The Egyptian Cosmological Conception

@Pharaoh

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Egypt

 · 1 year ago

One of the most complex topics, a true minefield for those who unwisely prepare to enter it, Egyptian cosmology (and cosmology in general) is nevertheless of no small importance especially when viewed as fertile ground from which the plant of Astrology can draw nourishment.

Limited knowledge in both geography and astronomy forced the peoples of antiquity to develop a cosmological conception based more on what they had at hand.
Knowing, therefore, how the ancients conceived of the world around them is of utmost importance for understanding this 'terrain.'

Of course, each people had its own cosmological conception.

As for the Egyptians, we know that they (contrary to our way of seeing) oriented themselves to the South, so that the West was to the right and the East to the left (same view we have in Astrology! ): in this sense, behind (and still 'below') they had the Mediterranean Sea, while in front was the alluvial plain of the Nile Delta, 290 km wide and 180 km long, furrowed in antiquity by twelve branches; on either side of the Nile was a narrow corridor of arable land about 30 km wide and extending 1006 km southward to the first cataract of Aswan (Syene); at this point you had what was the historical demarcation of Egypt, the so-called Southern Gate (a natural river barrier of outcropping granite), beyond which stretched the territories of Nubia and Sudan.

The contrast in color that came between the cultivated land of the banks of the Nile and what were the bordering deserts, caused the Egyptians to distinguish two areas called the Black Land and the Red Land: Egypt proper was the Black Land, or Kemet; all the rest, that is, those places not included in the Nile Valley, came under the name Khast, or 'mountainous country.

Says Lord J. M. Plumley (professor of Egyptology at Cambridge University),

"...the hieroglyphic writing of the name of a foreign territory was usually accompanied by a determinative sign representing a line of hills or mountains. The Egyptians were always aware that to get out of Egypt one had to literally walk up the Nile Valley and into the hills that bordered it"

from "The Cosmology of Ancient Egypt," in "Ancient Cosmologies," ed. Astrolabe, Rome, 1978

It is therefore not surprising that, with so little knowledge of territories other than their own, the Egyptians, and at any rate the early originators of the oldest Egyptian cosmological conceptions) drew inspiration for their worldview solely from the physical and geographical conditions of the Nile Valley. Consequently (and here we come to what may be considered the earliest image of the world as they conceived it), for the ancient inhabitants of the Valley, the world was nothing but a mass of land divided in the middle by the Nile and surrounded by waters, i.e., the Great Circular Ocean, the work of NUN, the first of the gods (Okéan, which can be associated with the Titan Ocean); above that land mass, or flat island, was suspended the vault of heaven, supported by four pillars at the corners of the Earth (sometimes these pillars were identified with poles, or forked branches, or even mountains).

Such a celestial vault, at first, was seen as something fixed, like a flat slab on which the stars were set, like precious stones, to even: "The Egyptians believed that the stars were fires whose emanations formed and rose from the earth..." (Giorgio Abetti, Storia dell'Astronomia, ed. Vallecchi, Florence, 1949).
In time, to an increasing number of sky watchers, it became apparent instead that the stars were in motion. Likewise, continued observation of the changing seasons made it apparent that some star configurations ended up below the horizon, remaining virtually invisible for a long time before returning to occupy the night sky.

Such observations caused the Egyptians to notice the appearance, coinciding with the beginning of the annual flooding of the Nile (June-July, and reaching its peak in September-October), of a very bright star (23 times the brightness of the sun!), namely Sirius, the alpha of the Cane Major, which they called Sept (Greekised Sothis). From the moment of its appearance, i.e., from the morning when, for a few moments, it could be seen on the horizon before the solar glow made it disappear, they counted the days of a year far more precise (with respect to the seasons) than the civil year adopted for practical reasons: thus it was predictable, with mathematical certainty, the beginning of the flood at every point in the Valley, so as to regulate crops and harvests!

All this led the Egyptians to truly regard the sky as something living, and the stars as living beings; indeed, the entire universe was a living entity, and as such must have had a beginning, even if it was inconceivable, to the ancient inhabitants of the Nile Valley, to imagine a time when "something" did not exist (this leads us to consider that, perhaps, Egyptian "philosophy" was centered on an "eternal present").

The Cosmogonic Myths

According to the various Egyptian myths related to creation, and especially the cosmogonies of Hermopolis, Heliopolis and Memphis, considered the most important, this "something" was represented by a primordial Abyss of waters, expanse that is "in infinity, nonbeing, nothingness and darkness" (Book of the Dead), a something without boundaries, extending everywhere, and which was personified, as we have already seen, by the god NUN, sometimes represented as a male figure immersed in water up to his waist and with his arms raised to hold the boat of the Sun.
Thus, what is the fundamental principle of Egyptian cosmology seems to consist of the Primordial Waters, which have always existed and will last forever.

We may add that for the ancient Egyptians, the world (their world) was a cavity floating in the center of these Primordial Waters, a kind of air bubble surrounded by the expanse of NUN: in this sense, the seas, rivers, streams, waters, wells, rain, were considered part of the Primordial Waters.

Just as for other local peoples (see the Hebrews), for the Egyptians there was a firmament dividing the waters above from those below.

Over time, various religiously, politically, and economically based transformations inserted increasingly "sophisticated" elements into Egyptian cosmology: for example, in the cosmogony of Hermopolis (Greek name of the city sacred to Thot, precisely considered the Egyptian Hermes, i.e., Khnum, meaning "City of Eight." consider that Khnum is also the name of the ram-headed deity, lord of cold water and the Aswan Falls, regulator of the Nile overflows) the four characteristics of the Primordial Waters, namely "depth," "darkness," eternity," and "invisibility," were personified by eight beings, or eight deities (ogdoaids): in practice, each of these characteristics was represented by a male and a female figure: Nau and Naunat (depth), Kuk and Kukwet (darkness), Hu and Hauhet (eternity), Amun and Amaunet (invisibility); the females with snake heads, the males with frog heads.

Such deities formed the primordial part of the "being-in-itself," that is, they represented the primordial egg from which the first being emerged. Thot (Tahuti), like Khnum represented with a ram's head, was regarded as the head of these eight deities; he was later credited with the invention of writing and was seen as the repository of all human knowledge, as well as the master of Hike, the "magic."

Also in the Hermopolite cosmogony, the creator of the world, in the appearance of a child, is said to have sprung forth from a lotus flower whose petals opened when the primordial darkness ended: he was, this child, the sun, which is why, at the end of the day, the lotus closes its petals, as if to protect the sun on its way through the darkness. Around 2200-2000 B.C., the cosmology of Hermopolis became intermingled (a frequent occurrence also due to political reasons) with that of Heliopolis (i.e. Annu, in Greek Heliopolis, the On of the Bible; literally "City of the Sun"), whose god-creator was Atum (Ra-Atum): here Atum (the "All" or the "Most Perfect," ancient god of Heliopolis, since the 4th Dynasty associated with Ra) is said to have emerged from the Primordial Waters in the form of a "hill" (note that in the ecosystem of the Nile Valley, the "hills," i.e., those mounds of fertile land that regularly appeared in the river when the flood waters receded, played a most important role in the development of life, both animal and plant).

Then, it is said, Atum drew from his person (by vomiting them out) the two deities Shu (or Skhw, which can be associated with the Titan Ceo, the Chileo, the Air) and Tenefet (or Tefnut, which can be associated with Diana, the dew, the rain).

Shu and Tenefet begat Geb, god of Earth, and Nut, goddess of Heaven; it is said that in the beginning they were, Geb and Nut, that is, Earth and Chileo, laced together in a close embrace, but their father Shu separated them by lifting Nut aloft so that it formed the arc of the firmament, and leaving his son Geb lying on his back so that he became Earth; Shu then remained between them to act as Air between Chileo and Earth. Interestingly, the birth of Shu and Tenefet occurs, as mentioned, through an expectoration from Atum's mouth: the name Shu is related to the verb "ishesh," which means "to spit out," and Tenefet is related to the term "tef," which, roughly speaking, can be likened to the aforementioned "ishesh" (Plumley, op.cit.).

The great importance that assumed, in Egyptian culture, religious and political centers such as precisely Hermopolis, Heliopolis, but also and above all Memphis (i.e. Men-nofer, "beautiful monument"), led on the one hand to the enrichment of the primitive cosmological (and cosmogonic) conception, and on the other hand to a supremacy now of that one or that other god, understood as Being from whom everything sprang; Plumley again tells us, "During the Old Kingdom (3300-2160 B.C. C.), when Memphis was the capital of Egypt/Memphite period, 2630-2160 B.C.), there seems to have been a need to attempt a reconciliation between the cosmogony of Heliopolis, for which the creator god was Atum, and the cosmogony of Memphis, which attributed the act of creation to Ptah" (Plumley, Op.cit.).

In a very ancient text, the "Treatise on Theology" of Memphis, dating back to the Old Kingdom and found in a papyrus in the temple of Ptah by the Nubian king Shabaka (716-701 B.C.) we read, "Creation takes place through the heart and tongue as a representation of Atum. But the greatest is Ptah, who gave life to all the gods and their faculties through this heart and tongue, the heart and tongue from which originated Oro and Thot as Ptah." Further on it is said, "He is the hill (Tatjenen) that brought forth the gods from which everything came, both food, divine nourishment, and any other good thing. So that it was discovered and understood that his power is greater than that of any other god. And so Ptah was paid for having created all things and every divine word" (Plumley, op.cit.).

Incidentally, let us add that the Egyptian pharaoh, as well as the Persian "shahs," celebrated his own jubilee after 30 years of reign, a jubilee "invented" by Ptah, i.e., the Egyptian Saturn: and 30 years (29.46) is the period of Saturn's revolution!
Returning to the Memphite cosmogony, we see how creation is the work of thought and speech, what implies an action of intelligence itself that we do not get to see in the Heliopolitan and Hermopolitan cosmogonies.

The Goddess Ma'at

At this point it is interesting how, despite the alternation and in any case the disappearance and reappearance of the various deities appointed to represent the Universe, the ancient Egyptians agreed that the structure of the Universe could only be maintained and sustained in its integrity by relying on balance, on the harmonious coexistence of the various elements that compose it, and this balance, this cohesion, this preservation, were summed up in the word "ma'at."

Now, despite the fact that "ma'at" was only a pure abstraction, it came, in later times, to personify her in the daughter of the sun and to represent her with an ostrich feather on her head, a feather that was a symbol of justice and fairness (ostrich feathers would in fact all be the same length).

Ma'at was thus the cosmic order, synonymous with truth and justice.

Consider that her feather was placed on one of the scales used to weigh the heart of the deceased during the judgment in the afterlife before Osiris (Asar), god of the dead: if the heart weighed more than the feather, the soul of the deceased was devoured by a crocodile-headed monster, otherwise it was welcomed into the so-called "Fields of Peace"; in addition to the goddess Ma'at, the god Thot (Tahuti) and the god Anubis (Anpu), the latter in charge of helping the deceased, participated in this ceremony.
The balance of Ma'at was, however, consequent on the renewal action to which creation had to undergo, a renewal that rather than being the work of the gods themselves called into play the "pharaoh" (Egyptian perao, "great house"), their representative on earth.

We can say that while creation was a "divine" act, the maintenance of it was the exclusive task of men, and in any case of the pharaoh and/or priest, since they lived in the temples, the abode of the gods on earth.

Note that this represents one of the many avenues from which the study of the stars (gods) as elements capable of uniting the "here" with the "there," so as to act as mediators, as interpreters, between the language of the gods and that of men, originates and develops.

Religion

Obviously, the cosmological discourse cannot be separated from the religious one, although it seems difficult to reconstruct what was a fixed Egyptian "pantheon" (but did it exist in the form in which we conceive it? ), with deities with a precise physiognomy; far be it from us, therefore, to claim to explain the complexity of Egyptian religion; suffice it to say that in the tomb of the pharaoh of the 17th dynasty, Menkheper-Ra Thuthmesis III (1481-1448 B.C.), the greatest leader and politician of Ancient Egypt, conqueror of Nubia, was found the list of no less than 740 Egyptian deities! This demonstrates the difficulty of forcing not only Egyptian religion but also Egyptian cosmology (and cosmogony) into precise frameworks.

By way of example, here is a list, obviously partial, of some Egyptian deities (in uppercase characters) with their corresponding Greek names (in lowercase characters):

Yet, the people of the Nile Valley were essentially conservative, and this is evidenced by the fact that, in spite of everything, they scrupulously adhered to those deities in charge of safeguarding the 42 "nòmi" (in Egyptian sepat, administrative divisions) of Egypt: 22 nòmi of Upper Egypt from Memphis to Elephantine (island of the Nile) and Aswan, which were fixed with the beginning of the Fifth Dynasty, and 20 nòmi of Lower Egypt (that of the Nile Delta), fixed, as a definitive number, only during the Greco-Roman period.

The number 42 also had symbolic value: such was, for example, the number of judges of the dead, and Clement Alexandrinus (a Christian writer of the second century CE) tells us that the Egyptians had 42 sacred books.

However, and in spite of such "conservatism," later Egyptians accepted, making them their own, even foreign deities (and not a few!), some of which until yesterday were mistakenly believed to be Egyptian!

The greater or lesser fortune of a deity was, however, conditioned by the unfolding of internal political events, so if a city found itself assuming a leading role, its chief deity ascended to a prominent place both in the nòmo and throughout the Kingdom.

In this regard, in order to avoid conflicts and inappropriate centralization of power, the priestly colleges devised various expedients including that of relating different deities to each other, so that theological figures were created whose names combined in themselves two, three, sometimes even four names of pre-existing deities: somewhat as also happened with the transition from Aegean-Minoan-Cretan-Anatolian to Greek religion: deities such as Apollo, Artemis, Hephaestus, Zeus, for example, are each the sum of many pre-existing deities, in some cases twenty to a hundred for each!

What does this mean? That it is impossible for us to trace back to something fixed and still be able to get an idea of what each god meant in the Egyptian pantheon? But are not these "fusions" synonymous, also, with the richness of the symbol, and thus its validity?

The Sacred and Non-Sacred Books

Of course, we know that Egyptian culture, Egyptian civilization, was a "very peculiar mixture of archaic tradition and the most advanced ideas" (Plumley, op.cit.), but also that there are many testimonies from which we can draw information: in the Old Kingdom (3rd-6th dynasty, 3000-2242 B.C, Memphite period) we have, with Pharaoh Uni, the so-called "Texts of the Pyramids," a vast complex of nearly 4,000 lines that gives us information about aspects of Egyptian mythology during what was the primacy of the priests (and thus the city) of Heliopolis.

Also, during the 6th dynasty what we know as the "Heliopolitan Ennead" was formed.

From the 11th to the 14th dynasty (Middle Kingdom) we have the primacy of Thebes (Uast), which, in addition to hymns and memorial inscriptions of undoubted interest, left us the "Texts of the Sarcophagi," a revised and corrected form for the less affluent and titled classes of the aforementioned "Text of the Pyramids." It was during this period that religion underwent a real revolution, making Osiris (Asar) and Amun gain ground.

With the XVIII-XX dynasties (New Kingdom, 1580-1085 BCE) there is an increase in Egyptian power (evidenced by the presence of pharaohs such as Amenhotep I, II, III, IV, Thuthmesis I, II, III, IV, Tutankhamun, Ramesses I, II, III, IV, V), a period in which the "Book of the Dead" makes its appearance. Other important texts are the "Book of the Gates," the "Book of the Amduat," and the "Book of the Cow of Heaven," the latter of mythological character, all from the 19th dynasty, Pharaoh Men-Maat-Ra-Sethi I (1318-1306 BCE).

To these works, in hieroglyphic hieratic characters, must be added all those news provided to us by classical writers, Greek historiographers and geographers, such as Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus and Strabo; news we also extrapolate from the Greek writings on the work of Manetho, who was a priest in the Delta at the time of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (280-246 B.C.).

From all this heritage we have a view of Egyptian mythology and cosmology that is quite broad and perhaps for this reason not easy to place in a single reference system.
Yet it is precisely from this people and its system of thought ("multiplicity of approaches," as H.Frankfort says) that we get those esoteric and metaphysical evidences from which we can draw for our studies today, evidences that turn out to have their roots far beyond the Egyptian Civilization (see The Origins of Astrology, by Sergio Ghivarello, in: Astral Language No. 35/1979), what leads it to assume the role, so far not widely understood, of an "excellent bridge" through which to arrive at a true knowledge of Man's Past.

Cosmology and Astrology

What has been said so far allows us to make some interesting points: we mentioned at the beginning of this chapter that the Egyptians oriented themselves by looking southward: in fact, Lower Egypt is that of the Nile Delta (for us it is Northern Egypt), while Upper Egypt is that narrow valley wedged between the highlands of the Libyan and Arabian Deserts, which for us is obviously Southern Egypt.

The goddess Nut surrounded by the zodiac signs. Sarcophagus of Soter. 2nd cent. AD.

Let us also consider that what was the historical delimitation of Egypt, the aforementioned "Southern Gate" represented in practice by an imposing fluvial emergence of granitic rock (i.e., porphyritic diorite), was located just south of Aswan, and precisely between the sites of Bet el-Uali and Kalabsha: well, in this geographical area we find nothing less than the TROPIC OF CANCER, what makes this delimitation take on quite particular and interesting connotations for the purposes of astrological research!

We then saw how their primeval cosmological vision was represented by a cluster of land divided in the middle by the Nile and surrounded by the "Great Circular Ocean," what can be depicted as follows:

We see how the Nile Delta is found depicted at the bottom (precisely "Lower Egypt"). Now, the different geographical orientation held by the Egyptians, and in any case the figure now proposed, certainly gives one pause for thought: if we superimpose on this a horoscopic chart, we see that on the Nile Delta 'falls' the fourth sector, analogous to the fourth Sign, CANCER, which brings the sources of the Nile to 'place' in CAPRICORN!

A curiosity: the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet is 'Delta,' so called precisely because of its triangular shape, resembling a river delta; that it is the fourth, can you tell us nothing? Better, and more in keeping with the Egyptian mindset, would be to say that the Nile 'rises' in the Dean of Montone (Capricorn) and 'flows out' in the Dean Sit (Cancer); after all, it seems that the Egyptians proceeded more in equatorial decans than in zodiacal Signs.

Nile then as a North-South directrix interesting the Cancer/Capricorn axis: consider that these two Signs represent the so-called Gates of the Zodiac (it is said that from the Gate of Cancer - called the Gate of Men - souls pass to incarnate, while from the Gate of Capricorn - called the Gate of the Gods - passes the deity who wants to incarnate), which leads us on a fascinating and mysterious path that assigns to the Nile divine and creative prerogatives, not far from those attributed to it by the inhabitants of its Valley.

Nile as a sacred river, then, and like all sacred rivers (see the Ganges) an epigone, and in any case an "earthly continuer," of the "heavenly rivers," foremost among them the Milky Way.

Nile as a "self-feeding river," since it feeds its waters into the "Great Circular Ocean" from which it is then reborn, which, if we wish, brings us closer to Anaximander's concept of "infinite flow," of "limitlessness" (apeiron).

However, aside from these digressions that would take us into unanticipated philosophical terrain, we know that among the Egyptians (but not only: see Chaldeans and Arabs) the stars enjoyed greater importance than the planets; this does not detract from the fact that the latter, especially during the New Kingdom (and in any case after the 18th dynasty, 1580-1314 BCE. B.C.), made up for lost time: in the tomb of Pharaoh Men-Maat-Ra-Sethi I, son of Ramesses I, for example, we find mentioned some planets so named:

In the Egyptian conception of the "decans" (in practice, 36 subdivisions of 10 days each into which the Egyptian year was divided, i.e., 36 parts of the zodiacal circle, each under the jurisdiction of a particular star; see Julius Firmicus Maternus [4th century CE], chapter 16 of the fourth book of De Nativitatibus, sive matheseos libri VIII), we have:

• Mars as lord of the first decan of the first Sign (Aries), thus of the first sector East;
• Jupiter as lord of the first decan of the tenth Sign (Capricorn), hence of the South;
• Saturn as lord of the second decan of the seventh Sign (Libra), then of the sunset, West;
• Mercury as lord of the second decan of the fourth Sign (Cancer), hence of the North.

This, applied to the cosmological roundel depicted earlier, gives the following pattern:

As can be seen, the Nile "flows" along the axis formed by the planets Jupiter and Mercury.

Now, to better understand, and at any rate to broaden, the view of traditional Egyptian references in relation to these four points, let us begin by seeing to which Egyptian deities the aforementioned stars were associated:

We also know that the four cardinal points were under the jurisdiction of Her's four sons (i.e., Duamutef, Amsit, Qebensenuf, and Hapi, patron deities of the canopic jars, funerary vessels in which the viscera of the mummified deceased were stored), in turn protected by four goddesses, and thus apportioned:

The winds were also, depending on their direction and strength, identified with the four cardinal points:

Already from these early juxtapositions we can see how the East is represented by "warlike" and otherwise action elements, the South by "solar" elements, the West by "earthly" and otherwise related to both death and motherhood and procreation, and the North by "lunar" elements.

All this traces what is then the meaning of the Cardinal horoscopic sectors (or Houses):

Let us point out that it is in the western area-for us, the left bank of the Nile-that we find most of the sepulchral monuments, the pyramids, whose entrance is always on the north-facing facade, that is, at the "fourth horoscopic sector/Thot"; obvious! If the Nile is the giver of life, then the deceased, as such, will have to go up it (i.e., go against the current) to return to the origin, to the sources, so as to place himself in the arms of Khnum, the god-monton, the "Guardian of the Springs of the Nile," which precisely are located in the "decan of the ram"!

The Sphinx

Also in such an area - that is, the left bank of the Nile - we find the site of el-Giza, a necropolis area where the famous pyramids of Pharaohs Kufu (Cheops), Kafra (Chephren) and Menkaura (Mycerinus) are located, and the great sphinx, facing East, depicting the rising sun, Ra-Harakhti, "Horo of the Two Horizons," and in any case Hor-em-Akhet, that is, "Horo who is on the horizon."

The Sphinx

With its leonine body and human face, the Sphinx, according to many, brings together in itself the characters of the Leo-Acquarius axis; without indulging in daring flights of "esoteric" fantasy, we can here only hint at the fact that such a figure could instead be built on the characteristics of the Leo-Virgin Signs, thus finding its "abode" in the 150th degree of the zodiacal band, the meeting point between the aforementioned Signs, what would invest such a statuesque colossus with very deep meanings, related to the union between the "mother" (Virgin-Isis) and the "son" (Leo-Horus), and in any case represent the whole man, the Man-God.

In this regard, the legend is well known of the man who heard himself called by the Sphinx because, as he passed by her, he had not dignified her with a glance; to which, the poor man replied that he was going to look for a doctor because his child was seriously ill.

The Sphinx, then, said to bring the child to her, lay him in her paws, and return at dawn the next day to take him back, which, despite fear and various fears, was done.
At night, while the child alone and in the dark was weeping and wailing, there came, resplendent, Osiris, Isis and Horo, who touching and caressing him began to play with him, while the child amused himself with the sacred whip of Osiris.

This pleased the gods, and they smiled, and the child finally fell asleep peacefully.
The next morning, his father, sure to find him dead, approached him and, surprised, saw that instead he was alive and playing with a lace of a whip.

The Sphinx smiled, and at the spot where the baby was placed, a small niche was seen, as if the stone behemoth had slightly bent its paw to protect the child (from Reality and Myth of the Sphinx, by V.Armuzzi, in: Journal of Mysteries, No. 25/1972, Corrado Tedeschi Editore, Florence).

Consider that inside the Sphinx is kept a calendar (that relating to the "vague year: meaning, by this term, a year of 12 months, all of 30 days, which then numbered 5 extra days out of the month, called "epagomena," so as to obtain 365 days; now, being shorter by ¼ day than the sidereal year, what was the starting date of the year, signaled as said by the heliacal rising of Sirius, delayed by one day every 4 years; from which the Egyptian year had a mobile beginning with respect to the cycle of the seasons: hence, precisely, the name "vague year"), and that the stele found in it, depicting two gates surmounted by two Sphinxes, makes it a "Guardian of the Threshold," a "Guardian of the Two Gates," the Western and the Eastern, that is, of the two "horizons" and in any case of the two components of man, the soul and the body.

The Sky Inside the Pyramids

At the same site where the Sphinx stands, the great pyramid of Kufu (Cheops) rises in all its 146.6 meters of majesty (pictured: in the foreground that of Mycerinus," "The Divine Pyramid," 65.5 m. high; in the center that of Chephren, "The Great Pyramid," 143.5 m, then that of Cheops, "The Pyramid that is the place of the sunrise of the sunset"), perfect in slope (the cusp measures 76°), amazingly aligned with the four cardinal points (the deviation is only 00°03'33"! ), custodian of high-level knowledge: for example, the entrance opening, on the North facade, sinks inward with a slope of 26°18'10", a slope that, at the latitude of the place, corresponds exactly to the height at which the star Thuban, the alpha Draconis (the "Tail of the Dragon"), which in 2830 B.C. (4th Dynasty) represented the North Star, was located!

Pyramids

Also, the temples of Hathor at Denderah and Mut at Thebes (3500 B.C.) are oriented with the major axis in the direction in which the gamma star Draconis (or Eltanin, the "Dragon's Head") was visible.

A star map reproduced on human features, is found in the tomb (No. 7 in the Valley of the Kings) of Pharaoh Ramesses II (19th Dynasty), and during his reign (1301-1235 BCE) the four Cardinal Signs were determined: Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn.

In the tomb of Senmut (18th Dynasty, 1480 BCE), minister and chief architect of Queen Hatshepsut, and located at Deir el-Bahri, western Thebes, we have a very interesting painted panel with depictions of decans, some stars and planets:

In the reproduction, in the lower left, the bird with the star on its head, for example, is Venus; continuing to the right we have Saturn and Jupiter standing on boats; then we find Isis and, next to it, Orion with the three stars delta, epsilon and zeta, or Mintaka, Alnilam and Alnitak, that is, the stars of the "Belt of Orion" (or, popularly, "staff of St. Joseph") that bounds the gaseous nebula M42 to the north, something, this, that seems to be seen, even, to the right of Orion, in that box in the center of the panel! Which, frankly, should give us pause before calling a people with such astronomical knowledge "primitive"! As for the decans, this are described in the next sequences on the right of the panel.

Let us consider, however, that the presence of these "deans" seems to be found as early as Mesopotamian times, specifically in the so-called "Poem of Creation," the "Enuma Elish," where "stations" are mentioned that were built for each deity, thus fixing their astral images, i.e., the Constellations.

Nile Sacred River

As can be seen, wide is the range of evidence on the astronomical-mathematical knowledge and cosmological conception of the ancient people of the Nile Valley, knowledge which, despite relying on "childish" examples (the pile of earth cut in two by the river on which the pillars supporting the vault of heaven are raised), betrays a knowledge that seems, as mentioned, to be rooted in a past that certainly goes beyond the so-called "tinite" period (I-II Dynasty), just as profound are the meanings that we can draw from the fact that the sacred river finds its symbolic sources in the "decan of the mound/tenth sector," and that it nonetheless unfolds its course on the Capricorn/Cancer axis, at least if seen, this one, as the axis that from the "First Earth" (Capricorn), "God's Land," leads to the "Land of Man" (Cancer, understood as the domain of "form," world of causes): in Capricorn we have the breath of Spirit, in Cancer we find the breathing spirit, that is, the being who has become man, arrived at his physical manifestation.

Here then the Nile, from being a simple dispenser of life for the people of its valley, is covered with symbolic meanings that encapsulate the mystery of life, is covered with those even esoteric assumptions that place it, he, sacred river, in the ranks of those mysteries that transcend human affairs and are lost in sidereal spaces, from where it winks, slyly, at the Galactic Equator, the one, truly sacred river.