The Message Of The Sphinx Part 17

Conclusion

Return to the Beginning 'I stand before the masters who witnessed the genesis, who were the authors of their own forms, who walked the dark, circuitous pa.s.sages of their own becoming ... I stand before the masters who witnessed the transformation of the body of a man into the body in spirit, who were witnesses to resurrection when the corpse of Osiris entered the mountain and the soul of Osiris walked out s.h.i.+ning ... when he came forth from death, a s.h.i.+ning thing, his face white with heat ... I stand before the masters who know the histories of the dead, who decide which tales to hear again, who judge the books of lives as either full or empty, who are themselves authors of truth. And they are Isis and Osiris, the divine intelligences. And when the story is written and the end is good and the soul of a man is perfected, with a shout they lift him into heaven ...'

Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead (Normandi Ellis translation) The dictionary tells us that, separately from its modern usage, the word 'glamour' has a traditional meaning roughly equivalent to 'magic spell' or 'charm', and is the Old Scottish variant of: 'grammar ... hence a magic spell, because occult practices were popularly a.s.sociated with learning.'

Is it possible that men and women of great wisdom and learning cast a 'glamour' over the Giza necropolis at some point in the distant past? Were they the possessors of as yet unguessed-at secrets that they wished to hide here? And did they succeed in concealing those secrets almost in plain view? For thousands of years, in other words, has the ancient Egyptian royal cemetery at Giza veiled the presence of something else-something of vastly greater significance for the story of Mankind?

One thing we are sure of is that unlike the hundreds of Fourth-Dynasty mastaba tombs to the west of the Sphinx and cl.u.s.tered around the three great Pyramids, the Pyramids themselves were never designed to serve primarily as burial places. We do not rule out the possibility that the Pharaohs Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure may at one time have been buried within them-although there is no evidence for this-but we are now satisfied that the transcendent effort and skill that went into the construction of these awe-inspiring monuments was motivated by a higher purpose.

We think that purpose was connected to the quest for eternal life wrapped up in a complete religious and spiritual system that the ancient Egyptians inherited from unknown predecessors and that they later codified in their eerie and other-worldly funerary and rebirth texts. We suggest, in short, that it was the goal of immortality, not just for one Pharaoh but for many, that the corridors and pa.s.sages and hidden chambers and concealed gates and doorways of the Giza complex were ultimately designed to serve. Depicted in the Book of What is in the Duat as being filled with monsters, these narrow, claustrophobic, terrifying places, hemmed in on all sides by sheer stone walls, were in our view conceived as the ultimate testing ground for initiates. Here they would be forced to face and overcome their most horrible and debilitating fears. Here they would pa.s.s through unimaginable ordeals of the spirit and the mind. Here they would learn esoteric wisdom through acts of concentrated intelligence and will. Here they would be prepared, through practice and experience, for the moment of physical death and for the nightmares that would follow it, so that these transitions would not confuse or paralyse them-as they might other, unprepared, souls-and so that they might become 'equipped spirits' able to move as they wished through heaven and earth, 'unfailingly, and regularly and eternally'.[665]

Such was the lofty goal of the Horus-King's quest and the ancient Egyptians clearly believed that in order to attain it the initiate would have to partic.i.p.ate in the discovery, the unveiling, the revelation, of something of momentous importance-something that would bestow wisdom, and knowledge of the 'First Time', and of the mysteries of the cosmos, and of Osiris, the Once and Future King.

We are therefore reminded of a Hermetic Text, written in Greek but compiled in Alexandria in Egypt some 2000 years ago, that is known as the Kore Kosmu (or Virgin of the World).[666] Like other such writings, this text speaks of Thoth, the ancient Egyptian wisdom-G.o.d, but refers to him by his Greek name, Hermes: Such was all-knowing Hermes, who saw all things, and seeing understood, and understanding had the power both to disclose and to give explanation. For what he knew, he graved on stone; yet though he graved them onto stone he hid them mostly ... The sacred symbols of the cosmic elements [he] hid away hard by the secrets of Osiris ... keeping sure silence, that every younger age of cosmic time might seek for them.[667]

The text then tells us that before he 'returned to Heaven' Hermes invoked a spell on the secret writings and knowledge that he had hidden: O holy books, who have been made by my immortal hands, by incorruption's magic spells ... free from decay throughout eternity remain, and incorrupt from time. Become unseeable, unfindable, for every one whose foot shall tread the plains of this land, until Old Heaven doth bring forth meet instruments for you ...[668]

What instruments might lead to the recovery of 'unseeable and unfindable' secrets concealed at Giza?

Our research has persuaded us that a scientific language of precessional time and allegorical astronomy was deliberately expressed in the princ.i.p.al monuments there and in the texts that relate to them. From quite an early stage in our investigation, we hoped that this language might shed new light on the enigmatic civilization of Egypt. We did not at first suspect, however, that it would also turn out to encode specific celestial coordinates or that these would transpose onto the ground in the form of an arcane 'treasure map', directing the attention of seekers to a precise location in the bedrock deep beneath the Sphinx.

Nor did we suspect, until we met them, that others such as the Edgar Cayce Foundation and the Stanford Research Inst.i.tute-see Part II-might already be looking there.

Osiris breathes

Throughout this investigation we have tried to stick to the facts, even when the facts have been very strange.

When we say that the Sphinx, the three Great Pyramids, the causeways and other a.s.sociated monuments of the Giza necropolis form a huge astronomical diagram we are simply reporting a fact. When we say that this diagram depicts the skies above Giza in 10,500 bc we are reporting a fact. When we say that the Sphinx bears erosion marks which indicate that it was carved before the Sahara became a desert we are reporting a fact. When we say that the ancient Egyptians attributed their civilization to 'the G.o.ds' and to the 'Followers of Horus' we are reporting facts. When we say that these divine and human civilizers were remembered as having come to the Nile Valley in Zep Tepi-the 'First Time'-we are reporting a fact. When we say that the ancient Egyptian records tell us this 'First Time' was an epoch in the remote past, thousands of years before the era of the Pharaohs, we are reporting a fact.

Our civilization has had the scientific wherewithal to get to grips with the many problems of the Giza necropolis for less than two centuries, and it is only in the last two decades that computer technology has made it possible for us to reconstruct the ancient skies and see the patterns and conjunctions that unfolded there. During this period access to the site, and knowledge about it, has been monopolized by members of the archaeological and Egyptological professions who have agreed amongst themselves as to the origin, and age, and function of the monuments. New evidence which does not support this scholarly consensus, and which might actively undermine it, has again and again been overlooked, or sidelined, and sometimes even deliberately concealed from the public. This, we a.s.sume, is why everything to do with the shafts of the Great Pyramid-their stellar alignments, the iron plate, the relics, and the discovery of the 'door'-has met with such peculiar and inappropriate responses from Egyptologists and archaeologists. And we a.s.sume that it explains, too, why the same scholars have paid such scant attention to the solid case that geologists have made for the vast antiquity of the Sphinx.[669]

The Giza monuments are a legacy for Mankind, preserved almost intact over thousands of years, and, outside the privileged circles of Egyptology and archaeology, there is today a broad-based expectation that they might be about to reveal a remarkable secret. That expectation may or may not prove to be correct. Nevertheless in an intellectual culture polarized by public antic.i.p.ation and orthodox reaction, we feel it is only wise that future explorations at the necropolis should be conducted with complete 'transparency' and accountability. In particular the opening of the 'door' inside the southern shaft of the Queen's Chamber, the videoscopic examination of the northern shaft, and any further remote-sensing and drilling surveys conducted around the Sphinx, should be carried out under the scrutiny of the international ma.s.s media and should not again be subjected to bizarre and inexplicable delays.

We cannot predict what new discoveries will be made by such research, or even whether any new discoveries will be made. However, after completing our own archaeoastronomical investigation, and following the quest of the Horus-King, we are left with an enhanced sense of the tremendous mystery of this amazing site-a sense that its true story has only just begun to be told. Looking at the awe-inspiring scale and precision of the monuments we feel, too, that the purpose of the ancient master-builders was sublime, and that they did indeed find a way to initiate those who would come after-thousands of years in the future-by making use of the universal language of the stars.

They found a way to send a message across the ages in a code so simple and so self-explanatory that it might rightly be described as an anti-cipher.

Perhaps the time has come to listen to that clear, compelling signal that beckons to us out of the darkness of prehistory. Perhaps the time has come to seek the buried treasure of our forgotten genesis and destiny: Stars fade like memory the instant before dawn. Low in the east the sun appears, golden as an opening eye. That which can be named must exist. That which is named can be written. That which is written shall be remembered. That which is remembered lives. In the land of Egypt Osiris breathes ...[670]

Appendix 1

The Scales of the World 'We three kings of Orion are; Bearing gifts we traverse afar; Field and fountain, Moor and mountain, Following yonder star.

Oh! Star of wonder, Star of might, Star with royal beauty bright!

Westward leading, Still proceeding, Guide us to thy perfect light.

HE is the King of Glory.'

In her thesis on the astronomical content of ancient Egyptian funerary texts, Jane B. Sellers observes that Spell 17 of the Book of the Dead, which is drawn from extremely ancient sources, alludes in cosmic terms to the 'unification' or joining of the 'Two Lands':[671] 'Horus, son of Osiris and Isis ... was made ruler in the place of his father, Osiris, on that day the Two Lands were united. It means the union of the Two Lands at the burial of Osiris ...'[672]

Following this statement, Spell 17 also makes specific reference to the 'sun-G.o.d' and how he was not obstructed by the celestial river but rather 'pa.s.sed on, having bathed in the Winding Waterway'.[673]

Sellers notes the conclusion of Yale astronomer-Egyptologist Virginia Lee Davis that the 'Winding Waterway' of the Pyramid Texts is to be equated with the Milky Way and that this feature of the sky 'divides' the cosmic landscape into two halves.[674] She then adds: 'I have contended that the joining of the two lands is a joining of sky to earth.'[675]

In fact, both Sellers and Davis arrive at the same conclusion, namely that the 'divider' of the celestial landscape is the Milky Way, and that which crosses it from one side to the other is the sun. Sellers also observes that the point of 'crossing' of the ecliptic path is near the V-shaped Hyades-Taurus constellation.[676]

If we seek to be precise about these matters we will discover that the point of crossing is in fact a little further east along the ecliptic path, marking a spot on the western sh.o.r.e of the Milky Way where today is found the M1 nebula, also known as the Crab Nebula.[677]

Sellers, oddly, does not pursue the logical sequence of events in Spell 17, namely that the sun continues along its journey, reaches the 'other side' (i.e. the eastern side) of the Milky Way, and thence heads towards the constellation of Leo. Indeed, Spell 17 bids the solar 'Horus', i.e. the sun-disc, to 'run, run to this' location: 'How well built is your House, O Atum, how well founded is your mansion, O Double Lion ...'

Atum or Atum-Re, as was shown in The Orion Mystery, was originally venerated as a 'pillar' in Heliopolis which, as many researchers have concluded, was also seen as his 'phallus'.[678] A somewhat similar 'pillar', the so-called Djed pillar, was also a.s.sociated with Osiris.[679] Bearing this in mind, Spell 17 makes a most telling statement: 'As for the Lion whose mouth is bright and whose head is s.h.i.+ning, he is the Phallus of Osiris. Otherwise said, he is the Phallus of Re ...'[680]

Earlier in Spell 17 we are specifically informed that Atum is: ... in his sun-disc. Otherwise said he is Re when he rises in the eastern horizon of the sky.

To me belongs yesterday, I know tomorrow.

What does it mean? As for yesterday, that is Osiris. As for tomorrow, that is Re in which the foes of the Lord Of All were destroyed and Horus was made to rule. Otherwise said: That is the day of the 'We remain' festival, when the burial of Osiris was ordered by his father Re.

The Battle-Ground of the G.o.ds was made in accordance with my command.

What does it mean? It is the West. It was made for the souls of the G.o.ds in accordance with the command of Osiris, Lord of the Western Desert. Otherwise said: It means that this is the West, to which Re made every G.o.d descend and he fought for the Two [Lands] for it.

I know that Great G.o.d who is in it.

Who is he? It is Osiris ...[681]

From this text we can see that a special 'land of the G.o.ds' was envisaged as having been established in the Western Desert at the time of the burial of Osiris-that is in the far-off epoch of the First Time. This was also the day on which Horus united the Two Lands and inherited this 'battle ground' or 'land of the G.o.ds'.

70. The Djed pillar of Osiris, flanked by Isis and Nepthys. Above it is the symbol of" the Horian sun-G.o.d, probably marking the meridian-transit of the solar disc.

We have seen in earlier chapters how the Memphite Theology in the Shabaka Texts nominates the area in which these 'unification' events took place as Ayan near Memphis.[682] Oddly, the process of 'the Unification of the Two Lands' is also referred to in these same sources as 'the Balance of the Two Lands, in which Upper and Lower Egypt have been weighed ...'[683]

In the present work we have brought forward additional evidence in support of Sellers's contention that the 'Two Lands' in question were indeed 'sky' and 'earth' and we have also shown that very specific parts of the sky and earth were meant-i.e. the 'Orion-Leo-Taurus' sky-region and the 'Giza-Heliopolis-Memphis' earth-region.

But how could these two sky-to-earth regions be 'balanced' and 'weighed'?

A state of perfect order

The point of 'balance' is defined on the ground as: '... Ayan, that was the division of the Two Lands ... in the name of the "White Wall" [Memphis] ...'[684]

We have seen how this terrestrial location corresponds to a point in the sky along the ecliptic path marking the spot on the western sh.o.r.e of the Milky Way where the M1 Crab Nebula is located.

A closer look at the Memphite Theology, however, reveals that while Ayan is envisaged as the pivot or 'balance point' of the Two Lands, the actual process of 'weighing' is described as taking place somewhere else-specifically in 'the land ... [of the] burial of Osiris in the House of Sokar ...'[685]

Since we have already demonstrated that 'the land of the House of Sokar' was Rostau, i.e. the Giza necropolis, we can conclude-by a simple transposition of sky-ground terminology-that the 'weighing' or 'balancing' of the land was somehow done at Giza, and most likely beside or within the Great Pyramid, the original 'House' of Sokar-Osiris.[686]

But why should the Great Pyramid have been seen as an 'instrument' by which the 'Two Lands'-sky and ground-could be 'balanced' at a specific spot, i.e. at Ayan-Memphis?

71. Sun-boat on the back of the double-lion hieroglyph for Aker. [Top] is a scene of revivification, showing the solar path from east to west. Note the hawk's head beneath the solar disk at the meridian.

We must remind ourselves that the chronology and context of the 'unification' events was set way back in the cosmic landscape of the 'First Time'. Let us, therefore, transfer the imagery that now confronts us back to the epoch 10,500 bc, and see how the supposed 'perfect balance' was achieved at the cosmic 'Ayan', i.e. at the location, marked by the M1 Crab Nebula that we have already identified on the ecliptic path.

The three great Pyramids of Giza, of course, become Orion's belt at the meridian-with the Great Pyramid itself being represented by its specific celestial counterpart, Al Nitak, the lowest of the three belt stars.

The diagram reproduced on page 283 [#74] shows Orion's belt with Al Nitak at the meridian in 10,500 bc. At this precise moment, as we saw in Chapter 17, the vernal-equinox point lay due east, just below Leo. Meanwhile the 'opposed' autumnal equinox point lay precisely due west (just below Aquarius). In short, this was a time when the 'Two Skies'-one on each side of the Milky Way-were in perfect balance, perfectly divided, just as the texts describe.

Much suggests that the 'Followers of Horus' envisaged the ecliptic path of the sun arching like the huge beam of a scale across the visible sky. One end of this beam was marked by Leo at the vernal-equinox point, and the other by Aquarius at the autumnal-equinox point. So, when Al Nitak came to rest at the celestial meridian on the vernal equinox in 10,500 bc the sky could rightly be said to have been in a state of perfect order.

Maat

Cosmic Order, in the symbolic terminology of the ancient Egyptians, was known as Maat. The same word also means 'justice' and 'law'-for example the justice that was exercised by the 'council of G.o.ds' of Heliopolis when they judged in favour of Horus, after his conflict with Seth, and pa.s.sed on to him the legacy of the Osirian throne.

The ancient Egyptian religious texts transmit details of one of the high rituals of the Osirian liturgy-the 'weighing of the soul' of the dead in the Great Judgement Hall of Osiris. This is a sort of archetypal 'Judgement of Solomon', with the weighing being done on the Great Scales of Maat.

The Papyrus of Ani in the British Museum provides us with a particularly vivid depiction of the Great Judgement Hall, and also of the Great Scales of Maat. These latter have a name-Mekhaat[687]-which means in other contexts 'the balance of the Earth'.[688]

72. The Scales of Maat. (Source: British Museum papyrus 9901-3).

The hieroglyphic determinative sign for the verb 'to weigh' shows a triangle, or builder's 'square', with a plumb-bob suspended from the apex[689]-a sign which can also mean to 'balance the earth'.[690] The triangle distinctly recalls the profile or cross-section of a pyramid.

As we have seen in Part II of this book, a curious stone sphere, a length of wooden rod, and a bronze hook were found inside the Great Pyramid in 1872, sealed since the time of the construction of the monument in the shafts of the Queen's Chamber. Mr. Henry Williams Chisholm, the Head of the Standards Department of the Board of Trade in London, carefully examined these relics in the year of their discovery and concluded that the sphere was most probably a standard weight and that the rod and hook might also have had functions connected with weighing and measuring. He published these conclusions in the prestigious journal, Nature, on 26 December 1872.

Similar views were held by the Astronomer Royal of Scotland, Charles Piazzi Smyth, who also examined the relics in 1872.[691]

And a certain Mr. E. H. Pringle suggested in a letter to Nature that the stone sphere could have been a 'mason's plumb-bob' and that the 'bronze hook and the cedar rod may have formed part of the same tool'.[692]

A 'plumb-bob' of some sort must have been used to align the slopes of the shafts. And we have also seen how a 'plumb-bob' was used in the hieroglyphic sign meaning 'weighing' and, by extension, 'the balance'.

Perhaps the Great Pyramid-the terrestrial counterpart of the star Al Nitak-was seen as a weighing device or 'instrument' playing its part in some as yet unexplained attempt to restore the 'balance' or cosmic order of the world, i.e. Maat, as it was in the 'First Time'. Let us consider this possibility.

Juggling for balance

We saw in Chapter 3 that the Great Pyramid functions as a mathematical scale model of the northern hemisphere of the earth on a scale of 1:43,200.[693] By transposition and extension, therefore, it should be obvious that the monument can also serve as an architectural and mathematical representation of the northern hemisphere of the sky.[694]

Now if we look at a cross-section of the Great Pyramid, we notice that each of its two sets of 'star-shafts'-i.e. the northern and the southern in the King's and Queen's Chambers respectively-are theoretically intended to emerge at the same heights on the north and south faces of the monument. They appear to hang out like gigantic arms balancing, as it were, the whole geometrical scheme of the Pyramid. But there is something curious about the position of the two chambers from which these shafts emanate. The Queen's Chamber lies along the centre-line of the Pyramid. The King's Chamber, on the other hand, is offset somewhat to the south of the centre-line-almost as though the 'counterweight' on a huge set of scales had been slid to the left in order to achieve 'balance'.

The consequences of this curious architectural anomaly are as follows: 1. Queen's Chamber: the 'designed' average angle of the two shafts is 38 degrees 08', thus forming a right angle with the faces of the pyramid (51 degrees 52' + 38 degrees 08' = 90 degrees).[695]

2. King's Chamber: the 'designed' angle of the southern shaft is 45 degrees 00' and that of the northern shaft is 32 degrees 30'. This counteracts the effects of the offset of the chamber and restores the 'balance' of the general geometrical design.

73. Cross-sections of the Great Pyramid showing the 'balancing' of the monument with the star-shafts.

The alt.i.tude of Al Nitak at the meridian in 2500 bc was 45 degrees-in line with the southern shaft of the King's Chamber. The reader will recall that the vernal point in this epoch was just over the Hyades-Taurus, whose terrestrial counterpart we have identified as the region of the Dahshur Pyramids.[696]

But let us see in what epoch Al Nitak would have crossed the meridian at 38 degrees 08' alt.i.tude-i.e. in alignment with the southern shaft of the Queen's Chamber?

Precessional calculations show that such an alignment would have occurred in circa 3850 bc-a date that is extremely close to that favoured by many earlier Egyptologists for the epoch of the 'Unification' which was supposedly sealed at Ayan-Memphis.[697] It is therefore surely of interest to note that in 3850 bc the vernal point was positioned near the M1 Crab Nebula, the spot on the celestial landscape-and along the ecliptic path-that we have identified as the sky-counterpart of Ayan-Memphis.

Three Wise Men