CHAPTER 2

EGYPTIAN RELIGION

“Egypt’s entire civilization was based upon religion…”

John Anthony West[i]

“The religious rites and ceremonies of Egypt…were never built upon mere fable and superstition,

 but founded with a view to promote the morality and happiness of those who observe them.”

Plutarch[ii]

The average person's understanding of Egypt is far from true. For the most part there were no slaves used in Egypt, and only in the last stages of the decline when the control of the country was no longer in the hands of the temple. We are told again and again that the Egyptians were far behind us in technology, knowledge and religion but no one can explain how they created the monuments that still stand. The modern world is told that the Egyptians worshipped a great number of gods. While this is partially true they, like all ancient cultures, believed in only one God. A system of gods was created as a teaching tool, as will be explained in chapter three. Beyond all this, especially due to the mummies in museums, the average person thinks that the Egyptian society was one that was obsessed with death. In fact it was the opposite, this was a culture obsessed with life. The Egyptians tried to live life to the fullest, learning its truths, living with the wonder of spirit all around, seeing all nature as a divine gift that we must work with and thank. By doing so they could use their time in a body on the earth as a great gift of the spirit.

Religion/Yoga

            Religion is a very strange thing. “All religion is an attempt to explain the unexplained fact that creation does somehow exist because the senses perceive it, but it is beyond the grasp of the human mind to comprehend.”[iv] Religion was formed originally as steps for the average person to gain experiential wisdom of the cosmos. Every religion at its core holds the tenants of love and tolerance for others. In time, those who are at the top of a hierarchy use their position of knowledge to gain control over those without it, and in a short few generations the understandings that the religion is attempting to teach can be all but forgotten. People are taught their religion is the only right one, and that all others are wrong. In the ancient tradition, and in the few native societies where the modern world has not fully driven them out, everything in life was spirit. In our world today people go to church on Sunday for three hours, and spend the rest of the week doing their normal life. The ancients understood spirit was always present and always communicating with us, thus there was no need to go to a place of worship because the same amount of spirit could be found in a leaf as in a church. They knew a rock was more than a rock, or the bird that flew by to be more than just a bird. They also did not worship three hours a week, but worshipped constantly. When they washed clothes, tended gardens, ate dinner, or built a house…it was religion.

            If one wants to truly understand the Egyptian monuments, tombs, texts, religion, or even day-to-day life, it is important that we not try to understand them from a modern point of view. To truly understand any pyramid, temple or papyrus, we need to live, think and act like an ancient Egyptian. Just as the only way to understand the life of an NFL linebacker is to be one, one must live like an Egyptian to understand the Egyptian wisdom. Since at its heart the true leaders of their society were the mystical priesthood, one must begin to live like a mystic. Hearing the ideas of an Egyptian monument from a Native Indian elder is preferable to listening to them from an archaeologist, for the Native is living a life closer to that of the actual people who constructed it.

            The word religion comes from the Latin word religare (to bind back). The word Yoga actually means to yoke, also to bind back. This binding back is a union. Thus the actual meaning of the two words is to return back in union with the source of Creation (Oneness, God, Supreme Being). Understanding the deeper meanings of yoga will help one to understand what religion is supposed to entail. The average person in the west believes yoga to be a series of body postures and breathing which help to enhance physical health, promote relaxation and strengthen the body. While this form of Yoga, called Hatha (designed to connect the Ha (sun, yang) and Tha (moon, yin) meridians of the body), does have these benefits it is not the true purpose of yoga. Just as mediation is not really supposed to be done to relax, or Tai Chi to feel better, yoga (if done correctly) is meant to provide the steps of inner purification that leads to knowledge and wisdom. Religion is meant to be exercises and practiced- something most Western religions are lacking currently.

            Just as there are different forms of Qi Gong in China or shamanic exercises in differing Indian tribes, no one form of Yoga is seen to be superior to any other. Each form of Yoga should be seen as a starting point. It is the main focus of your efforts based on a personal choice, but every student will realize in time that they well likely study all of the Yoga disciplines as they continue. For example one may begin with the yoga of wisdom and knowledge by reading ancient texts while also doing Hatha Yoga or Qi Gong to increase their health. Quickly they will learn new teachings and ways to live that need to be put into outer practice (yoga of right action), while mediating at night (Raja yoga). This can relate to the four shamanic techniques of recapitulation, erasing personal history, not-doing and dreaming while performing specific movement exercises. As a shaman realizes that to only do one of the techniques will lead to an imbalance, a student begins with one form of Yoga but then moves on to the other techniques simultaneously. So should be true for the student of religion.

            Whatever religion you have chosen as your main focus, or likely had chosen for you by your parents, it is still just a form yoga/religion. As long as it brings you joy to practice it, use it as your starting point. But the true student will quickly learn that if they only focus on one religion, as with one technique, they will get out of balance. A Hindu would use this religion as the base, but add Christianity, Buddhism and Tantric Yoga for example. When this occurs not only is the student obtaining the wisdom of the various paths (for each path takes us to the same place just by different methods), but also we are giving ourselves more tools to use in our life. We will also gain an acceptance and understanding of all the religions because we are no longer locked into our system of one is right and the others are wrong.

Central Themes

            A basic background of Egyptian religious beliefs is actually a hard thing. The temple priests of the mystery schools lived in a very different manner from the average population who were given a lesser form of the wisdom for their daily lives. The Egyptian teachings first taught that we are more than a physical body. The true part of us is not something that dies but is everlasting and eternal and not only comes from God, but is God. This has caused an error for people who believed themselves to be God and led them to self-importance and superiority. They did not understand that a rock, mat, table, or air molecule is also God. Thus we are no better or worse than anything else, because at heart we are all the same. This understanding will take one from a sense of superiority to a sense of humility. We are equal to everything. The idea that we are separate and different from everything else is the basis of the concept of Maya (the illusion of reality). By believing things to be separate we gain desires (the need of a certain object to be happy), fears (that something will happen to us) or anger (that something did not do what we wanted it to). Thus the religious practices of the Egyptian worked to take one away from emotions, caused by the motion of the mind, to feeling which is the direct experience of the heart.

            Meditation would be a part of any religious experience in Egypt, but likely would not be as important for students as is needed today. The Egyptians would spend less time rushing around, doing countless things or thinking about things because spirit was always around and trying to talk to them. Rushing and making deadlines would only take them away from noticing the messages of the gods. It became important from childhood to pay close attention to nature. By observing how plants grow, or animals act provided not only insights into the workings of the universe, but also ourselves. The Egyptians noticed co-incidence and synchronistic events constantly occurring. It is our job as humans to slow down and notice them.

            The central theme of Egyptian religion was reincarnation, and what happens to the soul after death. They saw life on earth as an opportunity to experience, grow and return to the Source therefore having no need for another human incarnation. This coincides with the Eastern ideas of Karma, called Meskhenet in Egypt. Karma really means that we are responsible for all of our thoughts and actions. Everything has a consequence in our lives. Treat someone poorly, and someone will treat you poorly. Help someone; someone will help us. When something “bad” occurs, a person is rarely objective enough to see that they have done the exact same thing to someone else. Instead we look to lay blame. Our life is a series of continuous choices, and the Egyptian strived not to tell humans what to choose but instead to give them the wisdom teachings to allow them to make their own decisions based on the heart.

            The process of karmic rebirth or the reliving of specific events was always thought of a wheel, referred to as the “grievous wheel,” “wheel of necessity” or “wheel of karma,” never ending or ceasing. The ancients saw this wheel as representing the stars of the zodiac, whose cycles foretell the fate that lies for each one of us. The path of the mystic is to escape the wheel through gaining wisdom in order to no longer be bound by the astrological fate of the time of our birth. All of our true essence, wisdom and love is found in the heart, which holds the answers, knows our destiny, and only acts out of love and compassion. It is why it was the heart that was balanced against the feather of Maat. Maat is harmony, order, or acting in the purest sense of the word. Thus if our heart balanced the feather, we too had followed our heart and lived with the same balance and harmony. The heart is our true mind, but we were given another mind that is found in our head. This mind is not ours. It is a mind that lives in fear, anger, self-importance, ego, I, and personality. Humans gain this other mind while still children and includes the beliefs, opinions, behaviour and judgments of others. Babies have none of these things. This conscious mind then creates an entire illusionary world out of itself that we believe to be real. The religious system in Egypt was a system designed to try to stop this conscious mind from being implanted in children in the first place, or to teach the steps we must do to purify and lose this mind to return to the heart.

            They compared our waking state with that of being asleep, thus the calls of every religion to awaken. Just as we wake from dreams to say they were not real, the ancient masters also claim that this waking state is also unreal and that we need to learn to awaken from it to a higher state of consciousness. Then we can look back and say, “oh it was only life.” Paradoxically that means our dream world is just as real as the one we live during waking. The system of spiritual advancement was designated through the Way of Horus (the direct path to oneness in this life, also called the way of the warrior). Actually the way of Horus leads us to see that we are actually Osiris all along.

            The path of the sun was used as a metaphor for the religious teachings of Osiris. It rises in birth in the east, shines full as Ra during the day, only to die each night and be reborn as a new incarnation of the sun. The sun was compared to the cycle of the human being. Any Egyptian would think of the idea of having only one life, make one mistake and spend the rest of your eternity tormented in hell as a great waste of thought. Living a life with such a belief would only create a great fear, as most of the time would be spent worrying about what we were going to do then what we were actually in the process of doing. To live knowing we could make a mistake did not absolve us of right action, but meant one would live with more freedom and less fear. They would try more things and be fully immersed in present experiences. They would of course pay for their mistakes, usually by having to have the same experience over and over until they performed admirably, but the great fear that exists in modern human life by would have been lessened. As fear subsides, love grows.

            Interestingly modern religions seem to have a greater teaching about hell than paradise. As anyone knows whatever the mind focuses on will move us in that way. If we are always told about hell, guess where we will wind up? Yet if we forget about hell, focus on paradise and love, guess where we will wind up? This is the Egyptian way, live less from fear and more from actually living life as full and completely as possible.  At its essence a true religion will not teach us to believe in a saviour, or even God. They teach how to believe in ourself, to love ourself and to accept ourself just the way we are. How could we ever love or accept someone else if we cannot first do so with ourself? That is the most important thing any religion can teach us. The Egyptian system wanted us to continue our journey until we could live everlasting life as a star in the sky. Most take this as a literal meaning, yet the concept of becoming a star is the process of learning the true parts of ourself.

Body/Soul/Spirit

            The human being was seen as a microcosm of the macrocosm. This means that everything that is found in the entire created universe can be found in every human. Each one of our atoms for example, looks like a mini version of our solar system. It is possible that each individual cell may be its own solar system. The ancients realized that one did not need to travel to the far reaches of outer space to understand the universe, each one of us had the best laboratory available twenty-four hours a day. The first component of any teaching was for the student to “know thyself.” If one wants to understand the relation of the planets to one another (the golden section) then realize that our body contains the same golden section in its makeup. The entire structure of the body, and parts that make up the spirit and soul had to be understood. Because it represented the whole universe, the body was seen as a temple that needed to be looked after. To understand the entire package the Egyptians broke down a human into several parts.

Khat

            The Khat in Egypt was the physical body. The word is connected with the idea of something which is liable to decay, while the other “bodies” mentioned do not decay. Thus the Khat is the only part of us that will destruct, while the other parts of us have a longer lasting quality. A partially reversed word Akh means the glorious everlasting light. The Egyptian language used opposites as a teaching tool to help students recognise opposite concepts.

            The body was understood not only physically, but symbolically and spiritually. The body is what allowed us to interact with the physical world, and was part of the understanding of “know thyself.” The mouth for example had special properties and represented the connection between the physical and psychic realms. The mouth was regarded as the entry and exit points of life. Ceremonies to animate a statue concentrated on the mouth to open. When a baby is born it makes its first announcement to the world by crying. At death we wonder what a person’s last words are. It is because the mouth holds the properties of sound. Words occur from the mouth, the word created the universe. If the mouth were not opened then no sound could emanate and nothing could be created. This opening of the mouth ceremony used an object called an adze, thought to symbolize the constellation of the big dipper. It was made of iron, called B’ja (Divine Metal) in the Pyramid Texts. Iron was connected to the stars and gods, since the source of this metal was from fallen meteors. By opening the mouth with iron, the King is performing the same actions that Osiris used to create an immortal life in the Duat and sit upon the iron throne. Actually the Opening of the Mouth ceremony was a ritual initiation for the living that involved the use of sexual energy as Tantra Yoga. This will be explained in future books.

            The eye was also opened during the mouth ceremony, as the eyes were key representations of one’s descent into the realm of the psychic. It is our two eyes that give us the main sense perceptions of this world around us. A new Eye of Horus (combined our two eyes into one) is needed to be created in order to see past this world of illusion and duality. This combining of male and female eyes will be explained in the section on Horus. The belly symbolized our personal power. All breath work in Oriental teachings is brought to this location, known as the Dan Tien, in order to charge our battery with Qi energy. Those with tremendous power, like the Buddha, were often depicted in statues with big bellies. This does not mean they were fat, but is a symbol for the strength of inner power stored in the lower alchemic furnace.

Ren

            The Ren is a person’s (or object’s) name. While a name is something that distinguishes one person from another, it has a far deeper meaning. The name anything uses will determine the energy that surrounds it. This is a key reason for the use of naming rituals in ancient societies, for each person will need the correct name (thus correct energies) to reflect the type of life they wish to lead. The name we use will determine our fate. Ask anyone (especially married women) how different their life has become with a name change.

            The Egyptians would claim that the choice of name was one of the most important that a person will make. With new growth or occupation the old name may become a burden. Priests often suggested at different stages of life we need a new name. The Maya and Aztecs named their children for the day they were born like 4 Reed, the equivalent of naming a child September 16. This gave the family 5-10 years to watch the child’s progress to find a name that would suit them, as opposed to how Westerners chose a name before they even see any of the personality of the child. Wallace Black Elk laughed at how white anthropologists believed Indian women named their children after the very first object that they saw after birth: buffalo, horse or butterfly. If that tradition were correct, would there not be Indian children today named Television or Budweiser? In Egypt, the Ren is considered to be one’s for a lifetime and is found encircled by a “rope of light” or life force called a cartouche. This was associated with the eternity symbol of the shen.[v]

            Every Egyptian would have at least two names in a lifetime. The little name was the ability to distinguish a person from another and would be made public. To allow one’s name to be wounded was the equivalent as harming the physical body. Many today would agree who have had their names destroyed in newspaper tabloids. Everything, including humans, had a big name or true name. To know something’s true name was considered to have power over it, thus the need to keep our real name secret. This is shown by Isis learning the secret (true) name of RA to gain his power, or in the statement in the Book of the Dead, “ I know you, I know your name.” The Egyptians claim the world was brought about by the word. Nothing actually exits until it is named. Shamans believe that each thing makes a specific sound, and this sound is the Word that created it. In the Old Testament Adam named all the creatures of the earth, thus knowing their true sounds.[vi] Even the Neteru (gods) have a real name. To know the real name of a human being was power, of an element of nature great power, of a Neteru the power over that aspect of the Supreme. This is why the names of the Neteru needed to be hid to stop unchecked access to the proper name.

Sa/Sekhem

            These two words are related to concepts of Oriental mysticism. The Sa was the fluid life force that filled the universe and animated all life. The Sa could be seen as relating to Qi (pronounced chee) or Prana, the energy that we bring into our being through food, water, breath and absorption that actually allows us to live. The Sekhem is translated by Egyptologists as “power or “form.” This word is actually the Egyptian word for personal power, which is our energy storehouse. Anything we do, any good or bad luck, comes as a direct result of our personal power. With more Sekhem we could function in the realms beyond the physical. Sekhem is also associated with Kundalini, the coiled serpent that lies in our pelvis. By cleansing our chakra system (the energy centres that spin universal Sekhem and Sa in and out of our being) the kundalini can rise. Many Egyptian texts refer to phrases like “Master the Fire of the Back.” When the kundalini serpent can rise up the spine, it purifies our lower energies allowing us to connect to the higher vibrations of spirit. Some suggest that all purifications, meditations and exercises are actually designed to increase our personal power, which will release more of the kundalini fire and lead on its own to our enlightenment.

Ba

            The BA is a very complex concept. It is usually translated as soul, magnet, or the astral body, but this not correct. In fact our “soul” is just God, thus any other part or principle must also be an aspect of this Oneness. The BA is depicted as a migratory bird (a jabiru or stork) accompanied by a pot with a flame (incense) burning. The stork, the symbol for the delivery of a new baby, is known to have a great homing instinct suggesting the BA bird is what brings the soul to the new child. The more common way to depict the BA was as a human headed falcon with the face of the person it represented. The BA is often shown flying near the deceased, coming back to visit and converse with the dead body. It seemed important for the BA to see the physical body as a lifeless corpse. It could take any shape or form, and could easily pass into the world of the afterlife. This concept has come from a Western idea of the afterlife not an Egyptian one. The BA is a controlling influence. A small statue of the Pharaoh Khafre has a Horus falcon BA behind it to show that it is the BA that controls the body, as we sit behind the wheel of a car. The question has to be asked, does the soul actually drive our body or is it something else? All individual BA’s are part of the one Universal BA. While the Neteru have a BA on the physical plane, all other creatures on earth have their BA on the spiritual plane. The BA keeps the elements together in the physical body and when the BA has no more use for it, it will leave to find another body (physical or spiritual) to incarnate.[vii]

            In fact the BA is our limited individual self, not the All. Since this world is an illusion, and the BA is what is guiding the physical body means it can not be our soul, for our soul only wants to link us back to God. Thus the BA is what we identify with, the part of us that believes us to be an individual. That is why it is shown to be flying away in tomb paintings. The tomb paintings were not created to show the after death process per say, but as a metaphor for what the initiates needed to do to bring about their symbolic death to the world of illusion. It is not the soul that is flying away, for in fact there is nowhere for the soul to fly away to. Our soul is here (beyond time and space) and will always be so. But to understand this, our connection to the part of us that makes us an individual must leave us (fly away) in which we can then open up to our true self. It is important to show that the symbol used for the BA is either the hawk (Horus) or stork (connected to Tehuti). The symbols show that it is through the teachings of these two Neteru that we can overcome the effects of the BA, allow it to fly away, and leave us living from our higher self. This is the true message of the texts.

Ka

            Egyptologists describe the KA as the source of vital energy. However, the Sekhem and SA is our personal power and QI so the KA must be something else. The KA is usually translated as double or mirror. The KA is often shown standing beside the physical body and newborn children were sometimes painted with their KA double. It is translated as a double because it is often shown together with the physical body, and is able to separate and travel at will. To some that reminds them of the etheric body that you “step into” during an out of body experience, you actually believe that you are in your physical body, you may even be wearing the same clothes. That is until you see you physical body asleep, or place your arm through a wall. Thus the etheric body simulates the physical, but is composed of “finer” material. Statues, texts and offerings are dedicated to the KA. The KA of someone would reside in their painting or statue. Modern natives refuse to allow photographs to be taken of them, believing that a small piece of their essence would be taken and put in the photo. On the other hand, to have a photograph or statue of someone means one has a direct connection for a small piece of their energy is present. There are a number of different KA’s.[viii] The fact that there is more than one type of KA gives a clue to the meaning of the concept.

            The KA is linked to the ancestors that were said to control the flow of energy to the physical realm. The tomb was a vital interchange between the dead and living for the dead become the directors of KA energy. It is depicted by a pair of outstretched arms, the same gesture as made by Shu who splits heaven and earth apart. It is this split of Geb and Nut that creates the illusion of duality in the physical world. The physical body was the Khat and is made up with the word KA showing a connection between the KA and the body. To keep the KA associated with the physical world of illusion will keep the higher self (our true soul) in a state unable to merge with the One.

            In Egypt the process of impregnating a female is called Bka. The creation of a new human needs both the BA and the KA. To create a transformed human the initiate also needs to unite the BA and KA, but in a different way. Instead of impregnating a female with sperm, we must impregnate our being with knowledge and wisdom. This is the famed Virgin Birth that actually happens within us.[ix] The KA is a representation of one’s thoughts, beliefs, and physical experiences. These are in fact the things that we must first love, accept then transform. Upon death it is claimed that if the KA and BA cannot be united, the KA will break up into its component parts and will return again to reincarnate. If it is the KA breaking into parts that causes us to reincarnate, then the KA must be the parts of the energy body, which are actually the fine components of the conscious mind. Think of hating someone and we create an etheric block in our energy body that will stick there until we remove it. A block strong enough could move down to be an illness in the physical body. That is the true meaning of the idea of the double, it is the double form of the thoughts of the mind itself.

            The KA would also represent the part of us that goes into each object we come into contact with. It is how psychics perform the art of psychrometry. They pick up our left over residue on an object that we held, which is really a small piece of our KA. The more attached to the object, the more of our KA will be within it. The KA is the part of our consciousness that remains on the earth, connected to the places where the physical body lived and the objects it possessed. The KA includes all the genetic material of our parents and ancestors, for their thoughts and beliefs are part of our makeup in the physical body. If your father was an alcoholic, you may not drink but you will still have the genetics of alcoholism. This is the reason for the importance of remembering the ancestors as they are infusing us with some of the positive traits we are taking with us, and also some of our challenges. This is the meaning of the ancestors living on inside of us, for often we are fighting the same battles they did not have the personal power to overcome. We need to pay homage to them, for when we fight similar battles they are in a sense having the opportunity to overcome their challenge through us. They can infuse us with some of their power and perhaps together the ancestor and us can overcome a challenge that is beyond our strength as an individual.

            At death it is claimed we must unite all of our KA’s together. This is similar to the shamanic techniques of soul retrieval and recapitulation that claims every interaction has caused a trading of energy. The more emotional the interaction, the greater the energy exchanged. One must call back all of our energy body to fullness and release the parts of KA’s we have accumulated. Upon death we all go through a recapitulation process (life flashing before our eyes) to regain these parts, and understand the truth of our lives. That is why a mystic wants to do this before death, so as to have all their energy body back while alive. Through the recap they would also learn what actions provided a loss of their KA (actions based on self-importance or emotion) and see certain interactions that did not diminish the KA (based on love and compassion). This process of understanding the KA while alive would also allow one to change the habits and routines of their life to make it one of love, harmony and kindness. They could see that any parts of the KA not united would attract (magnet symbolism) them to return to the earth to relive that experience.

            This idea also relates to the misunderstood need of the ancients at death to be buried with all of their personal objects. As long as we have an object, and are attached to it in some way, it in effect has a part of us. This is the true meaning of the oriental teaching to not have any attachments to the physical world, for every object you have has a part of you in it, thus you are not whole. They understood that we need objects to help us function in the daily world, so the key was to have as few of them as possible to not allow too much of our KA to be used (see more in mummification). When archaeologists find few objects buried with a body (as opposed to great burials in more recent times) they assume the older burials were of very poor people. In fact they could have been the richest and wisest people from understanding that each object would have some of their KA, so they lived with only the barest of necessities. At death every object would have to be buried with the physical body so that the KA could be extracted by the deceased. If one lived this life of non-attachment they would have few objects buried with them. Less material objects in a burial does not necessarily show a less advanced civilization, but perhaps a more advanced one. The food in the tomb may be the last bits of food in a person’s home before death, since this food “acquired” the KA and also needed also to be buried with the body.

Khaibut

            The Khaibut is translated as the shadow by Egyptologists and is associated with the BA. In modern psychological language the shadow is the inner, negative parts of ourself which we refuse to acknowledge. Some who have this notion refer to the Khaibut as a ghost or an object that intercepts the light. They claim it is our negative parts which, if not eliminated, will trap the BA forever in the physical. Yet we have already seen that the BA is not the soul. Muata Ashby views the shadow as the reflection of God, just as shamans see the objects of this world as a shadow of their real essence which lies unseen in another dimension. Another example is the shadows on the cave in Plato’s Republic. The shadow is a projection of that which is real, of truth, but not the real or truth directly. To believe so is to be caught in the illusion. God creates and continues to create out of God’s own self, thus would perceive the universe as nothing but its own shadow.[x] As our true essence is but a part of God, and the BA is what really keeps us from God, the BA must be a shadow…of the shadow. By spending time viewing the shadow of an object we can gain a better understanding than viewing the object itself. A shadow occurs because an object blocks the light, so the shadow of the object must provide clues as to what is actually blocking the light (God) and what that Light really is.

Ab

            “My heart, the mother of my coming into being.”

 Book of the Dead, chapter 30

            The AB is the heart, the seat of our true mind as opposed to the conscious mind that attracts the KA and BA. The head creates emotions (fear, anger, jealousy), while the heart creates only feelings (love, peace, joy, and gnosis). Thus the heart not the head is really the place of knowledge, the place of true memories, and is the place of Meskhenet (karma) for it knows the true thoughts and actions we undertook. It is why this part of the body was weighed (judged) in the hall of the Double Maat, (see Hall of Maat).

            The heart is in fact the connection source to our higher self (our soul). To learn to listen to the heart means to follow the guidance of intuition which knows what life we are supposed to be living, and how we are to be living it. It may want us to move to other parts of the world, divorce our spouse, and take up professions which the rest of our friends see as not a good way to make a living. The mind only wants, while the heart only wants to give. Do not put too much stock in what your friends or society says. You have likely been listening to their ideas and opinions for a long time, which is why you are in the unhappy state you find yourself in and looking for new options.

            Shamans teach that our most important choice in life is to follow a path with heart, the path that brings joy to our soul. It is the path or way our soul intended us to live. It may not be any easier than living a normal life like everyone else, but it will be one filled with the joys and warmth of living the destiny that your very soul aspired for you upon creation. AB spelled backwards is BA. We have already found that we must release the BA’s grips upon us, or turn the BA around, to go from individuality to connection at the heart level. The BA turned around is AB. The Egyptians have again symbolically told us what we need to do, connect less with the BA (our individual self) and more to the AB (heart connection to everything).

Khu

            The Khu is a higher spiritual component of a human, a shining or luminous part that is immortal. It is a special energy that connects through our heart for our best interest. Khu’s were said to be celestial beings living with the gods, and relates to the idea of a guardian angel or spirit guide. When one has purified themselves enough to enter the world of the Khu, they have reached the level beyond having a human being for their main teacher. They are now the direct student of a Neteru or spirit guide. The human teacher of the mysteries will still assist the student, but they must now be second in the teaching ladder.[xi] The teacher has done their job, to instruct the mystery student how to overcome and unite key parts of themselves and greatly reduce the hold of the conscious mind (thus live more from the heart). This state of the luminous Khu is not necessarily permanent, but like the state of mystical awareness must be constantly aspired to. When I first reached a mild state of Khu, it lasted until I began to regain my old impure ways of being. The state itself took a long time to even regain a glimpse of, thus when one attains the Khu it is recommended they put forth all of their personal power to keep this most direct line to the ancient wisdom. Actually the Khu is not the light itself that we seek, but the means to gain that light.

Akh

            The Akh is the place of shining or illumination. Its glyph is the crested ibis, the same as the symbol for Tehuti. The ibis has green plumage with glittering specs that seem to shine. Thus this shining light represented here, must be related to the gnosis of Tehuti. The Akh is sometimes used to refer to the third eye. This light we seek is also the light from which we originated, but we must get here to fully understand this concept. By adding the letter N we get the word Ankh, the symbol of everlasting life- thus the radiant Akh is a key to everlasting life. The Akh is also the opposite of the physical body Khat or Kha. Since the physical body perishes, the Akh must be immortal. The pyramid texts refer to the Akh being for heaven (above) and the Khat for the earth (below). The Akhu were a special group referred to as “shinning ones”, as were The Followers of Horus. In the Liturgy of Funerary Offerings it claims, “become an Akh, and arrive at the Sekhem.

            Lucie Lamy relates information of an Igluik Eskimo shamanic initiation that ends with the angakoq (similar to the word Akh), meaning lightening or illumination. It is a luminous fire (light) which enables the shaman to see with both eyes (literally and metaphorically). Now even with closed eyes they can see through darkness and perceive things hidden from others.”[xii] Seeing allows one to go past the physical world to see what something ‘really’ is. Not every person we pass on the street is a human, not every tree a tree, not every empty space an empty space. Only by the illumination of our third eye (the Eye of Horus) are we able to pass through the shadow world to see what is real. It would allow us to be in a complete state of Gnosis where we can gain an understanding of all things. It is our goal to become a shining one, a star of light emanating in the universe in order to connect to our true inner core, which is that star of light that we seek. The Egyptian religion called for the Pharaoh, who represented the potential journey of every Egyptian, to become a star. Yet the star is not out there in the sky, the star of light is already inside of us; we just need to find it again.

Sahu

            Sahus are said to be “free and noble,” thus is the place of the soul. The final stage is when the Akh is formed within us and we understand how to be released from the physical body, and gain a new awareness of our spiritual bodies. To attain this stage one must get all of their members, representing the parts or fragments of the self. Some say this is the stage where Osiris was reanimated. The Pyramid texts claim, “I have passed through the Duat, I have seen my father Osiris. I have become a Sahu. I have become equipped…Thou hast received thy Sahu, not shall be fettered thy foot in heaven, not shalt thou be turned back upon earth.”[xiii] The Pyramid Texts claim a Sahu is a spiritually perfected being, an enlightened one who no longer needs to reincarnate on earth. One needs to reach the state of Akh (seeing, or illumination) so as to break the hold of the illusion and gain the Gnosis that can only be given by the Creator itself.

To Chapter 3

Back to Books