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.

War! What is it good for?

Time to go deeper into the mysteries of ancient Egypt. The most mysterious of all is Osiris, and the meaning of his death, dismembering, remembering, and eventual consignment to the underworld. I have written extensively about Osiris over the course of the last year and now armed with this knowledge, it is time to go even further into the hidden impact Osiris has had on civilization. It's best to take this knowledge a step at a time, so let's start with Osiris and his relationship to Orion.

Orion the great hunter

I have previously described Osiris' connection to the giant in the sky Orion, and the sacred site of Giza.

Pyramid Text 437: 

"The Netherworld has grasped your hand at the place where Orion is, 

the Bull of the Sky has given you his hand....."

Pyramid Text 610:

"May a stairway to the Netherworld be set up for you to the place where Orion is, 

may the Bull of the Sky take your hand..."

Pyramid Text 820:

“Behold Osiris has come as Orion”

The ancient Egyptians described the great incorruptible and mummified spiritual body as the Sahu. The hero Heru (Horus to the Greeks) upon material death becomes an akh (after successfully passing judgment), which is a great glowing spiritual body of transfigured wisdom and intelligence. The akh joins the all encompassing great Sahu.

Osiris in his astral boat

from the Temple of Hathor at Denderah

Another way of describing the Sahu in modern terms is by drawing a parallel to the Christian religion. You experience material birth with a latent soul. At some point, you are hopefully born again (the soul reawakens from the sleep of death) just like the preachers on late night TV stress. Then you fight the Devil, hopefully win, and are transfigured like Jesus. Upon material death you are judged, and if all goes well, you go to heaven and join the body of Christ. If the decision goes against you, you go to Hell where the Devil is. But you just fought the Devil here on earth? Where does this guy live? Earth or Hell? Anyway, you figure out where you go, I have wandered off topic.

The Sahu is personified by the constellation of Orion in the night sky. Orion is the great Osiris (Asar to the ancient Egyptians). Orion disappears from the night sky in late spring for seventy days and the ancient Egyptians' process of mummification mimicked this disappearance in the length of the embalming practice. Osiris as the personification of the ba soul needed to be remembered and reconstituted after being assassinated by Set upon his appearance in this material place of existence. The remembering of whom you really are allows you to engender a new life which is born again as the son Horus. Horus still has to fight off Set and win in order to become transfigured into an akh and rejoin his father Osiris, the great Sahu, in the constellation of Orion.

Alright, let's start investigating Orion. A good place to start is always the Online Etymology Dictionary.

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?allowed_in_frame=0&search=orion&searchmode=none

Orion, when dominating the southern night sky, undeniably lights up the heavens. I've come across many examples of prefixes and suffixes such as ur, ar, and or relating to a great light while an can refer to a spirit or the heavens.

The other title, Kandaon, which refers to a giant and is a title of Ares, is quite interesting. Ares is the god of war and the association makes for a peculiar moniker for the constellation that the ancient Egyptians considered to be the peaceful Osiris. At the same time, the ancient Hungarians considered their forefather to be Orion, who as Nimrod the great hunter and warrior, was a descendant of Ham - who is a son of Noah.

At this point in our investigation I'm going to veer a little off course and onto a road called observation. Do yourself a favour and one night find out what time Orion is going to rise in the south-eastern night sky after sunset. He rises on his side with the three stars of his belt erect. As the stars of the constellation move in procession, Orion stands up in the night sky as this giant who strikes a smiting pose. If you investigate the mythology of ancient civilizations, then this warrior pose is found. The iconography of the cycle of Orion is unmistakable. He is not only a dying and resurrected god-man but also a mighty warrior.

Osiris on his side from

the temple of Seti I at Abydos

A replica of the Narmer palette

showing the Pharaoh in the striking pose.

The name for Orion in Old Irish is Caomai. Check out this parallel:

cemetery
late 14th century, from Old French cimetiere "graveyard" (12th century), from Late Latin coemeterium, from Greek koimeterion "sleeping place, dormitory," from koimao "to put to sleep," keimai "I lie down," from Proto-Indo-European base *kei- "to lie, rest" (confer Goth haims "village," Old English ham "home, house, dwelling"); see home. Early Christian writers were the first to use it for "burial ground," though the Greek word also were anciently used of the sleep of death. An Old English word for this was licburg.

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

There are many cognate relationships between Caomai and words for where the dead go to rest in peace. I've stressed before the mythology of Osiris where as the ba he is our immortal soul which is in the throes of the sleep of death. Sometimes, it is difficult see through the fog of death and what I mean by that is that there is a material death and a spiritual death. We are all familiar with material death, but not so familiar by what is meant by spiritual death. Tracing the history of the word cemetery, we find interesting parallels with words for the constellation of Orion and his spiritual death in matter.

I have touched previously on the relationship of the following stars of Orion - Rigel and Betelgeuse, and their relationship to the sacred plateau of Giza. More pertinent to the discussion is the bright star in the left shoulder of Orion (we view it as the upper right star of the constellation) called Bellatrix. Bellum is a word for war and looking up the word Bellatrix at dictionary.com we get this:

Origin:
< Medieval Latin, Latin bellātrīx martial, waging war, equivalent to bellā ( re ) to wage war, (verbal derivative of bellum war) + -trīx -trix; apparently by association with bellātor a name for Orion ( Latin: warrior), though precise connection with this star unexplained.

Bellatrix. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Bellatrix (accessed: February 19, 2012).

From the Online Etymology Dictionary we get this word history:

Bellatrix
bright star in the left shoulder of Orion, from Latin bellatrix "a female warrior," frequently used as an adjective, "warlike, skilled in war," feminine of bellator "to wage war," from bellum "war." The Latin name, from the Alfonsine Tables (mid-13th century), very loosely translates the Arabic name for the star, Al Najid "the conqueror."
In astrology it was the natal star of all destined to great civil or military honors, and rendered women born under its influence lucky and loquacious; or as old Thomas Hood said, "Women born under this constellation shall have mighty tongues." [Allen]

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

In keeping with the martial theme, the right leg of Orion (bottom left of the constellation from our point of view) is Saiph, from Saif al Jabbar, which means "sword of the giant."

A few more connections before I finish this blog entry. The name for Orion relates to urine in the Greek language. 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 to 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 this story is that 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 letter 'u' can be pronounced as a 'w' in many archaic languages enabling the connection to the word for war bellum becoming more commonly referred to as 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

So, this lays the groundwork for the blog entries to follow. There seems to be a couple of aspects to Osiris as Orion. There is the peaceful Osiris, but also the warlike one. Can we find the warlike Orion in ancient Egypt?

Entrance to Horus' temple at Edfu