Nebet-Het: friend of the deceased

In utterance 553 of the Pyramid Texts the deceased is told to:

"Raise thyself up; shake off thy dust; remove the dirt which is on thy face; loose thy bandages. They are indeed not bandages; they are the locks of Nebet-Het."

Nebet-Het's hair wraps the body of the deceased, symbolizing the linen cloth that wraps the mummy. The pharaoh as Osiris, is encouraged to break free of her tresses in order to be re-born.

Nebet-Het, the ancient Egyptian goddess known in Greek as Nephthys, is the sister of the more popular goddess Aset. Aset is known as Isis in Greek and is the wife of the great Asar, who is known as Osiris in Greek. Nephthys' name means "Lady of the Temple Enclosure"; Lady from the Nebet part. Nebet is a designation given to an important female as Neb is the designation for an important man, a lord. The t designates a female is being referred to. The hieroglyphic for Neb is a semicircle, with the round part facing down or towards the ground.

Also it is interesting to note that the hieroglyphic for gold is similar yet more ornate and is transliterated as Nebu. It is the same semi-circle however it has rays shining downwards from the circular part as well as an enclosure over top suggesting that the gold is from the earth and shines like the rays of sunlight.

The god of eternity Heh kneeling on the hieroglyphic for Gold

The impression it gives is that gold is the moment before the sun appears at dawn and the sky is lit up in a golden colour. The ancient Egyptians referred to this most special time as the akhet and it is more specifically referring to the goddess Het-Har, Hathor in Greek. An epithet of Hathor is Lady of Gold. Gold is the flesh body of the gods.

The second part of the name is transliterated Het, Hut, or Hwt from the hieroglyphs. This refers to a palace or temple enclosure.

Nephthys wearing the hieroglyphic symbols of her name on her head

Clearly, Nephthys was thought of as a woman of great stature who would be associated with the royal family and temples. No one is quite sure what temple enclosure this is referring to and with good reason. It is a figurative definition that is referring to the physical body as the temple that contains the soul, better known to casual observers as Osiris. The two sisters, Nephthys and Isis, are the great goddesses who are present to remember and make hale the great deceased Osiris in order to awaken him. These two are symbolized in the entrance to all temples in Egypt as the two sides, called pylons, of the entrance shaped like an akhet or horizon that allowed the rising sun to enter into the temple at dawn.

First pylon and entrance to temple of Heru-Behdety

In her role as the maker of the body that houses the great soul, Nephthys was given the epithet Nebet Khat, which means "Lady of the Body". Thinking about this designation a little further, Nephthys' role becomes clearer as it seems she is a mother type who makes and is present in the physical vehicle that houses the soul. Whether her role only concerns royalty is debatable. The language used to describe her role is very regal such as palace and she can be considered a queen. However there is the story related from the Greek historian Plutarch where in commenting on the love story of Isis and Osiris he tells of the time Nephthys impersonated Isis, as they are sisters both of great beauty, and tricked Osiris into sleeping with her. From this union was born the jackal Anpu, Anubis in Greek. It seems that even though it may appear Nephthys has only royal connections she has the ability to make bodies for all, from the sacred soul Osiris to the profane jackal beast Anubis. This bit of information helps then to put her role more into context. To compare her to a more familiar archetype I would suggest a figure such as Eve in the first book of the Bible who is capable of making life that is not only profane, as in the birth of the beastly Cain, but also of the sacred that is represented as Abel and then Seth; Seth being born due directly to the death of Abel, as spelled out in Genesis 4:25, which is the Bible relating the resurrection of the soul in such an arcane way that no one will really ever figure out that passage. From Genesis 3:20 we learn that Eve, Chavvah in Hebrew, means life-giver and is the mother of all living; in essence the maker of bodies that we may figuratively call temples or tabernacles that can house the life force, Ka in ancient Egypt, that animates life forms as well as housing the immortal soul, the Ba in ancient Egypt, which is dismembered upon entry into the physical plane in the west and must be remembered in order to engender rebirth. Armed with this understanding we can deduce that Nephthys is an aspect of the mother goddess in ancient Egypt, known as Hathor that manifests in the body with Isis to help wake up this immortal soul that is slumbering away in the darkness of our hearts. Before I detail her association to Hathor, the role of Isis should be clarified so we avoid confusion, or conflate the role of these two sister goddesses.

Isis is the wife of Osiris who upon his death at the hands of the strong and beastly Set, dedicates her life to finding and remembering Osiris. Being great of magic, once Isis recovered Osiris and made him hale she was able to impregnate herself with his seed. The child born is the born again soul of the father Osiris and this child is Horus (transliterated as Heru from the hieroglyphs). It is an elaborate story that mythicized the soul journeying in matter. Isis plays the role of the womb that in the physical realm will give birth to and nurture your reborn soul.

From Karnak there is an inscription calling Osiris 'he who resides in the house of conception' alluding to the impregnation of Isis and the consequent birth of Horus.
The Routledge Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses, by George Hart, pg. 120

This inscription is telling us that the soul, Osiris, resides in Isis; Isis is the womb, i.e. the genetrix of the newborn soul. This soul in ancient Egypt is referred to as the Ba.

Now that we have narrowed down the role of Isis and knowing Nephthys is a "Lady of the Temple" we can make the claim Nephthys is concerned with your life force of the physical body and which the ancient Egyptians called the Ka. Now this is important because it will help me explain some of the connections that are part of the goddess Nephthys. Her husband is the beastly Set, with whom it is said she is childless. However why the seemingly arbitrary connection to Set? Well, I wrote a blog post awhile back called iconoclastic Cain and Abel that contained the ground breaking assertion that Osiris is representing the concept of the Ba and Set is representing the concept of the Ka here in the material realm. After coming to this realization and gaining an understanding of what these ancient Egyptian myths are trying to convey, you gain a whole new perspective and are then able to interprete these old world stories with context and greater understanding. Nephthys is the wife of Set because they are both connected to the concept of the Ka. The Ka is not a concept that is too difficult to understand regardless of what you may read. Most definitions in books and on the internet will try to explain it as a force that leaves the body at physical death and then the body has to be mummified or a Ka statue has to be placed in the tomb as a substitute so that the Ka has some place to go. The definitions usually include the caveat that we don't really have a full understanding of what is meant by the Ka. I don't think it is too difficult to grasp as long as you have an open mind; you don't box yourself into an intellectual corner; and realize that not everything the ancient Egyptians did revolved around the funerary sphere. The Ka is the life force that animates the physical body. Upon death, the Ka has left as your body lies there lifeless. When you are younger you are full of the Ka; I like to think of a puppy that is full of what we would call spunk or life. As we age this force wanes. The hieroglyphic for the Ka is a bull; an apt symbol for the untamed, wildness of this force. It is animal instinct that lives on desire, preys on the weak, and does not think of consequences. As parents we try to tame and civilize our children who are full of this instinct by teaching them about right and wrong and consequences. Furthermore the Ka was depicted as food offerings. 

Offering of food as Ka

In order to survive in the physical realm we need to constantly ingest the life force of other living material on the earth. The Ka was represented this way as well. When we die the Ka does not die rather it leaves your body; it is still an entity that exists therefore you will see in tombs figurative offerings on the wall to the Ka of the deceased. The easy way to explain this part of the Ka is through the concept of the ghost. What we think of a ghost, is the ancient Egyptian concept of the Ka that has left the body and is unsatisfied. The Ka remains in this physical world unattached, becoming a general nuisance to those still living in the physical realm. Call them superstitious, but the ancient Egyptians went to great lengths to prevent this from happening by trying to satiate the Ka and by making replicas or a mummy that it could visit and thereby leave everyone else alone. As well the Ka is connected with the concept of reincarnation. In this regard think of it as a manifestation of your unique soul in another guise. You have just the one immortal soul, the Ba, but your Ka will shape shift into many different forms in the material realm in order that it experiences and is no longer dragged into physical incarnation. The Ka is forever coming. The ram god Khnum is the potter god who constructs these Kas.

The potter Khnum presenting a double of the Ka

You will see him constructing a new Ka always in multiples; in essence telling us that he is making another replica manifestation of your Ka from a master record. The ultimate provider of life and food substances here in this world, that fits with the ancient Egyptian definition of Ka as food stuff, is the power of the sun. This power, represented as the god Re, is celebrated in many hymns with a great many written in devotion of the the sun disk Aten by the iconoclastic pharaoh Akhenaten who is mistakenly called the world's first monotheist. Aten is the actual sun disk that housed the light rays that would stream to earth and provide for all. The famous female pharaoh of the early 18th dynasty, Hatshepsut, had as one of her names Ma'at Ka Re.

Ma'at Ka Re

This is translated as "truth is the soul of the sun". Close but leaves me wanting. How about "the natural order is the life providing power of the light of the sun"? Anyway from this moniker it can be understood that Re is the ultimate provider of this power. In the material realm here on earth it is the beastly Set who then demonstrates this power untamed. Even though he is a murderer of the Ba soul Osiris, and he constantly battles with the avenging son Horus, this does not deter Re from having a soft spot for this crimson beast.

Red and Set go together

In the story of The Contendings of Horus and Set, Re is constantly advocating Set's case to become the king of all Egypt despite his trickery, lying, and general despicable behaviour. In the end when it is determined Horus deserves the united crown, Re places Set aboard his sun boat in order to take advantage of his awesome strength. There is quite the connection here between the life giving power of the sun and the power manifesting on earth. It is understood by the ancient Egyptians that without this awesome power that physical creation would cease to exist. The serpent Apophis is always at the ready to strike to stop the sun boat of Re. It is the strength of Set at the prow of the boat that beats the devourer into submission.

Set's strength keeping back Apophis, the destructive force

This whole scene is depicting creation as moving forward, as life is properly a verb. Once we stop moving and growing we die. Re's boat and his cyclical journey must continue on. It is also telling that the ancient Egyptians realized that although this Set can at times be despicable, he is needed and is a power to subdue and use for strength in order to be successful in your spiritual journey. This coming together of Horus and Set is depicted in monuments where they are shown together uniting Upper and Lower Egypt by tying the papyrus and lotus around the sema-sign, and in the serekh of pharaoh Khasekhemwy of the 2nd dynasty.

Serekh of Khasekhemwy

Where the two combatants are shown united is shown also as the two headed falcon Hrwyfy which is communicating that the two combatants have made peace and now have an understanding.

Now with a better idea of the role of the life force, known as Ka, we can see then the natural relationship of Nephthys to Set. Extrapolating from this idea further, the relationship of Isis to Osiris is then connected to the soul, known as the Ba. In the mythology of Set his consort is not limited to just Nephthys. Another of his consorts is a female hippopotamus known as Tauret (Taweret).

The Great Lady Tauret

The meaning of the name is "great lady", the great from the ur or wer and the idea of female from the t determinate that denotes female at the end of the name. However we should not ignore the Ta at the beginning of the name that is suggesting that this great lady is of the land or earth. In other words this material plane is where you find the great birth mother. She will get you in and out of this plane of existence. We will get back to the idea of the great material woman in a bit. Tauret has the face of a hippopotamus, the hind legs of a lion, and the tail of a crocodile. She is depicted as pregnant with large pendulous breasts and wears the cow horns that cradle a sun disk on her head which is the headdress of the mother goddess Hathor. As well she has the bovine ears that you find associated with Hathor as well as the long tresses of hair that is another feature of Hathor. The association of Tauret with the aspect of Hathor where she is an archetypal mother goddess is undeniable. Set can be referred to as the "beast of the reeds", a male hippopotamus which is one of the most territorial and aggressive beasts on earth and is apt iconography for the wild untamed Set. On the other hand a female hippopotamus, though quite aggressive, will usually only show that behaviour when she is with her offspring. Tauret being so protective of the young, has pregnant women and those in childbirth summon her to protect and guide them. Tauret is sometimes depicted with seven stars on her back which gives the idea that she can be found in the night sky as a recognizable constellation as determined by ancient Egyptian astronomers. The constellation we call Draco that contains the ancient polestar from 5000 years ago called Thuban, is the area of the sky that was personified by the hippopotamus goddess Tauret. The polestar within this constellation was the star that all the other constellations revolved around. She can be depicted holding a mooring post in the shape of a crocodile that is tethered to a northern circumpolar constellation in the form of an ox and also depicted holding a rope attached to the foreleg of this constellation. Given my connection of the Ka to Set, I would guess the meaning here is the connection between Tauret and Set as her consort, as Set has been identified as the Big Dipper constellation in ancient Egypt known as Maskheti, the foreleg of the ox and this foreleg is prominent in the ceremony of Opening the Mouth and Eyes. In essence this foreleg, called the Khepesh, opens the mummified in order to receive the Ka into it. Tauret was also given the title Nebetakhet, which is once again giving us the connection to the morning dawn, birth of the rising sun, and Hathor. As one of the imperishable northern constellations she would be present in the magical moment at dawn just prior to the sun making its grand entrance in the east from the akhet. Other consorts of Set are the west Semitic goddesses Anat and Astarte who were awarded to him after the decision to give Horus sole rulership of Egypt. These goddesses share the attributes of Hathor: Anat a beautiful woman depicted with the Hathor hair-do who embodies beauty, sexuality, and fertility and Astarte is beautiful as well with the Hathor hair-do who exudes sexuality as well as motherhood traits. Both these goddesses also have warrior like attributes in the vein of Hathor's alter ego Sekhemet. 

The last connection with aspects of Hathor having Set as their consort are the group of seven Hathors that are found in the Book of the Dead and on temple walls.

The seven Hathors vignette from Spell 148 in the Book of the Dead

Spell 148 from the R.O. Faulkner translation has the aspirant saying: 
I know the names of the seven cows and their bull who give bread and beer, who are beneficial to souls and who provide daily portions; may you give bread and beer and make provision for me, so that I may serve you, and may I come into being under your hinder-parts.

The seven Hathors and their bull provide the life force necessary for the Ba soul in what is called the realm of the dead. The bull is the great sky-bull called the "Bull of the West". The seven Hathors are also related to the seven Hathors of human form that show up in scenes of birth to pronounce the fate of the child. The bull and his concubines are symbolizing the Ka needed by the Ba in its material incarnation that has left it latent; this latency connects to the death of the soul. When you read of the "realm of the dead" it is important that you read it in context so that it doesn't trip you up and lead you to think it only refers to the body and not the soul. In this day and age we only attend funerals for the life force - Ka, and not the soul - Ba. That is the way we are conditioned to think. However, this is referring to the death of the soul and then providing nourishment to it so that eventually it may experience re-birth. To the ancients death is a transition not a finality, so though to us it is hard to understand your soul dying because we think that's a finality, to the ancient Egyptian it would be a perfectly logical concept and one that with the proper context they could ascertain whether it is referring to the body or the soul. Death takes place in the west, whether that is your soul or your body. Osiris enters his place of darkness in the west and is dismembered by the animal instinct of the Ka. However it is this Ka that then carries the Ba. It is the Bata bull, Set's glorious role that he is even unaware of, that carries the Ba through its successive incarnations as this illustration from the Papyrus Jumilhac indicates:

Bata has the markings of the Apis bull; the celebrated bull which is the Ka of Osiris that the later Greek rulers of Egypt synthesized into the god Serapis. As well as I have written in the blog post the ancient egyptian story of Anpu and Bata, it is the character of Bata that keeps reappearing in different guises after previously thought to be dead and eventually he becomes pharaoh. This is symbolizing his resurrection as the re-born Ba soul Horus here in the material world after successive incarnations.

Well that has been a long winded exposition of goddesses that are aspects of Hathor having a connection to Set as their consort much like Nephthys. It leads into the next characteristics of Nephthys that I'd like to examine now that we have some background.  She was one of the few goddesses with a direct connection to the sistrum; the rattle that is used to call upon Hathor. Nephthys was the patron of the seventh nome of Upper Egypt called Sheshesh, which is the transliteration from the hieroglyphics that denote the sistrum. The Mansion of the Sistrum in the largest city in this nome, and this city Hwt-Sekhem had Nephthys as its patron goddess. She was also protectress of the Osirian relic at this locale, the Bennu bird. The Bennu bird or Phoenix, is a symbol of the resurrection. Just like Hathor, Nephthys' temple rites and feasts contained the excessive imbibing of beer and at a ruined sanctuary at Komir there is an elaborate "Hymn to Nephthys" from the Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius. Nephthys is described as the "Mistress of many festivals...who loves the day of festival, the goddess for whom men and women play the tambourine." It can be seen that like the other goddesses mentioned above, Nephthys as well had quite the connection to the all encompassing mother goddess Hathor. Nephthys' role is concerned with the dead soul and protecting it in its journey into darkness. In the Pyramid Texts, utterance 505, the aspirant says “Isis is before me and Nephthys is behind me.” This is referring to the journey of the soul and its destiny that the two goddesses play a major role in. Nephthys is yesterday, the goddess who transitions the soul into the west and Isis is the goddess who tomorrow will re-birth the soul as the enlightened Horus.

To wrap this up and indulge in a little speculation, I'd like to return to the topic of the hippopotamus goddess Tauret and the meaning of her name as the great material lady. Presumably her spouse Set would be the great material man or male principle in matter. Set is the beastly male principle that instinctually rules this plane of material existence, especially if you look upon the power of the sun as the fatherly provider in this material world. It is these aspects of the Ka or life force that are most powerful in this realm. Why I find this fascinating is that as a consort of Tauret in the heavens I'd expect to find Set. He has been identified in the northern sky as a larger iteration of the constellation we call the Big Dipper. However I have reason to believe you can find him in the southern night sky as well. The great material man would be called Ta-ur and I think this bull came down to us as the the great bull in the sky - the constellation Taurus, and also of the half man and half beast of Cretan legend - the Minotaur. 

Theseus in the classic Horus the striker pose whacking the Minotaur

Let's take a look at the constellation of Taurus. In it is the seven sisters called the Pleiades, this group of seven being an allusion to the seven Hathors and their bull of the sky as Taurus. Bulls, Set, and Hathor all maintain a connection to the colour red. Matadors use a red muleta to symbolically inflame the passions of a bull; Set is the red beast; and the seven Hathors all wore red hair-ribbons. Taurus is shown charging at the constellation of Orion. 

Taurus as the Ka bull charging at Orion the Ba soul

Orion, who is the great Osiris of ancient Egypt, has to somehow overcome the anger and attack of this rampaging bull. All this is the story of the Ka and the Ba and how the Ka attacks the unprepared Ba at first sending him to his death in matter all torn asunder as Osiris is mythicized to be consigned to prior to his remembering by Isis.

I have a good idea I can find this ancient motif elsewhere in conjunction with the character of the benevolent lady of the temple enclosure and friend of the deceased, Nephthys, that I will explore in future blog posts.

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.

light my way

Light illuminates my mind. My thoughts swim around freestyle in my mind, planting seeds in my subconscious which light quickens to allow further insights and discoveries, eventually blossoming into this fruit that I have a desire to share.

Genesis 11 tells us Abram, whose name means high father, comes from Ur of the Chaldees. His wife, Sarai, is barren. His father, Terah, leads them on a journey to Canaan. In Hebrew, Ur means a place of light, so if we are interpreting Abram's birth symbolically then he comes from the region of light as opposed to the literal place called Ur. Canaan is from Kenaan, the son of one of Noah's sons called Ham, who was disgraced when he witnessed the nakedness of his drunken father in Genesis 9:22-26. Canaan was cursed to be a servant of Shem and Japheth. The meaning of the name Shem has a connection to the heavens, while Canaan is of the earth, symbolically designating matter to serve spirit. This story of Abram leaving Ur for Canaan is creative storytelling, encoding the descent of the spirit into matter. To further corroborate this interpretation, it should be noted that the Chaldees can refer to an astrologer much in the way Abram's direct ancestor's name, Shem, is derived from a Hebrew word shamayin that also has a meaning of an astrologer.

The word Ur or Ar in many ancient lexicons would refer to light or spirit. The ancient Egyptians, being the preeminent observers of the natural world, ascertained that the eye was the vessel that acted as the sacred conduit to allow light to manifest in this world. Much like the sun and moon gather light that allows them to shine, it could be said that our eyes gather light and symbolically allow us to shine due to this light containing the wisdom of the gods. The ancient Egyptian word for eye would be transliterated as ir.t, with the t denoting its feminine property; the feminine being something that belongs to the material rather than spiritual plane. We find this concept and specific symbol making up part of the name for the great Osiris, as the hieroglyphs representing his name consist of a throne chair, from which we get "As" and the complete eye glyph from which we get "ar", which combine to give us the name Asar.

The light of the sun, referred to by the ancient Egyptians as Re or Ra, consists of the hieroglyphs of the mouth shape and the arm that is reaching out.

It is instructive to remind the reader that although you will read monotonously that Re is the ancient Egyptian sun god and the Egyptians worshipped the sun, Re is in fact the light of the sun. Re was represented as a falcon with a sun disk on his head. The falcon gives away the idea that Re is a free spirit and not tethered to the sun disk. The god emanates from the disk.

                                            Re with his offspring Shu and Tefenet

Today, we might be tempted to call what Re represented a light ray. Of course, there is no connection here, right? Move along... The ancient world seemed to have connections and shared ideas, especially among the Mediterranean based civilizations due to extensive trading between the nations and a shared synchronistic outlook on the gods. The rise of monotheism and development of Christianity plunged the world into an ever increasing enmity, polarity, and darkness. The advent of the internet and free flow of ideas and cultures is something that has been lacking for two millennium, though we still tend to carry around with us our monotheistic inspired attitudes and hatred of those who are different, along with those whom we perceive to worship false gods. Christianity cannot even agree on its own worship, with many different "denominations" competing for the loyalty of the flock.

The great body of light in ancient Egypt, Wer, has two great eyes. Depending on whether this light is referred to as Re or Horus, light would have an "eye", commonly referred to as the Eye of Re or the Eye of Horus. Re is the daytime light encapsulated within the sun while Horus is the nighttime celestial light which would gather and be housed within the moon with the Eye of Horus represented symbolically by the moon. As is such, it would mean Re is the light that has reawakened those who have come forth by day while Horus is the light that comes forth and is accessible to those resident in the night darkness which symbolizes material existence. The Eye of Horus was known as Wadjet, with Wadjet taking its meaning from the green papyrus plant of Lower Egypt, once again pointing to this Eye having a connection with the material plane, i.e., Lower Egypt. This eye was feminine and commonly associated with goddesses such as Hathor, Sekhemet, Tefenet, and Mut. The goddess would be pictorially represented as an uraeus snake that encircled the sun disk or moon, in essence encapsulating the light which was present within the disk.

The abode of the god is the Eye, explaining why these goddesses would contain the potentiality to be an ancestor of, or give birth to, a great god of light, whether that be Horus, Nefertum, Ihy, and Khonsu to name a few. Uraeus is the Greek translation of the Egyptian word iaret. In both cases, you can see once again the connection of the word for light in ancient cultures sharing a common pronunciation, Ur and Ar. The uraeus cobra worn on the crown of the ruling Pharaoh denoted sovereignty. This design symbolized the idea that the light god was resident in the Pharaoh and as such was protected by his mother in snake form.

 

Pharaoh Psusennes I with uraeus

Now, I'm of the belief that the wise and cunning priests of ancient Egypt had through observation and thought, deduced that light is the eternal spirit of the universe, however they used this knowledge to curry political favour and made it the exclusive domain of royalty. It was during the collapse of the Old Kingdom and subsequent First Intermediate period that this knowledge did make it into the hands of the commoner which is described by some Egyptologists as the "democratization of the afterlife," although it wasn't until about 2000 years later when the Greeks actually put democracy in vogue. Anyway, in light of this development it is possible to construct a case that the reign of the "heretic" Pharaoh Akhenaten can be construed as reactionary, with a desire to return to the exclusiveness of kingship that was the case in Old Kingdom Egypt. However, Akhenaten and his religion of light is a topic I will have to leave for the moment due to the enormity of verbiage needed to tackle it.

So, to return to the topic of light, I would like to bring up the etymology of the constellation of Orion, the giant in the sky:

Orion
late 14th century, from Greek Oarion, of unknown origin, though some speculate on Akkadian Uru-anna "the Light of Heaven." Another Greek name for the constellation was Kandaon, a title of Ares, god of war, and it is represented in most cultures as a giant (e.g. Old Irish Caomai "the Armed King," Old Norse Orwandil, Old Saxon Ebuðrung).
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Orion&allowed_in_frame=0

The Light of Heaven is an apt name for the giant who encompasses such a large and bright region in the sky. When Orion descends into matter for a seventy day period in late spring it is metaphorically demonstrating the descent of the soul into its material chains. The ancient Egyptian story of Osiris is the story of this descent into matter, its remembering and resurrection which allows the soul to be born again as the son of Osiris. I have written many posts in this blog space that go further into this story. In some of the temples throughout Egypt you will see this story depicted on the walls of the temple such as at Abydos, Denderah, and Philae. In these scenes of Osiris' remembering and resurrection which allows him to impregnate Isis, he is shown lying asleep on a bier that at the head has a lion's head and at the other end has a lion's tail.

 

Temple of Seti I, Abydos

Temple of Philae, Aswan

It's curious symbolism as the connection to lions and Osiris is unclear. Personally, I believe the connection is that Osiris lying on a lion bed is representing the light spirit at rest. How so you ask? Well, glad you asked.

This light is a lion and should be represented properly as the seventh sign in the zodiac. That the ancient Egyptians had formulated names for stars and constellations is not in dispute, but the evidence is pretty flimsy as to whether they had a defined zodiac of their own. The evidence for zodiacs in ancient Egypt are mainly from Ptolemaic temples built near the close of the first millennium and were influenced by Babylonian astrology. However, there is plenty of evidence of astronomical ceilings from the time of Seti I in his tomb in the Valley of the Kings, the Ramesseum temple ceiling, and even more star ceilings in tombs and coffins which date much further back in time. Both these structures date to the time of construction of Seti's temple at Abydos around 1200 BC which contains this poignant scene of Osiris lying on a lion bed. There are connections of light with lions such as the name Hebrew Ariel, which means lion of god, giving us a connection to the Ar - light and a lion. In the same vane, we can see that the name Uriel means angel of Light or flame of God. Western astrology treats Libra as the seventh sign, but if we properly take Aquarius, the pouring out of light energy, as the first sign then the lion as Leo is the seventh sign. Aries has been fixed as the first sign due to it rising at the vernal equinox during the Hellenistic age when the tropical system of astrology was established, however if properly you start from Aquarius it will start to make sense as the story of the spirit's descent into matter. Here is the Coles notes version:

Aquarius pours light energy out into the universe, Pisces represents the two main components of this light energy which are wisdom and consciousness. Wisdom is the soul, represented in ancient Egypt as the ba while consciousness is the energy that allows this soul to come alive which is the ka in ancient Egypt. Wisdom needs this consciousness, but as we know it is also its downfall that leads to its death. Aries is the Ram, its bleating of ba giving away what it represents. It is prolific in its creation activities much like a ram. Next is Taurus the bull, the untamed charging bull being the ka symbol in ancient Egypt. They are shown again in the next sign, Gemini, as twins that are forever linked. The next sign, the crab, is originally the beetle, which is the symbol for becoming that gives us an idea of the potentiality of us all in this journey of becoming. This leads us to the seventh sign Leo the lion. Leo is royal light and the King, however in the ancient world it was believed the journey of the soul into matter was an arduous journey and once completed you would rest on the seventh leg of the journey. Hence why you would see Osiris, the symbol of the ba in its journey, resting on a lion's bed. Check out the sign for Leo and its similarity to the hair of Hathor.

 

Also, you'll find Astarte/Ishtar/Inanna/Asherah/Qadesh, all forms of Hathor, depicted with lions or standing on lions.

Here is Wadjet pictorially represented with Horus as the lion king, wearing the double crown to denote his kingship.

As I have mentioned in previous posts, Osiris, when encapsulated in matter, is the husband of Isis however when he is reborn in the constellation of Orion as Horus the Elder his celestial wife is Hathor. Fittingly, Horus the Elder's Egyptian name is Heru-Ur, once again giving us the connection to Ur and light in the ancient world.

Heru-Ur

Here is my blog entry that makes clear the relationship of Osiris and Horus within the constellation of Orion. So, the great light father is at rest in matter after being given birth by the great mother goddess Hathor in the west. In order to enable rebirth into different planes of existence, it was understood that Horus must become kamutef, the "bull of his mother." Today, we would hurl the epithet "motherfucker" at such a person! The sacred mother who gives birth into different manifestations is Hathor. After being at rest in the sign of Leo, the light moves on to be born again of a Virgin in the sign of Virgo. I'll leave the journey of light through the zodiac for now.

Is this story still relevant today, or can we find echoes of it? In the animated movie by Disney, "The Lion King" you can see the pieces of the great Osiris and Horus story. The lion cub Simba is born to great fanfare as the heir of the throne. His uncle, representing Osiris' brother Set in the story, tricks him into believing he is responsible for the death of his father the King who is representing Osiris. Simba flees the pride, grows up and avenges his father's death, just like Horus, and then takes his rightful place on the throne. Light once again becomes unmistakably a lion.

So, what then of my connection of Abram to this region of light? If this story is just another iteration of this ancient motif, then it should not be difficult to find echoes of it within this biblical story. Well, let's go find them. I'll use the King James Version of the bible.

Genesis 12:12
12 Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they shall say, This is his wife: and they will kill me, but they will save thee alive.

Abram fears he will be killed upon his descent into Egypt (matter). He also knows they will lust after his beautiful, old, barren wife.

Genesis 12:13
13 Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister: that it may be well with me for thy sake; and my soul shall live because of thee.

Sarai is described as Abram's sister much like Isis is Osiris' sister-wife. Furthermore Isis is the house of conception for the eternal soul in the material world and it is through her that the ba soul is reborn as Horus.

From Karnak there is an inscription calling Osiris 'he who resides in the house of conception' alluding to the impregnation of Isis and the consequent birth of Horus.
-The Routledge Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses, by George Hart, pg. 120

Abram is saying that his soul will survive because of Sarai.

Genesis 12:17-20
17 And the LORD plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai Abram's wife.
18 And Pharaoh called Abram, and said, What is this that thou hast done unto me? why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife?
19 Why saidst thou, She is my sister? so I might have taken her to me to wife: now therefore behold thy wife, take her, and go thy way.
20 And Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him: and they sent him away, and his wife, and all that he had.

The descent into matter, symbolized by Egypt, is ruled by the beastly Set. Pharaoh plays the role of Set who lusts after Isis and wishes to take her as his own but cannot.

He (Set) experiences heterosexual desire towards the goddess Isis. His feelings are not returned. He is so badly deceived by Isis, that he complains in tears to Re. (Author cites Beatty papyrus 1, 6, 2 sqq. for this claim)
Seth, God of Confusion, by H. Te Velde, page 55.

Genesis 16:1-2
1 Now Sarai Abram's wife bare him no children: and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar.
2 And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai.

In the story of Isis and Osiris, Isis' sister Nephthys disguises herself as her sister in order to seduce the virile Osiris. Being true to that motif, Hagar, who is Sarai's handmaid from Egypt/matter, plays this role in accepting the abundance of Abram's life creating ability.

Genesis 17:5
5 Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.

Abram is given a name change as is Sarai to Sarah later on in verse 15 that have connections to being a father of a great multitude and nobility. This foreshadows a great miraculous prince to be born to the previously barren Sarah.

Genesis 17:10-12
10 This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised.
11 And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you.
12 And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed.

God requires the act of circumcision as a token between him and his people. This occurs on the eighth day in the case of newborns. As I explained in the Coles Notes version of light's journey through the zodiac, on the seventh leg in the sign of Leo, light rests while on the eighth leg in the house of the Virgin it is born anew. This is the symbolism of the eighth day circumcision. Feel free to use this to impress at parties.

Genesis 18:2
2 And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground,

Three men of importance show up to tell Abraham and Sarah they are going to have an important kid. Seems a common motif of three wise men showing up to presage some great birth.

Genesis 18:7-8
7 And Abraham ran unto the herd, and fetcht a calf tender and good, and gave it unto a young man; and he hasted to dress it.
8 And he took butter, and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat.

The symbolism here is the sacrificing of the life force, ka, of the young calf that will allow the newborn ba soul to be born into the material plane of existence.

Genesis 20:1-3
1 And Abraham journeyed from thence toward the south country, and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned in Gerar.
2 And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister: and Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah.
3 But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken; for she is a man's wife.

After Abraham and Sarah journey to Gerar the King of Gerar takes possession of Sarah much like Pharaoh, as Set, had tried. Isis is wanted by all the Kings of the material world but the attraction always remains unrequited.

Genesis 21:28-31
28 And Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves.
29 And Abimelech said unto Abraham, What mean these seven ewe lambs which thou hast set by themselves?
30 And he said, For these seven ewe lambs shalt thou take of my hand, that they may be a witness unto me, that I have digged this well.
31 Wherefore he called that place Beersheba; because there they sware both of them.

Abraham digs a well at Beersheba and gives seven lambs to Abimelech to commemorate it. Here we have the connection to seven and incarnation into matter. The flock of lambs are representing the young ba soul on its journey into matter. Beer means a well and Sheba is seven or swearing an oath. The swearing of an oath can be referred to as to seven oneself. Beersheba is then the place where the soul incarnates into matter.

Genesis 21:33
33 And Abraham planted a grove in Beersheba, and called there on the name of the LORD, the everlasting God.

Abraham plants a bunch of trees at this place that figuratively the spirit has entered into matter and then he calls on his god. The trees are tamarisk. The tamarisk is the tree that encapsulated Osiris' coffin when it floated to the shores of Byblos after his death at the hands of Set, symbolizing Osiris as the soul being at rest in the hard tree trunk which is representing matter.

Genesis 22:6-10
6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together.
7 And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?
8 And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.
9 And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood.
10 And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.

After God tells Abraham to make a burnt offering out of his son, Abraham dutifully obeys. Abraham goes to sacrifice Isaac, his first born. Symbolic of the ba soul having to "die" in matter in order to be born again.

Genesis 22:13
13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.

Right on cue, a ram shows up as the symbolic substitute for the first born son of Abraham and Sarah. A Ram (ba) becomes the substitute sacrifice for Isaac.

These are just some of the connections which tie the story of Abraham and Sarah to the greater ancient motif of the incarnation of the soul and its arduous journey that eventually will lead to our greater self. If what I have expounded on in the above is correct, then it should be a recurring meme that continues throughout the Old Testament, especially in the stories of the patriarchs. The names may change but the stories will all share a common thread, the thread being the great light spirit and its journey into and out of material existence.

let the sleeping giant lie

You don't get far into the first book of the Bible, Genesis, when you are confronted with a strange story of giants who roamed the earth in antiquity. Not only that but it is written that they mated with the daughters of humans and had children.

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

Here is the passage from Genesis chapter 6, verse 4 in the King James Version:

4 There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

and here is a translation from the New Century Version:

4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days and also later. That was when the sons of God had sexual relations with the daughters of human beings. These women gave birth to children, who became famous and were the mighty warriors of long ago.

The giants were called the Nephilim and they were mighty warriors of old. It is difficult to explain this in a literal sense without a serious leap of faith on the part of the reader though many have tried due to this desire to accept the Bible as a literal account of creation and history of the Jews. I think this story is explainable if we take it as myth and also accept the fact that these myths were borrowed and adapted from other cultures of the old world. Let's get a better handle on the topic before we start making some connections.

From Clarke's Commentary on the Bible we can can glean this information about the meaning of Nephilim and the meaning behind the terms mighty men or mighty warriors:

There were giants in the earth - נפלים nephilim, from נפל naphal, "he fell." 

The same became mighty men - men of renown - גברים gibborim, which we render mighty men, signifies properly conquerors, heroes, from גבר gabar, "he prevailed, was victorious."

The non canonical pseudepigraphic text of the Old Testament called the Book of Enoch mentions the Nephilim and elaborates on the story a little more in detail. Their leader, Semjaza, leads the descent of the fallen angels to earth to consummate with the comely daughters of the earth.

Book of Enoch Chapter 6 1 And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied that in those days were born unto 2 them beautiful and comely daughters. And the angels, the children of the heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another: 'Come, let us choose us wives from among the children of men 3 and beget us children.' And Semjaza, who was their leader, said unto them: 'I fear ye will not 4 indeed agree to do this deed, and I alone shall have to pay the penalty of a great sin.' And they all answered him and said: 'Let us all swear an oath, and all bind ourselves by mutual imprecations 5 not to abandon this plan but to do this thing.' Then sware they all together and bound themselves 6 by mutual imprecations upon it. And they were in all two hundred; who descended in the days of Jared on the summit of Mount Hermon, and they called it Mount Hermon, because they had sworn 7 and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it

The punishment from the Lord for their great sin was to bind them to the valleys of the earth for seventy generations.

Chapter 10

And the Lord said unto Michael: 'Go, bind Semjaza and his associates who have united themselves with women so as to have defiled themselves ¹² with them in all their uncleanness. And when their sons have slain one another, and they have seen the destruction of their beloved ones, bind them fast for seventy generations in the valleys of the earth, till the day of their judgement and of their consummation, till the judgement that is ¹³ for ever and ever is consummated. In those days they shall be led off to the abyss of fire: and ¹⁴ to the torment and the prison in which they shall be confined for ever. And whosoever shall be condemned and destroyed will from thenceforth be bound together with them to the end of all ¹⁵ generations. 

Later on it is revealed that these fallen angels who lusted after the daughters of men were cast down into Tartarus.

Chapter 19 1 And Uriel said to me: 'Here shall stand the angels who have connected themselves with women, and their spirits assuming many different forms are defiling mankind and shall lead them astray into sacrificing to demons as gods, (here shall they stand,) till the day of the great judgement in 2 which they shall be judged till they are made an end of. And the women also of the angels who 3 went astray shall become sirens.' And I, Enoch, alone saw the vision, the ends of all things: and no man shall see as I have seen. Chapter 20 1,2 And these are the names of the holy angels who watch. Uriel, one of the holy angels, who is 3 over the world and over Tartarus. Raphael, one of the holy angels, who is over the spirits of men. 4,5 Raguel, one of the holy angels who takes vengeance on the world of the luminaries. Michael, one 6 of the holy angels, to wit, he that is set over the best part of mankind and over chaos. Saraqael, 7 one of the holy angels, who is set over the spirits, who sin in the spirit. Gabriel, one of the holy 8 angels, who is over Paradise and the serpents and the Cherubim. Remiel, one of the holy angels, whom God set over those who rise. Chapter 21 1,2 And I proceeded to where things were chaotic. And I saw there something horrible: I saw neither 3 a heaven above nor a firmly founded earth, but a place chaotic and horrible. And there I saw 4 seven stars of the heaven bound together in it, like great mountains and burning with fire. Then 5 I said: 'For what sin are they bound, and on what account have they been cast in hither?' Then said Uriel, one of the holy angels, who was with me, and was chief over them, and said: 'Enoch, why 6 dost thou ask, and why art thou eager for the truth? These are of the number of the stars of heaven, which have transgressed the commandment of the Lord, and are bound here till ten thousand years, 7 the time entailed by their sins, are consummated.' And from thence I went to another place, which was still more horrible than the former, and I saw a horrible thing: a great fire there which burnt and blazed, and the place was cleft as far as the abyss, being full of great descending columns of 8 fire: neither its extent or magnitude could I see, nor could I conjecture. Then I said: 'How 9 fearful is the place and how terrible to look upon!' Then Uriel answered me, one of the holy angels who was with me, and said unto me: 'Enoch, why hast thou such fear and affright?' And 10 I answered: 'Because of this fearful place, and because of the spectacle of the pain.' And he said unto me: 'This place is the prison of the angels, and here they will be imprisoned for ever.'

If you remember my previous blog I told you to keep Tartarus in the back of your mind. Here's the link:

Cronus was eventually overthrown by his son Zeus and sent to Tartarus.  A little side trip to Tartarus now.  Tartarus is an abyss below the underworld where the sinners were sent.  Keep this point in mind.

It is a fate that mirrors the episode from the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve eat from the tree of knowledge and now are cognizant of good and evil. Adam, because of eating the fruit of the forbidden, becomes the first of the fallen who will now die because of his transgressions. Having this knowledge is actually a good thing; not having this knowledge makes you an ignorant beast. It is as if God has this knowledge that he likes to not willingly share but will let you take it if you dare and then punish you for it. This concept is then mirrored again in Genesis 6:4 when the sons of God come to the earth and mate with the daughters of men. It is alluding again to this knowledge that is being acquired by the human race on earth that God gets all pissy about sharing.

In Peake's Commentary on the Bible, page 260,  we get this regarding the Nephilim:

The name is of uncertain origin, but n'philia is the Aramaic name of Orion, the giant of the sky.

This would make the Nephilim properly the sons of the Nephilia, Nephilia being a name for Orion. Well you know I'm all over this.

Genesis 6:4 is making references to mighty giants that fell from the sky. Clarke's commentary on the Bible gave us the Hebrew word "gibborim" for mighty men. Now where have we heard that word before? You may recall I wrote a two part blog about the giant in the sky awhile back:

http://fessell810.blogspot.ca/2011/02/equations-giants-and-kareem-abdul.html

http://fessell810.blogspot.ca/2011/03/equations-giants-and-kareem-abdul.html

I'll clip out some relevant passages, though I really do recommend you read both articles:

The constellation Orion which dominates our winter sky is a giant. You can't miss it in its nightly voyage across the southern night sky as he rises in the east and eventually sets in the west. Many ancient cultures referred to Orion as a giant. To the Jews Orion was known as Gibbor, the giant who they considered Nimrod the great hunter, and this Nimrod was bound to the sky for rebellion against Yahweh. The Syrians referred to Orion as Gabbara the giant and the Arabians knew Orion as Al Jabbar the giant. 

Algebra comes from the Arabic Al Jebr, refers to bone setting, and is etymologically correlative to Al Jabbar. Those familiar with the ancient Egyptian story of Osiris and Isis will remember Osiris being hacked to pieces by his brother Set and then re-assembled by the love of his wife Isis. How this all interestingly enough adds up is Osiris is equated many times in the Pyramid texts to Orion.  or example text 820 states  “Behold Osiris has come as Orion.”

The action of Al Jabbar refers to the setting of broken bones while the thing it refers to is a giant in the sky and that giant is Orion.

Osiris as Orion is a mighty giant who does fall from the sky in late May and is imprisoned in matter for seventy days until he rises again in the night sky.

The Book of Enoch 10:12 is alluding to just that when the punishment for these "fallen angels" is described as thus:

bind them fast for seventy generations in the valleys of the earth...

Seven and seventy appear frequently in the Bible and antiquity to represent either latent creation, i.e. God creating the visible universe and then resting on the seventh day as described in the opening of Genesis or the binding and swearing of a sacred oath. An oath in the Old Testament is referred to as to "seven oneself" such as when Abraham's servant binds himself to Abraham in Genesis 24 before going off in search of a wife for Isaac. Since I'm on a roll right now I'd like to mention the Hebrew word for bind which is 'asir'. Of course Osiris' proper Egyptian name is 'asar', with the vowels in both languages just there to help us moderns with a guide to approximate pronunciation. I don't know or can't prove any connection here but I thought it was interesting to point it out since Osiris is bound into matter in a state of rest for this sacred amount of time before rising again as his mighty warrior son Horus.

Okay I just let the cat out of the bag - The mighty men being referred to are the son(s) of Osiris and Isis known as Horus. I wrote a blog about the connection of Orion to both Osiris and Horus which I knew at the time would spare me having to explain it now :) Here is the link which I trust you'll read because you have made it this far into my exposition:

http://fessell810.blogspot.ca/2012/04/fighting-for-truth.html

The mighty warriors of old is referring to Horus the Striker, the son of Isis and Osiris.

Isis is the metaphorical womb in the material world that receives the seed of the great fallen giant angel Osiris allowing for the eventual birth of a man of renown if you can rouse this Osiris long enough to engender that new life.

In ancient Egyptian mythology Osiris becomes the lord of this underworld to judge the souls of the departed.

This underworld, or subconscious realm, is where our true self resides and is something you have to get in touch with in order to become your greater self. Mythology describes the Titan Cronus being sent to Tartarus and the Book of Enoch tells of the punishment of these fallen angels is a trip to this Tartarus as well. This the underworld realm of Osiris in which he presides over and judges your soul. I wrote a blog  that showed the similarities between the biblical character of Abel and the ancient Egyptian figure of Osiris and how Abel became the judge of your soul in the pseudepigraphic text of the Old Testament called the Testament of Abraham. It's good stuff, you can read it here:

http://fessell810.blogspot.ca/2011/08/iconoclastic-cain-and-abel.html

Okay now that you've read it you can now start tying all this mythology together in your head and realize it is not the domain of one religion but encompasses and is central to the myths of the civilizations of the old world. But what is the essence these stories are trying to convey? It is that the scattered soul of the great god that contains the knowledge of life, which the ancient Egyptians called ba, comes to incarnate in matter and allows the creature called man to become greater than just simple carnal beasts. This ba soul we need to awaken and tame the beast with so we can engender that new life within us that is full of goodness and wisdom but also is strong enough to keep that beast at bay with his mighty sword. The ancient Egyptians represented this great hero with a hawk, not a dove.  Stay strong and fight your enemies!

In closing I'd just like to quickly tackle a name given for the leader of the fallen angels in the Book of Enoch. That name is Semjaza. It has been explained that the first part 'Sem' means name and 'azaz' means to rebel. Seems plausible. I'd like to throw out one more explanation that takes into account the jaza part without dropping the j or y (remembering that a 'j' in ancient lexicons is represented as a 'y'). The belt of Orion was known in Arabic as Al Jauzah and the sacred plateau of the three great pyramids in Egypt that represent Orion's belt is called today Al Jizah or what we English call Giza. It seems to me possible that the name Semjaza is alluding to the origination of the fallen angels being metaphorically from the constellation of Orion. I can't prove it but hey it seems as good an explanation as any I've heard. If you do investigate this further you'll find correlations between Semjaza and Azazel and the attempts to connect it to Satan. The conflating of Semjaza and Azazel as the same concept is misleading as they are two distinct entities. I'd be tempted to designate them as representatives of the ba and ka from ancient Egypt such as what I wrote in this blog entry that will give you a good idea of the relationship between the ba and the ka. At any rate this is getting beyond the scope of what I'm trying to tackle right now. If you do want to read more about these myths from a biblical perspective here is a website that retells some of them. Scroll down until you find "The Star Maiden".

I love how Istahar tricks Shemhazai into revealing God's hidden name. If you've read the ancient Egyptian story of Isis tricking Re into revealing his true secret name you'll get a chuckle out of this.

Alright, well this Sunday sermon is enough for you chew on for now. Be forewarned though as I'm about to rain on Abraham and Sarah's parade now that I've armed you with enough background into the myths of the ancient world.