritual (ch. 97).      Horus claims to be the master of all things, including the water of the Inundation.     When he comes to be baptized, it is "said at the boat," called "the staff of Anup," "Look upon me, oh ye great and mighty Gods, who are foremost among the spirits of Annu; let me be exalted in your presence."     The plea for baptism is very express.      "Lo, I come, that I may purify this soul of mine in the most high degree: let not that impediment which cometh from your mouth be issued against me, let me be purified in the lake of propitiation and of equipoise: let me plunge into the divine pool beneath the two divine sycamores of heaven and earth."

      After the baptism, he says, "Now let my Fold be fitted for me as one victorious against all adversaries who would not that right should be done to me.     I am the only one just and true upon the earth" (Rit., ch. 97, Renouf). In the Gospel, when Jesus cometh "unto John"=Anup the baptizer, "John would have hindered him."     "But Jesus answering said unto him, suffer me now for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness" (Matthew 3:14,15) - a probable rendering of the Egyptian word Maat!      In the Egyptian baptism three elements are involved: the elements of water, fire and spirit.      Osiris represented water, Horus the solar fire, and Ra the holy spirit.     These elements agree with the three persons in the trinity that were Osiris the father, Horus the son, Ra the holy spirit, in whose names as father, son and holy ghost the rite of baptism still continues to be practised."

Beelzebub

Massey - 'Ancient Egypt' - "Beelzebub, God of flies, is the particular name assigned to Satan in the Gospels as the prince of devils.     And as Sut was Prince of the Sebau, it seems probable that the "zebub", or infernal flies, may have been identical with and therefore derived by name from that spawn of Satan the Sebau, the associates of Sut on the night of the great battle in the Ritual.     In the parable of the sower it is said, "When anyone heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the evil one (the adversary Sut or Satan) and snatcheth away that which hath been sown in his heart" (Matthew 13:19).     And in "the parable of the tares" it is said, "He that soweth the good seed is the son of man"; and of the good seed, "these are the sons of the kingdom; and the tares are the sons of the evil one; and the enemy that sowed them is the devil" (Matthew 13:36-39).     This is the contention of Horus and Sut in the harvest-field of Osiris represented in parables instead of in the mysteries.      Horus sows the good seed and Sut the tares.     When Horus rises in Amenta after death it is as the husbandman or harvester who comes to gather in the harvest previously sown for the father by Horus in the earth of Seb, and to vanquish Sut, the sower of the tares, the thorns, and thistles in Anrutef.

The Bishop's Apron

Massey - 'Ancient Egypt' - "The "garment of shame" was feminine, being as it was of the flesh.     On this the Ritual has a word to say.      The impurity of matter which came to be ascribed to the mother of all flesh, or female nature, is symbolically shown in the chapters for arranging the funeral bed (Rit., chs. 170-171).     This is exemplified by means of the feminine garment-the apron-which is here considered to be a sign of all that was wrong in the deceased; the wrong that was derived from the mother, as elsewhere described in the Ritual, because it is the garb of impurity called "the garment of shame" in the Egyptian gospel, which was to be trampled under foot when the male and female were to be made one in spirit, or as spirit.      In the ceremony of "wrapping up the deceased in a pure garment", the impure one being now discarded is alluded to in ch. 172.      When the deceased was stretched upon the funeral bed the body was divested of the apron and clothed in the pure garment of the khus or spirits, " the pure garment allotted to him for ever" (Rit., ch. 171).     But the feminine garment is still worn without shame by the masquerading male as the bishop's apron, which can be traced back as feminine to the loin-cloth and apron first worn by the sex for the most primitive and pitiful of human needs at the time of puberty.      The bishop in his apron, like the priest in his petticoat and the clergyman in his surplice, is a likeness of the biune being who united both sexes in one; the modern Protestant equivalent for the Pharaoh with the cow's tail, and Venus with a beard, the mutilated eunuch, or any other dual type of hermaphrodital deity.      Men who masquerade in women's clothing are commonly prosecuted, but the bishop carries on his mummery without even being suspected.      He walks about as ignorant of his vestmental origins as any of the passers by.      Usually the custom of men dressing in women's clothing is limited to our Easter pastimes, but the bishops still carry it on all through the year.

The Bishop's Crook

Ralph Ellis - "Tempest & Exodus" - "As is often the case, especially with the biblical texts, the initial and obvious link to an agricultural explanation is far too simplistic.     Egyptian theology, if anything, was more concerned with astrology and astronomy than agriculture and so for a more convincing explanation, we must look to the stars and the cosmos.     If this same imagery were to be translated instead into astrological terms, then the flail can equally be thought of as being a symbol of control, not over real cattle, but over the celestial movement of the constellation of Taurus.      In its turn the crook can also be seen to be a symbol of control over the movement of the constellation of Aries.     Like the crook and the flail, which are often carried together by the pharaoh, it so happens that Taurus and Aries are also adjacent to each other in the night sky.

     More importantly in this explanation, the movement known as precession makes the astrological signs move slowly through the heavens with the passing generations; each sign giving way to the next every two millennia or so.     This is a crucial observation, for now we can possibly see why some of the Old Kingdom Pharaohs were depicted with only the flail as a symbol of their office; for in that era (c.3150 - 1800 BC), the constellation of Taurus alone was dominant in the springtime morning sky and, thus, also dominant in the astrology of Egypt with the veneration of the Apis bull.

     From the Second Intermediate period through the Middle Kingdom and beyond (1800BC onwards), however there was a change in the night sky.     The precessional wobble of the Earth meant that the constellation of Taurus was slowly fading in the east - the reign of Taurus was nearly over.     A transition period had arrived, with the constellation of Aries slowly becoming dominant in the heavens and also in the theology of Egypt with the rise to prominence of the Hyksos Shepherd Pharaohs.

     Thus we now have a novel and highly plausible explanation for these mysterious symbols of office for the pharaohs of Egypt.     The flail and the crook were symbolic of the constellations of Taurus and Aires respectively.      .... - There are exceptions to this rule, notably with the flail and the crook being displayed together long after the intermediary period had effectively ended, but there is a noticeable trend in the iconography that fits the astronomical equivalent uncannily well.

     The Egyptian word for that other important Pharaonic symbol of office, the crook, is also known as heq or hekh.     ….. the word heq was also the name given to the Hyksos Shepherd Kings.

     It may be surprising to some, but we can also find some strikingly similar representations to the crook and flail in the biblical accounts.      As one trawls through the biblical texts, passage after passage seems to reinforce the hypothesis that the patriarchs identified themselves with the same symbology of cattle and sheep - Taurus and Aries - as the pharaohs appear to have been doing with their emphasis on the symbology of the crook and the flail.      The biblical Joseph calls for his brothers to join him in Egypt, but he has to caution them on one specific subject - cattle and sheep:
"Pharaoh will say to you, 'What is your occupation?' You shall say that your trade has been cattle from our youth until now, both we and also our fathers that you may live in the land of Egypt: for every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians." (Genesis 46:33/34).

     Such a statement seems to be rather confusing in terms of the traditional simplistic explanation of agriculture: just why were shepherds an 'abomination' to the Egyptians?      But the statement makes a great deal more sense in terms of politics and theology.     The pharaoh was not asking about the brothers' 'occupation' but rather their 'religion' and thus, their political allegiances.      This even occurred in the post-exodus era, so in this case the Egyptians had just fought a civil war with the Hyksos Shepherd people and ejected them from the country in the great exodus, so it is no wonder that 'shepherds' were an abomination to Egyptians!

     …there are some very good candidates for the crook and flail in biblical accounts; descriptions of some very strange, important and yet unidentified implements that gave Moses great prestige and power over his people.      Both Moses and his brother Aaron appear to have been high priests and when looking at the rather detailed description of the highly ornate and stupendously extravagant priestly vestments of Aaron, several peculiar items are described.     Two of the accoutrements accompanying these ornate priestly robes are described as follows: 'And thou shall put in the breastplate of judgement the Urim and the Thummim: and they shall be upon Aaron's heart.'(Exodus 28:30)

Aaron was not only a priest but he was also, like Moses, allied to the royal household and possibly even a Pharaoh himself.     In this case was Aaron holding the flail and the crook?"

     Ralph Ellis then points out that the crook and the handle of the flail found in Tutankhamun's tomb were painted with stripes.     In Genesis 30:37 Jacob cuts white strakes in rods.

     Further on Ellis writes - "It is clear from other texts that there was not just one type of sacred rod, but two."      The 23rd Psalm "is probably better explained by visualizing a Pharaoh being comforted by his two royal sceptres, one of which happens to be a shepherd's crook."

Massey - 'Ancient Egypt' - "Amsu personates the "arm of the lord" outstretched from the mummy of matter.      He is called the arm-raiser, and through his potency the other arm bound up in the mummy case is set free, and the Osiris emerges pure spirit, with both arms intact and both feet in motion.     "Behold" ,says the prophet; "Behold, the Lord God will come as a mighty one, and his arm shall rule for him" (Isaiah 40:10).      In this aspect he comes as the good shepherd. "He shall feed his flock like a shepherd; he shall gather the lambs in his arm and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young" (Isaiah 40:11).     This was Horus the lifter of his arm for Osiris, upon whose shoulder rested the insignia of his government, which included the whip (or flail) and the shepherd's crook.     As the Good Shepherd Horus tends the sheep of his father, and comes to gather them in his fold.      He was personified as the delegated power that drove with the whip and drew them with the hek of rule, which became the shepherd's crook.

      The portrait of Horus the good shepherd, who was likewise the arm of the lord in this picture of pastoral tenderness, was readapted by the Hebrew writer for the comforting of distressed Jerusalem.     The character and the picture belong to the Amenta in the Ritual, and these have been represented as if belonging to this earth, whereas the good shepherd and the sheep, the fields of peace and pastures of plenty beside the still waters, pertain to hetep, the paradise of peace."

The Book Of Life

Massey - 'Ancient Egypt' - "In Revelation we read of the voice which was heard from heaven, "I heard it again speaking with me, and saying, 'Go! take the book which is open in the hand of the angel that standeth upon the sea and upon the earth.'     And I went unto the angel, saying unto him that he should give me the little book.      And he saith unto me, 'Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but in thy mouth it shall be sweet as honey.'      And I took the little book out of the angel's hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey; and when I had eaten it, my belly was made bitter" (Rev. X. 8-11).      A mode of obtaining knowledge by swallowing the book was also employed by Ptah-Nefer-Ka in the Egyptian "Tale of Setnau".      "He placed a new piece of papyrus before him.      He copied each word which was on the roll.     He had it dissolved in water.      When he saw it dissolved he drank it.     He (then) knew all that it contained" (Records, vol. IV, p. 138).      In the original rendering the book of life was figuratively the food of soul.     In the Hebrew version the book of life is turned into an edible and eaten actually as a result of literalising the ancient gnosis.

The Burning Bush.

Massey - 'Ancient Egypt' - referring to the Pyramid Texts - "In the texts the golden unbu is a symbol of the solar god.      It is a figure of the radiating disk which is depicted raying all aflame at the summit of a sycamore-fig tree which thus appears to burn with fire, and the tree is not consumed. "      And - "The Egyptian golden bough is a bush of flowering thorn.     It is a symbol of the young solar god who says, "I am Unbu, who proceedeth from Nu (heaven), and my mother is Nut" (Rit., ch. 42; Pyramid Texts, Teta 39).     "I am Unbu of An-ar-ef, the flower in the abode of occultation" (Rit., ch. 71).     This identifies the golden bough with Horus in the dark and the bush that flowered at Christmas like our Glastonbury Thorn.      The golden bough or burning bush is a solar symbol of Atum-Huhi, who says to Anhur, "O lion-god, I am Unbu", and who thus identifies himself with Ihuh in the burning bush.     "I am Unbu", says the Egyptian deity in the flowering thorn, where the Hebrew god announces that he is Ihuh from the midst of the burning bush."


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Created on ... 5th October, 2004
Updated 17th November, 2004