windowing into ancient egypt

The eye of Horus is a representation of the energy contained within the waxing and waning of the moon which is feminine Goddess energy.

Eye of Horus

The two ubiquitous ancient Egyptian eyes, left of Horus representing the creative feminine right brain lunar energy, and the right of Re representing the analytical masculine left brain solar energy, are both serpentine goddesses. Wadjet, an emanation of the goddess Hathor (literally the house of Horus), is the serpentine left eye while the raging goddess represented in the form of the lioness goddesses Sekhemet (Hathor's wild and destructive side) or Tefenet are representative of the right eye.

Wadjet as a cobra with Horus as the lion king

Sekhemet from the temple of Hathor in Denderah

Horus is the distillation of wisdom and light, born of the goddess Isis (the womb for the soul in the material plane) and her husband Osiris (Osiris is the eternal light that comes here and dies upon incarnation into matter). The birth of Horus is your story of awakening to an understanding of whom you really are. Feminine energy, which is love, reconstitutes the light soul which you literally see in the moon as it grows and thus the eye of Horus is fractional journeying towards wholeness.

Eye of Horus representing fractions

The full moon is expressing the maximum light this vessel can hold and at this point you can transfigure yourself into a pure luminous being of light and transcend the material plane. If you cannot, then the light is attacked by the powers of darkness and you head back cyclically for another incarnation, just like the moon.

The right eye, the eye of Re, is the distillation of the masculine force that is the impetus that propels us onwards in our journey in the physical realm.

A bracelet of pharaoh Sheshong II depicting the Eye of Re

Re as represented by the cyclical path of the sun is demonstrating the relentless and goal oriented resolve to complete the daily task of the rising and setting of the sun. The Goddess that encapsulates the spirit of this eye can rage at times and cause much destruction in her wake. In ancient Egypt, we have in their myths Sekhemet coming down to destroy mankind at the behest of Re and also the story of the goddess Tefenet leaving the land of Kemet in a huff, and departing for Nubia to which the gods Shu and Thoth are sent in order to bring her back to Egypt. These tales are presenting how destructive masculine energy can be (think war) if not channeled into a more beneficial state. 

As represented by the eyes, within each of these individual paths contains the dualistic notion of the feminine and masculine. Within the eye of Horus are the feminine Hathor, who exudes a soft feminine vibe, and the masculine Horus, who grows up to be an enlightened ruler. This is also true of the eye of Re, where paired with the masculine Re is the feminine counterpart Sekhemet. Much like Re, Sekhemet can be unpredictable and rage. These two Goddess serpentine eyes who are representing the feminine and masculine principles, the yin and the yang, reveal to us that in the ancient Egyptian cosmology it is ultimately the feminine who is the impetus behind the forces which enliven and enlighten the material world. These two eyes are referring to two paths which present themselves to the seeker of higher knowledge, and these paths must be reconciled to each other in harmony in order for the adherent to progress on their spiritual journey. It can be thought of as the alchemical union of the soul and the spirit, the heart and the mind, love and light, Sophia and the Christos, wisdom and the Logos, Mary Magdalene and Jesus Christ, Beauty and the Beast, the idea of the sacred union called the Hieros Gamos, and so on. At its core is what the higher practice of shamanism is all about - the reconciliation of the opposites. The same principle was the guiding light behind the alchemists of the middle ages in their search for alchemical gold. The true practitioner of this esoteric art was indeed searching for the magical elixir of transformation that a combining of the feminine and masculine would constitute. The moon and the sun as two distinct paths can be harmonized in the middle as an axis mundi of sorts, and the result is a transfiguration of the soul in a process the ancient Egyptians described as becoming an Akh. The Akh is a transcended soul of pure luminous light, usually depicted as a white jabiru stork that has the connotation of wisdom reflected in the form of the lunar god Thoth.

The luminous Akh

Within the ancient Egyptian cosmology is always iconographically present a reminder of the dualistic paths of life which must be reconciled in order to master this class we call consciousness. The eyes we see depicted in their art are another striking example of their eternal genius.