The Land of Mystery and great knowledge of Mystics

January 1, 2021

Ancient Egypt

Hello dear reader,

First I would like to wish you Happy new year, may all your wishes come true, and may your portfolio see only green in 2021!!!

If you love reading about Ancient Civilizations

So lets dive into Egypt and their life style!

Egypt, country located in the northeastern corner of Africa, on the Mediterranean Sea

Egypt’s heartland, the Nile River valley and delta, was the home of one of the principal civilizations and was the site of one of the world’s earliest urban and literate societies.

The name 'Egypt' comes from the Greek Aegy-ptos which was the Greek pronunciation of the ancient Egyptian name 'Hwt-Ka-Ptah' (“Mansion of the Spirit of Ptah”)

Memphis was the first capital of Egypt and a famous religious and trade center.

To the ancient Egyptians themselves, their country was simply known as `Kemet`, which means 'Black Land', so named for the rich, dark soil along the Nile River where the first settlements began. Later, the country was known as `Misr` which means 'country',

The history of ancient Egypt is divided into three main periods: the Old Kingdom (about 2,700-2,200 B.C.E.), the Middle Kingdom (2,050-1,800 B.C.E.), and the New Kingdom (about 1,550-1,100 B.C.E.). The New Kingdom was followed by a period called the Late New Kingdom, which lasted to about 343 B.C.E

Egypt thrived for thousands of years as an independent nation whose culture was famous for great cultural advances in every area of human knowledge, from the arts to science to technology ,religion and sorcery!

Egypt has a long history which goes back far beyond the written word, the stories of the gods, or the monuments which have made the culture famous. Evidence of overgrazing of cattle, on the land which is now the Sahara Desert, has been dated to about 8000 BCE. This evidence, along with artifacts discovered, points to a thriving agricultural civilization in the region at that time

Their great monuments, tombs, temples, and artwork all celebrate life and stand as reminders of what once was and what human beings, at their best, are capable of achieving. Although ancient Egypt in popular culture is often associated with death and rituals.

Life and Death

To the Egyptians, life on earth was only one aspect of an eternal journey. The soul was immortal and was only inhabiting a body on this physical plane for a short time.

At death, one would meet with judgment in the Hall of Truth and, if justified, would move on to an eternal paradise!

This eternal life, however, was only available to those who had lived well and in accordance with the will of the gods in the most perfect place conducive to such a goal: the land of Egypt.

The Early Dynastic Period in Egypt (c. 3150 – c. 2613 BCE) saw the unification of the north and south kingdoms under the king Menes (also known as Meni or Manes) of Upper Egypt who conquered Lower Egypt in c. 3118 BCE or c. 3150 BCE. This version of the early history comes from the Aegyptica (History of Egypt) by the ancient historian Manetho who lived in the 3rd century BCE under the Ptolemaic Dynasty (323-30 BCE).

God`s and Egyptian deity's

The gods and goddesses of Ancient Egypt were an integral part of the people's everyday lives. It is not surprising then that there were over 2,000 deities in the Egyptian pantheon. Some of these deities' names are well known: Isis, Osiris, Horus, Amun, Ra, Hathor, Bastet, Thoth, Anubis, and Ptah while many others less so.

The more famous gods became state deities while others were associated with a specific region or, in some cases, a ritual or role.

Major male deity's:

Aker – A god of the earth and the horizon

Amun – A creator god, patron deity of the city of Thebes,

Anhur – A god of war and hunting

Aten – Sun disk deity

Atum – A creator god and solar deity

Bennu – A solar and creator deity

Geb – An earth god

Hapi – Personification of the Nile flood

Horus – A major god, usually shown as a falcon or as a human child, linked with the sky, the sun, kingship, protection, and healing. Often said to be the son of Osiris and Isis.

Khepri – A solar creator god, often treated as the morning form of Ra and represented by a scarab beetle.

Khnemu – A ram god,who was said to control the Nile flood and give life to gods and humans

Khonsu – A moon god, son of Amun and Mut

Maahes – A lion god, son of Bastet

Montu – A god of war and the sun, worshipped at Thebes

Nefertum – God of the lotus blossom from which the sun god rose at the beginning of time. Son of Ptah and Sekhmet

Nemty – Falcon god, worshipped in Middle Egypt

Neper – A god of grain

Osiris – god of death and resurrection who rules the underworld and enlivens vegetation, the sun god, and deceased souls.

Ptah – A creator deity and god of craftsmen, the patron god of Memphis

Ra – The sun god

Set – An ambivalent god, characterized by violence, chaos, and strength, connected with the desert. Mythological murderer of Osiris and enemy of Horus, but also a supporter of the king

Shu – Embodiment of wind or air

Sobek – Crocodile god, worshipped in the Faiyum and at Kom Ombo

Sopdu – A god of the sky and of Egypt's eastern border regions

Thoth – A moon god, and a god of writing and scribes, and patron deity of Hermopolis

Wadj-wer – Personification of the Mediterranean sea or lakes of the Nile Delta

Major female deity's:

Amunet – Female counterpart of Amun

Anuket – A feathered headdress wearing goddess of Egypt's southern frontier regions, particularly the lower cataracts of the Nile

Bastet – Goddess represented as a cat or lioness, patroness of the city of Bubastis, linked with protection from evil

Bat – Cow goddess from early in Egyptian history

Hathor – One of the most important goddesses, linked with the sky, the sun, sexuality and motherhood, music and dance, foreign lands and goods, and the afterlife. One of many forms of the Eye of Ra

Heqet – Frog goddess said to protect women in childbirth

Hesat – A maternal cow goddess

Imentet – An afterlife goddess closely linked with Isis and Hathor

Isis – Wife of Osiris and mother of Horus, linked with funerary rituals, motherhood, protection, and magic.

Maat – Goddess who personified truth, justice, and order

Menhit – A lioness goddess

Mut – Consort of Amun, worshipped at Thebes

Neith – A creator and hunter goddess, patron of the city of Sais in Lower Egypt

Nekhbet – A vulture goddess, the tutelary deity of Upper Egypt

Nephthys – A member of the Ennead, the consort of Set, who mourned Osiris alongside Isis

Nepit – A goddess of grain, female counterpart of Neper

Nut – A sky goddess

Pakhet – A lioness goddess mainly worshipped in the area around Beni Hasan

Renenutet – An agricultural goddess

Satet – A goddess of Egypt's southern frontier regions

Sekhmet – A lioness goddess, both destructive and violent and capable of warding off disease, protector of the pharaohs who led them in war, the consort of Ptah and one of many forms of the Eye of Ra

Tefnut – Goddess of moisture

Wadjet – A cobra goddess, the tutelary deity of Lower Egypt

Wosret – A goddess of Thebes

Mixed form

Anubis/Anput – The god/goddess of embalming and protector of the dead

Heh – Personification of infinity

Kek – The god of Chaos and Darkness, as well as being the concept of primordial darkness. Kek's female form is known as Kauket.

Nu – Personification of the formless, watery disorder from which the world emerged at creation

Ra (Re) – The foremost Egyptian sun god, involved in creation and the afterlife. Mythological ruler of the gods, father of every Egyptian king, and the patron god of Heliopolis

Tatenen – Personification of the first mound of earth to emerge from chaos in ancient Egyptian creation myths

Egyptian sorcery

Ankh

Magic in ancient Egypt was not a parlor trick or illusion, it was the harnessing of the powers of natural laws, conceived of as supernatural entities, in order to achieve a certain goal. To the Egyptians, a world without magic was inconceivable. It was through magic that the world had been created, magic sustained the world daily, magic healed when one was sick, gave when one had nothing, and assured one of eternal life after death.

In ancient Egypt, if a woman were having difficulty conceiving a child, she might spend an evening in a Bes Chamber (also known as an incubation chamber) located within a temple. Bes was the god of childbirth, sexuality, fertility, among other his other responsibilities, and it was thought an evening in the god's presence would encourage conception. Women would carry Bes amulets, wear Bes tattoos, in an effort to encourage fertility.

Bes amulet

**Heka** was the god of magic and the practice of the art itself. A magician-priest or priest-physician would invoke Heka in the practice of heka.

Heka never had a temple, cult following, or formal worship for the simple reason that he was so all-pervasive he permeated every area of Egyptian life.

The priests of the temple cults understood this but their function was to honor and care for their particular deity and ensure a reciprocity between that god and the people. The priests or priestesses, therefore, would not invoke Heka directly because he was already present in the power of the deity they served.

Heka statue

Heka was the god of medicine as well as magic and for good reason: the two were considered equally important by medical professionals. There was a kind of doctor with the title of swnw (general practitioner) and another known as a sau (magical practitioner) denoting their respective areas of expertise but magic was widely used by both. Doctors operated out of an institution known as the Per-Ankh (“The House of Life”), a part of a temple where medical texts were written, copied, studied, and discussed.

Eye of horus

The priest-physician-magician would carefully examine and question a patient to determine the nature of the problem and would then invoke whatever god seemed most appropriate to deal with it. Disease was a disruption of the natural order and so, unlike the role of the temple priest who maintained the people's belief in the gods through standard rituals, the physician was dealing with powerful and unpredictable forces which had to be summoned and controlled expertly

Egyptian amulets

Egyptians of every social class from the king to the peasant believed in and relied upon magic in their daily lives. Evidence for this practice comes from the number of amulets and charms found through excavations, inscriptions on obelisks, monuments, palaces, and temples, tomb engravings, personal and official correspondence, inscriptions, and grave goods.

Charms and spells were used to increase fertility, for luck in business, for improved health, and also to curse an enemy. One's name was considered one's identity but Egyptians believed that everyone also had a secret name (the ren) which only the individual and the gods knew. To discover one's secret name was to gain power over them. Even if one could not discover another person's ren they could still exercise control by slandering the person's name or even erasing that person's name from history.

Just as magic was involved in one's birth and life, so was it present at one's departure to the next world. Mummification was practiced in order to preserve the body so that it could be recognized by the soul in the afterlife. The last act of the priests at a funeral was the Opening of the Mouth Ceremony during which they would touch the mummified corpse with different objects at various places on the body in order to restore the use of ears, eyes, mouth, and nose. Through this magical ritual the departed would be able to see and hear, smell and taste, and speak in the afterlife.

The Egyptian Book of the Dead exemplifies the belief in magic at work in the afterlife. The text contains 190 spells to help the soul navigate the afterlife to reach the paradise of The Field of Reeds, an eternal paradise which perfectly reflected one's life on earth but without disappointment, disease or the fear of death and loss. Throughout The Egyptian Book of the Dead the soul is instructed which spells to use to pass across certain rooms, enter doors, transform one's self into different animals to escape dangers, and how to answer the questions of the gods and those of their realm. All of these spells would have seemed as natural to an ancient Egyptian as detailed directions on a map would be to anyone today – and just as reasonable.

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