Part 9 (1/2)
Selim Ha.s.san actually calls the Duat 'the Kingdom of Osiris' and shows how 'Osiris is styled ”Lord of the Duat” and the Osiris-King [i.e. the deceased Pharaoh] ”a companion of Orion” ...'[325] He then provides a piece of incidental information which adds to our trail of clues when he points out, on the basis of careful textual a.n.a.lysis, that the Duat appears in some way to be linked to Rostau.[326]
38. The pa.s.sageways, chambers and corridors of the 'land of Sokar' in the Fifth Division of the Duat as depicted on tomb walls bear a close resemblance to the pa.s.sageways, chambers and corridors of the Great Pyramid. Could one of the functions of the Pyramid have been to serve as a kind of 'model' or simulation of the afterworld in which initiates underwent trials and ordeals?
Like other commentators, Ha.s.san acknowledges that 'the name of Rostau is applied to the Giza necropolis'.[327] But he also, at various points, defines Rostau as 'the Kingdom of Osiris in the tomb',[328] and as 'the Memphite Underworld'-i.e. the Memphite Duat.[329] In this context he examines the so-called twelve 'Divisions' (or 'Hours') of the Book of What is in the Duat and shows that references to the 'land of Sokar' appear in this text. Indeed, to be a little more specific, he draws our attention to a most intriguing fact. The land of Sokar occupies the Fifth Division of the Duat[330] and: 'The centre of the Fifth Division [is] called Rostau.'[331]
So Egyptologists do not dispute that we have a Rostau on the ground in the form of the Pyramid-field at Giza and a Rostau in the sky in the form of the Fifth Division of the Duat-a place, as the reader will recall, that was not seen as an 'Underworld' by the ancient Egyptians but rather as a specific celestial location in Orion.
Furthermore, as we noted in pa.s.sing in Part I, the pa.s.sageways, chambers and corridors of the land of Sokar-amply portrayed on tomb walls in surviving depictions of the Fifth Division of the Duat-uncannily resemble the pa.s.sageways, chambers and corridors of the Great Pyramid of Giza. Indeed the resemblance is so close that it is permissible to wonder whether one of the functions of the Pyramid may have been to serve as a kind of model or 'simulation' of the afterworld in which initiates underwent trials and ordeals intended to prepare them intellectually and spiritually for the terrifying experiences and judgements that the soul was believed to confront after death.
Here, perhaps, was the testing ground for the ancient Egyptian 'science of immortality' elaborated in every utterance and vignette of the princ.i.p.al funerary and rebirth texts-the purpose of which was to facilitate the journey of the soul through the daunting traps and pitfalls of the Duat.
Additional food for thought in this regard is provided by Selim Ha.s.san who does not neglect to mention that one of the distinguis.h.i.+ng features of the Fifth Division of the Duat is the presence there of a giant 'double-lion' Sphinx-G.o.d named Aker, who seemingly protects the 'Kingdom of Sokar'.[332] Ha.s.san also points out that 'above Aker in this scene is a large Pyramid'.[333] He says that this symbolism, when put in 'conjunction with Aker in Sphinx form and the name of Rostau', suggests that 'the Fifth Division was originally a [complete] version of the Duat and had its geographical counterpart in the Giza necropolis'.[334]
39. The Fifth Division of the Duat features a gigantic 'double-lion' Sphinx-G.o.d and a large Pyramid. Compare this symbolic imagery with the Great Sphinx and Great Pyramid seen in profile from the south-east.
In support of this idea, Ha.s.san then refers us to another of the ancient Egyptian funerary texts, the so-called Book of Two Ways, where mention is made of 'the Highland of Aker, which is the Dwelling Place of Osiris' and also of 'Osiris who is in the Highland of Aker'.[335] Ha.s.san suggests that 'highland of Aker' may be a reference to the Giza plateau, 'where is the earthly Rostau'.[336] Exactly the same idea occurred to the American Egyptologist Mark Lehner in his 1974 pamphlet, The Egyptian Heritage.[337] Here, after completing a study of Rostau, he wrote: 'it is tempting to see the lion figures of Aker as a representation of the Sphinx at Giza.'[338]
Roads of Rostau
The Book of Two Ways is a text that was copied onto the floors and sides of coffins over a 250-year span (2050-1800 bc) during the Middle Kingdom. According to the archaeo-astronomer Jane B. Sellers it was designed 'to aid the soul of the deceased to pa.s.s along the roads to Rostau, the Gate in the necropolis which gives access to the ”Pa.s.sages of the Netherworld” ...'[339]
The related Coffin Texts (2134-1783 bc) shed further light on the matter when they state: I have pa.s.sed over the paths of Rostau, whether on water or on land, and these are the paths of Osiris, they are [also] in the limit of the sky ...[340]
I am Osiris; I have come to Rostau to know the secrets of the Duat ...[341]
I shall not be turned back at the gates of the Duat; I ascend to the sky with Orion ... I am one who collects his efflux in front of Rostau ...[342]
As Sellers points out, many ancient Egyptian texts insist 'that the topography of Rostau, though in the sky, is on water and on land.'[343] She also proposes that 'the paths by way of water' could have been in that area of the sky that 'we know as the Milky Way'.[344] This idea seems highly plausible when we remember that the 'cosmic address' of the Duat is the 'Kingdom of Osiris in Orion' on the right bank of the Milky Way. The logic of ancient Egyptian duality therefore suggests that 'the paths by way of land' should be found at the earthly Rostau.
The earthly Rostau is the Giza necropolis,[345] site of the three Pyramids and the Sphinx-so with all this talk of sky-ground dualities it would be almost perverse to ignore the four narrow 'star-shafts' which emanate skywards from the King's and Queen's Chambers inside the Great Pyramid.
The reader will recall that the southern shaft of the King's Chamber was directed at around 2500 bc to the centre of the constellation of Orion-i.e. to Orion's belt at its 'culmination' or 'meridian transit' 45 degrees above the horizon. Strangely, at the crucial observational moment in the predawn on the summer solstice-crucial, at any rate, to the ancient Egyptians of the Pyramid Age-computer simulations indicate that Orion was seen not at the meridian but in the south-east, i.e. far to the left of the point in the sky targeted by the southern shaft of the King's Chamber.
40. Summer solstice in the epoch of 2500 bc: the Duat region. Note that Orion's belt at this crucial observational moment was nut at the meridian but in the south-east and thus far to the left of the point in the sky targeted by the southern shaft of the King's Chamber. The sky seems somehow out of kilter and one has the uncomfortable feeling that the belt stars need to be drawn round to the south, and specifically to the meridian, so that they can interlock with the shaft that targets them.
Looking at the simulation, everything seems out of kilter-dislocated-and one has the uncomfortable feeling that the stars of Orion's belt need somehow to be drawn round to the south, and specifically to the meridian, so that they can interlock with the shaft that targets them.
We suspect that for the ancient Egyptians this curious and unsettling 'dislocation' of the sky served as the stimulus for an esoteric journey which was undertaken on the ground by the Pharaohs themselves following celestial clues.
As we shall see in subsequent chapters their quest may have been for something of immense importance. But in order to understand why, we must first find out who the Sphinx is.
Chapter 9.
The Sphinx and its Horizons 'The Sphinx has a Genesis, and that was the lion ...'
Egyptologist Selim Ha.s.san, The Sphinx, Cairo 1949 '[The constellation of] Leo resembles the animal after which it is named. A right triangle of stars outline the back legs ... the front of the constellation, like a giant backward question mark, defines the head, mane, and front legs. At the base of the question mark is Regulus, the heart of the lion ...'
Nancy Hathaway, Friendly Guide to the Universe, NY 1994 Even a casual review of the religious texts of the ancient Egyptians leaves no doubt that they regarded their earthly environment as a sacred landscape which they had inherited from the G.o.ds. It was their absolute conviction that in the remote golden age called the 'First Time' Osiris had established a sort of 'cosmic kingdom' in the Memphite region which had been pa.s.sed on to his son Horus and thence through him, down the cycles of the epochs, to subsequent generations of human 'Horus-Kings'-i.e. to the living Pharaohs of Egypt.
We have seen that the essence of this sacred 'Kingdom of Osiris' was the peculiar dualism with which it was connected to an area of the sky known as the Duat, close to Orion and Sirius on the western side of the Milky Way. We have also seen how the centre of the Duat was called Rostau and how Rostau, too, existed in both cosmic and terrestrial realms: in the heavens it was characterized by the three stars of Orion's belt and on earth by the three great Pyramids of Giza. Last but not least, we have seen how the ancient Egyptians of the Pyramid Age particularly observed the Duat as it lay along the eastern horizon in the pre-dawn at the time of the summer solstice.
The important word here is 'horizon'. It will prove to be the key to the mystery of who-or what-the Great Sphinx really represents.
Celestial reflections
With the aid of computer simulations, and a little imagination, let us journey to the epoch of 2500 bc, when the Pyramid Texts were compiled, and set our location at Heliopolis on the observatory platform of the astronomer priests. The time of year is the summer solstice, the moment of observation is the pre-dawn, and we are looking in the general direction of the eastern horizon. This means that we have our backs turned to the Giza Pyramids which lie across the Nile some twelve miles to our west.
Looking east also means that we are looking at the Duat. And as our computer reconstructs the skies our eyes are drawn to that region of the Duat known as Rostau which manifests the celestial counterparts of the three great Pyramids-the three stars of Orion's belt glimmering in the pre-dawn.
Having registered this image we set our direction towards the west, towards the Pyramids. The bodies of the distant monuments are still cloaked in darkness but the first hint of the rising sun lights up their capstones with an astral glimmer ...
So we can see that there is a sense in which the Giza necropolis is itself a kind of 'horizon'-i.e. that its three pyramids form a reflection in the west of the three 'stars of Rostau' that observers in 2500 bc would have seen on the eastern horizon of Heliopolis in the pre-dawn at the summer solstice. Perhaps this is precisely what was meant by an otherwise cryptic inscription on the granite stela between the paws of the Sphinx which speaks of Giza not only as the 'Splendid Place of the ”First Time” ' as we have seen, but also as the 'Horizon of Heliopolis in the West'.[346]
Astronomer-priests
When the Pyramid Texts were compiled in the epoch of 2500 bc, the religious centre of the Pharaonic state was at Heliopolis-the 'City of the Sun', called On or Innu by the ancients, which now lies completely buried under the Al Matareya suburb of modern Cairo.[347] Heliopolis was the earliest cult centre of the sun-G.o.d Re in his form as Atum, the 'Father of the G.o.ds'. The Heliopolitan priests were high initiates in the mysteries of the heavens and their dominant occupation was the observation and recording of the various motions of the sun and the moon, the planets and the stars.[348]
Much leads us to conclude that they benefited from a vast heritage of experience based on such observations, acc.u.mulated over enormously long periods of time. At any rate, the ancient Greek and Roman scholars-who were at least two millennia closer to the ancient Egyptians than we are today-were constantly in awe at the high knowledge and wisdom of the Heliopolitan and Memphite priests and especially of their astronomical science.