potent stuff

I have previously touched on the connection of physical potency, especially in terms of male gods, to rebirth. The remembering of Osiris by his sister-wife Isis being the one that I tend to reference. The idea of remembering has a dual meaning, in that you need to know about the divine which is resident within your heart and awaken it but also Osiris' torn and scattered parts must also be gathered up by Isis and re-assembled. The primary goal of this remembering is to make Osiris' "member" erect so that Isis can be impregnated with his seed and birth our enlightened self, who was called Horus. Osiris was no doubt considered very potent and a giver of life which we can see in his role as a vegetation god, with the vegetation cycle being recognized as one of the natural power latent within him. To this point he would appear on temple walls with his skin green to denote his potency.

Osiris with green skin

Green and sexual potency has made it into our modern languages. Green in French is vert and undoubtedly influenced our English words such as vernal - springtime, verdant - nature all lush and green, and virile. Virile also gives us a big clue to its ancient origins:

virile (adj.)

late 15th century, from Old French viril, from Latin virilis "of a man, manly," from vir "a man, a hero," from Proto Indo-European *uiHro "freeman" (confer Sanskrit virah, Avestan vira-, Lithuanian vyras, Old Irish fer, Welsh gwr, Gothic wair, Old English wer "man"). Virile member for "penis" is recorded from 1540s.

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=virile&searchmode=none

That one jumps right out at me. Virile coming from a Latin word virilis that is derived from vir, which is a man who is a hero. This hero, Heru-Ur/Heruwer/Haoeris/Horus the Elder was well known in ancient Egypt, the great light whose eyes were the sun and moon. The 'u' or 'w' being interchangeable in the transliteration of Egyptian hieroglyphics and filtering down through time and cultures as a 'v'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W

Horus the Elder

As an aside, did you know that the word hero supposedly has no connection to the greatest hero in the greatest hero's journey of them all, the ancient Egyptian Heru, known in greek as Horus? Instead, it is said by linguists to come from a Proto Indo-European root word "ser".

hero (n)

late 14th century, "man of superhuman strength or physical courage," from Latin heros "hero," from Greek heros "demi-god" (a variant singular of which was heroe), originally "defender, protector," from Proto Indo-European root *ser- "to watch over, protect" (confer Latin servare "to save, deliver, preserve, protect;" see observe).

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=hero&searchmode=none

So, the virile hero in ancient Egypt is the Osiris/Horus story which is in reality the story of our soul and its journey into and out of matter. This is symbolized in the night sky as the journey of the great giant in the sky, Orion. This Orion at times can be quite the fighter as two of the stars which make up his constellation have direct associations with the concept of battle and war. Those asters would be the left shoulder known as Bellatrix "warlike, skilled in war" and the right leg Saiph "sword". I went further into this topic in my blog post called War, what is it good for?

So, the great man of the sky, Wer, has an association with the concept of war.

war

late Old English (c. 1050), wyrre, werre, from Old North French werre "war" (French guerre), from Frankish *werra, from Proto Germanic *werso (confer Old Saxon werran, Old High German werran, German verwirren "to confuse, perplex"). Cognates suggest the original sense was "to bring into confusion." There was no common Germanic word for "war" at the dawn of historical times. Old English had many poetic words for "war" (guð, heaðo, hild, wig, all common in personal names), but the usual one to translate Latin bellum was gewin "struggle, strife" (related to win). Spanish, Portugeuse, Italian guerra are from the same source; Romanic peoples turned to Germanic for a word to avoid Latin bellum because its form tended to merge with bello- "beautiful." The verb meaning "to make war on" is recorded from mid-12th century.

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=war&searchmode=none

The Latin bellum is interesting in its connection to the concept of a struggle or a battle. Ultimately, that word can be traced to a Semitic origin, Bel or Ba'al with this deity having the connotation of lord or father. It is a fascinating topic to trace the topic of Ba'al and its condemnation in Jewish literature. I'll have to leave it alone for now, though it is tempting to establish the identity of this god and why he has a relationship to battling.

The word urine also retains a connection to war and the constellation of Orion. I commented on it in my previous blog post that I referred to earlier and I'm going to copy and paste the relevant passage here:

The name for Orion relates to urine in greek. Greek mythology describes the origin of Orion as the result of a meeting between Hyrieus of Boeotia and the gods Zeus, Poseidon, and Hermes. Hyrieus at the time did not know they were gods but entertained them with great hospitality anyway. When the gods revealed themselves and thanked Hyrieus they granted him a wish. Hyrieus wished for a son which the three gods engendered by either urinating or ejaculating into a bull's hide and burying it into the ground. The child Ourion was born nine months later. Clouding (ha ha) this story a bit is I'm unsure if two thousand years ago urine referred to the waste product from the kidneys or seminal fluid or both. It seems to be a term used for fluid that is secreted. Here's the history of the word:

urine

early 14th century., from Old French urine (12th century), from Latin urina "urine," from Proto-Indo-European *ur- (confer Greek ouron "urine"), variant of base *awer- "to moisten, flow" (confer Sanskrit var "water," Avestan var "rain," Lithuanian jures "sea," Old English wær, Old Norse ver "sea," Old Norse ur "drizzling rain." Urinate is a 1590s back-formation from urination (early 15th century).

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=urine&searchmode=none

The story makes a great deal more sense if urine is referring to the seminal fluid that engenders life as opposed to waste secretion. The word urine, with its prefix ur- leads me to believe it would have more of a connection to light. So, what then of the word semen? Where does this come from? Its known etymology leads to a dead end:

semen

late 14th century, from Latin semen "seed," from Proto Indo-European *si-so-, reduplication of root *se- "to sow" (confer Latin serere "to sow," Old Prussian semen "seed," Old Church Slavonic seme, Old High German samo; see sow (v.)).

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=semen&searchmode=none

However, since I'm very familiar with the constellation of Orion and the biblical allusions to it, let me be so bold as to suggest a different path for the origin of the word semen. There are these giants in the bible called nephilim that I wrote about extensively in this blog post called Let the sleeping giant lie.  

Their leader was a chap called Semjaza and the story is quite plausibly an allusion to the constellation of Orion. I'd connect the sem in Semjaza to the word semen based on the name of one of the three sons of Noah in the bible. This son's name is Shem and it has a connection to a Hebrew word for the heavens, Shamayim. Genesis chapter 11 goes to great lengths to establish the ancestry of Abraham to Shem. It is because of this relationship that the people who trace their lineage back to Abraham are known today as semites (we drop the h in the Sh when anglicizing the name). In my blog post Light my way, I made notes of the relationship between the story of Abraham and Sarah to the journey of light and specifically how that journey parallels the story Osiris and his wife Isis.

One of the prominent features of Osiris is his crown, the Atef.

Osiris with Atef Crown

The Atef is a white heliacal shaped crown surmounted by two ram's horns. The symbol for the ancient Egyptian ba soul is the ram and the ram is known for its sexual proclivity. In this aspect, Osiris belongs to a class of old world virile gods who often sprouted horns such as Dionysos, Bacchus, and Pan and these gods had connections to the ram or goat. Dionysos was turned into a goat by his father Zeus, Bacchus comes from a word for he-goat, and Pan has the horns of a goat which is why the ancient Greeks equated him with the city of Mendes, the Greek name for the ancient Egyptian city Djedet which was also known as Per-Banebdjedet.  The Lord of the ba in Djedet.

Dionysos sitting on a goat

The words horn and corn are synonymous, with the mythical unicorn giving away this connection. Furthermore, the words corn, horn, and grain are all related:

corn (n)

"grain," Old English corn, from Proto Germanic *kurnam "small seed" (confer Old Frisian, Old Saxon korn "grain," Middle Dutch coren, German Korn, Old Norse korn, Gothic kaurn), from Proto Indo-European root *gre-no- "grain" (confer Old Church Slavonic zruno "grain," Latin granum "seed," Lithuanian Žirnis "pea"). The sense of the Old English word was "grain with the seed still in" (e.g. barleycorn) rather than a particular plant. 

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=corn&allowed_in_frame=0

Why this is interesting is because of the connection between these grain and fertility gods with lust. If you have ever wondered where the word "horny" gets its roots from you probably don't have to look much further than these deities.

Potent and active is the masculine energy.

fighting for truth

Picking up from the last blog where we took a look at Osiris and his relationship to the constellation Orion, we now try to find the warlike Orion in ancient Egypt. The pharaoh of Egypt often was depicted in the folded arm pose of Osiris, but was also known as the living Horus and often depicted in a smiting pose. Could it be the old Hermetic saying about ancient Egypt "so as above, so below" is true in this case as well? The story of the murdered Osiris and his reconstitution by his sister-wife Isis I have detailed before. Isis is impregnated by the resurrected Osiris and from this union is born the baby Horus. The son of Osiris, Horus, grows up and fights Set for the kingship and the right to sit on his father's throne. This would be the "below" part of the equation. However, if it is true that what has taken place on earth must have taken place in the heavens, then we should be able to find this story in our night time sky. We know of Osiris and his association to Orion as well as Isis and her association to the beautiful shining star Sirius. So, in theory, we should be able to find Horus and Set close by, presumably fighting.

We find many iconic examples of the pharaoh in ancient Egypt in a smiting pose, often with Horus nearby or even Horus as a falcon wearing the double crown depicted with an upraised arm. Here is a facsimile from the Royal Ontario Museum of the famous Narmer palette depicting Narmer about to strike his enemies. The name Narmer means "striker" and is most likely an abbreviation for "Horus the Striker."

Writing: Theory and History of the Technology of Civilization, by Barry B. Powell, page 28.

Approaching the Temple of Horus at Edfu you can't help but notice the huge reliefs of a pharaoh from the Ptolemaic era striking his enemies on both pylons which flank the entrance. Looking on is Horus the Elder, known in greek as Haroeris. In hieroglyphics his name would be transliterated as Heru-ur or Har-wer depending on whether you transliterate the quail chick as a u or a w.

Here is Horus the falcon on the battle axe which the pharaoh is using to strike his enemies.

Below is from inside the temple from a scene where Horus is harpooning Set who has manifested as a hippopotamus.

Ptolemy XII is shown in the smiting pose of Narmer at the Temple of Isis at Philae. Notice the pharaoh offering to the seated Horus in the upper register of the pylon.

And one more: the pharaoh Den of the 1st Egyptian dynasty, striking his enemies with Horus and Wepwawet looking on.

It's established that the martial pharaoh is usually represented on the monuments in a striking position in the presence of Horus and not Osiris. So, then who is this Horus the Elder? Instructive is the ancient Egyptian name for Horus - Heru. The u tells us of the plurality of this ancient god. Horus the Elder is the grown up Horus and he is represented with the head of a hawk. This is the mature Horus who is able to avenge his father's death at the hands of Set. Horus the Elder is the great god of light, the ur or wer part being the ancient god of light known as "the great one." The younger Horus, who is depicted as a human baby is the enlightened soul within you who is the result of Isis' impregnation by the seed of the ba soul Osiris. This baby is hidden amongst the reeds of the marshes of lower Egypt - a metaphor for his birth into the material plane of existence. So is this Horus the Elder the upright Orion who is in a striking pose?

Orion first appears in the east at nightfall in late fall and he rises on his side with the three stars of his belt pointing upwards. The imagery here is unmistakable if you have been to the Osiris chapel in the temple of Seti I at Abydos.

I always thought it was strange that his son Horus was present in this scene but it starts to make sense if the imagery of Osiris rising in the night time sky becomes his son Horus when upright and ready to strike. Is there evidence from the ancient texts that Orion could be Horus as well?

In the Triumph of Horus, which are texts taken from the walls of the Edfu Temple, Horus is described by the narrator as "…Him with the upraised arm."

In Plutarch's essay on Isis and Osiris he describes Orion as thus:

In regard not only to these gods, but in regard to the other gods, save only those whose existence had no beginning and shall have no end, the priest say that their bodies, after they have done with their labours, have been placed in the keeping of the priests and are cherished there, but that their souls shine as the stars in the firmament, and the soul of Isis is called by the Greeks the Dog-star, but by the Egyptians Sothis, and the soul of Horus is called Orion, and the soul of Typhon the Bear.

In the Pyramid Texts of Unas, Utterance 301, line 449, we read that Horus has the arm ready to fight:

Unas knows him, he knows his name:
Everlastingness (nHH) is his name, Everlastingness,
the Lord of the Year is his name, he with the arm ready to fight,
Horus over the Milky Way (sHdw) of heaven, who makes Re alive every day.
http://www.pyramidtextsonline.com/anteeast.html

Orion in his striking pose is Osiris come as Horus to do battle with Set. We should be able to find this Set close by, right? We will leave that question for the time being.

Another way the ancient Egyptian would describe this triad in the heavens was that Isis could be referred to as Sopdet in her form as Sirius and Osiris would be referred to as Sahu in his form of Orion. Horus in his form of Orion and the son of these two would be called Sopdu.

Sopdu was the scorching heat of the sun in the summer which hints at Horus as powerful light providing the sun with its energy. Shortly after Sirius would rise in its yearly cycle, the hot scorching summer days would be upon the lands due to the birth of Sopdu. Sopdu was considered to be war-like because of this destructive heat. Sopdu would be depicted with a long axe in recognition of his war-like qualities.

One last thing - the ancient Egyptians considered light to be the great principle of intelligence and wisdom which was the fountainhead of the universe, though students of the land will be told they worshipped the sun. The sun to them is the living enclosure which contained this light. In this aspect, the encapsulating form is called Aten. Together, the light and sun disk is Re. Shu is the light out of the disk. The great one of light come forth is Horus and it is his story that is the story of the light which comes to incarnate in matter, specifically you and I. We are all Horus; we are all a part of this great light.