The importance of reading the Pyramid Texts (death and rebirth -- during life -- in ancient Egypt)

In the previous post, we saw that Jeremy Naydler's revolutionary thesis in his 2005 publication Shamanic Wisdom in the Pyramid Texts: The Mystical Tradition of Ancient Egypt asserts that much of the language interpreted by conventional Egyptology as describing the journey of the soul after death should actually be understood to describe the shamanic journey of the consciousness while still alive, undertaken during a deliberate ritual in which the participant symbolically died and experienced realities beyond the ordinary material realm.

That post discussed the fact that such a thesis completely upends the conventional paradigm, and also threatens the Darwinian "cult of progress" which undergirds so much of modern academia and has for the past century or more.  It also noted that the shamanic connections that Dr. Naydler finds in the ancient Pyramid Texts which he believes are describing this mystical initiatory experience correspond to assertions made by de Santillana and von Dechend in their seminal 1969 examination of the evidence that ancient mythology preserves and transmits advanced and sophisticated scientific and esoteric knowledge, entitled Hamlet's Mill: an essay on myth and the frame of time (for previous posts on Hamlet's Mill see here and here).

Dr. Naydler's book provides readers with a detailed tour of the texts in the Pyramid of Unas, who reigned from 2375 BC through 2345 BC, and whose pyramid not only contains the first and oldest known collection of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic texts inscribed on the inner walls of a pyramid, but also the best preserved corpus of texts.  As Dr. Naydler explains:

Of the nine pyramids at Saqqara, four are so badly damaged that whole sections of text are missing from certain walls.  These four are the pyramids of Teti, Pepi I, Merenre, and Iby.  The pyramids of the three queens of Pepi II are also not in the best state of preservation, and they suffer, along with that of Iby, from the added disadvantage of being single-chamber pyramids and therefore lacking an inscribed antechamber.  Their texts are thus not as representative as the other pyramids, which all have antechamber texts.  this leaves the greatest body of extant texts in the pyramid of Unas and the pyramid of Pepi II.  Pepi II's pyramid is the largest and has by far the most utterances on its walls.  But it has also sustained some damage, so the texts of this pyramid are incomplete.  One might think that this is more than made up for by the greater amount of texts.  The impression one gets, however, is that Pepi somewhat indiscriminately crammed as many texts as possible into his pyramid, often overriding earlier conventions as to the placement of utterances on walls oriented to one or another of the cardinal directions.

We are left, then, with the pyramid of Unas, which is not only the best preserved but also the one pyramid for which we have a complete set of utterances. 152-153.

Fortunately for those of us born at a time that enables us to see a tremendous amount of information via the web that was more difficult to find in previous decades and centuries, the entire corpus of texts from the pyramid of Unas is available online at  sites such as Vincent Brown's outstanding Pyramid Texts Online.  Here, visitors can read the utterances of the pyramid of Unas as they were intended to be read -- as a sort of "three-dimensional book" in which the location of various utterances is extremely significant (as Dr. Naydler explains: "Unlike a modern printed book that can be more or less read anywhere on the planet, the Pyramid Texts are wedded both to the chambers and to the walls on which they are inscribed.  A north-wall sarcophagus-chamber text could not be transposed to the east wall of the antechamber without losing a whole dimension of significance" [165]).

Visitors can see a diagram of the layout of the chambers in the interior of the pyramid, and click on the different walls of the chambers to read the utterances that are found in each area.  As one goes through the pyramid of Unas, the text of Dr. Naydler is an essential guide, and his book contains excellent 3-D representations of the chambers as well as diagrams of each wall showing the partitioning of various utterances and their locations on each wall.  However, the Pyramid Texts Online site is also an essential supplement to Dr. Naydler's book, as it allows readers to peruse every single utterance in its entirety.

Further, the online tour of the pyramid of Unas contains viewable photographic plates of each inscribed surface of the interior chambers, allowing visitors to see the hieroglyphs themselves in full color -- Dr. Naydler describes the first view the visitor to the actual temple has of the texts themselves: 

At the end of the corridor, the first chamber of the pyramid to be entered is the antechamber.  The antechamber is right at the center of the pyramid.  The exact center of the pyramid is the center point of the antechamber ceiling.  Here it is possible to stand up, and to have the experience of being encompassed on all sides by the blue-tinted hieroglyphs, which seem almost tangibly to emanate a magical power and to saturate the chamber with a mysterious potency. 160-161.

The Pyramid Texts Online site enables the viewer to see a glimpse of this magical blue color of these earliest extant human texts.  The hieroglyphs themselves are beautiful -- a writing system that is a masterpiece of design.  As John Anthony West explains in his groundbreaking 1979 work, Serpent in the Sky: The High Wisdom of Ancient Egypt :

The hieroglphyic system was complete at the time of the earliest dynasties of Egypt.  It continued in use for sacred and religious texts throughout the millennia of Egyptian history, and even beyond: the last recorded discovered hieroglyphs come from the island of Philae, just below the first Nile cataract, and date from the fourth century AD.  147.

Describing hieroglyphs carved into wood from the tomb of Hesire, vizier to the Third Dynasty pharaoh Zoser at Seqqara, he says: 

The hieroglyphs are already complete,and later Egypt will never succeed in carving them with more power or purity.  Still earlier hieroglyphs are no less complete, but in general less well executed.  nothing supports a postulated 'period of development.'  But it is possible that guardians of the ancient tradition required a number of generations in which to bring artists and artisans up to this standard.  14.

The beauty of the hieroglyphs in the Pyramid Texts of Unas is undeniable, and some measure of this beauty can be appreciated through the color photographic plates of the online site. 

Reading the texts of the pyramid of Unas online in their entirety helps one to grasp the power of Dr. Naydler's argument that these utterances describe a mystical experience undergone by the king during his life -- most likely during the very important Sed festival which was traditionally held during the thirtieth year of the reign of a pharaoh but which Dr. Naydler demonstrates could be held before that and could be held multiple times (it was not limited to once every thirty years).  For the celestial significance of the thirty-year cycle, see this previous post (among others).

For an example from the texts of the Unas pyramid which support the arguments of Dr. Naydler in his book, see utterances 223 and 224, from the east wall of the sarcophagus chamber.  Here, the king is urgently commanded to awake, to turn himself about, to stand up, and to "put on" the body again.  

Reading them in the Pyramid Texts Online site, the translations contain bracketed attempts to explain these commands in terms of speculation that they may refer to some kind of "courtyard circular procession (?)," because the conventional approach that these texts address the spirit of the dead king makes them somewhat confusing to the traditional translator.  

However, under Dr. Naydler's theory, they make perfect sense: the king (still very much alive) has undergone a profound and dangerous mystical experience in which his consciousness has taken leave of the body and journeyed into astral realms beyond the boundaries of ordinary human experience.  Now, the attendant priests are urgently requesting that he return, and again "clothe himself" with the body.

As Dr. Naydler writes on page 219 in discussion of these utterances:

Instructions to the soul to "put on" its body, or equally clothe itself, may have had a place in mummification rituals, but  in the present context they make considerably more sense if we assume that the king is not in a mummified state.  [. . .]  If the sequence of twelve utterances appears to end where it began, there may be a very good reason for this.  And that could be because the "return" at the end of the series of mystical and ritual episodes is to the very same place as that from which the "departure" began.  

All of this discussion has extremely important ramifications, not only for our understanding of ancient history, but also for our understanding of human consciousness.  If the consciousness can depart from the physical body, this has implications which suggest that the material world is not all that there is (contrary to the modern materialistic faith underpinning almost all of conventional scholarship today).  

Extensive evidence gathered from those who have undergone near-death experiences appears to bear this out, as Chris Carter asserts in his authoritative examination of the subject in his book Science and the Near-Death Experience: How Consciousness Survives Death.

Further, this pattern of ritual mystical death and rebirth infuses the patterns of many ancient writings and traditions (including esoterism, Gnosticism, and Christianity, among others).  One of the experiences testified to within the Pyramid Texts is that of rebirth during the voluntary death-like experience within the sarcophagus, during which the pharaoh was baptized, suckled by divine goddesses such as Hathor or Iat.

All of these themes have powerful implications for us today. Although they are among the earliest texts in existence, they speak to us at the cutting edge of the present in the twenty-first century, "precisely because," as Dr. Naydler writes, "in the prevailing culture of the West (and increasingly the modern world), we suffer from chronic amnesia concerning spiritual realities with which the ancients were relating on a daily basis" (144).  

He concludes that, "Insofar as we are able to acknowledge cultures of the past, not only as part of our own history but -- as Eliade says -- as part of what lies buried within the modern psyche, and insofar as we are able to incorporate and integrate them into our understanding of who we are today, we may open the way to reconnecting with that lost part of ourselves and that lost dimension of existence that was so present to the Egyptians and has become so absent from our modern awareness" (144).

Review of Jeremy Naydler's Shamanic Widsom in the Pyramid Texts

Below is a review of Jeremy Naydler's essential and outstanding text Shamanic Wisdom in the Pyramid Texts: The Mystical Tradition of Ancient Egypt.

Dr. Naydler argues that the current prevailing lens through which much of ancient Egyptian culture -- including the pyramids -- is viewed is incorrect.  

He provides extensive evidence and a clear argument that the funerary interpretation obscures the evidence that the pharaohs of ancient Egypt may well have used the pyramids for initiatory and mystical rites during which they deliberately underwent a death and rebirth experience that opened their consciousness to a world beyond ordinary material human experience -- as Dr. Naydler explains, "the king was brought to the threshold of death in order to travel into the spirit world" (120).

This argument is stunning in its implications, and (as Dr. Naydler demonstrates) completely upends the conventional paradigm that has dominated academia for over a century, which denies a mystical tradition in ancient Egypt -- primarily because such a possibility undermines the cult of progress which has dominated academia since the triumph of Darwinian materialism.  

As Dr. Naydler explains:

The assumption that modern materialistic science provides the only sure path to acquiring knowledge, and that true knowledge began with the Greeks not the Egyptians, to a large extent rests on a second deeply rooted assumption: that human history constitutes a steady progress not only of knowledge, but also of social organization and psychological and spiritual maturity.  Just as our knowledge today is considered to be more accurate and comprehensive than that of the past, so too our social and political forms are deemed more just and humane, and people today assume that they are more psychologically developed and enlightened than people of the past.  Thus the idea of progress not only works to our advantage, but it also disadvantages the past, for the earlier the culture, the more primitive it must have been.  32-33.

Dr. Naydler's work is thus extremely important on many levels.  The evidence that the pyramids may have been primarily for mystical rites undergone by the pharaoh on behalf of his people is compelling.  Among the most obvious is the fact that many of these sites contain sarcophagi which, when found, contained no burial remains -- even if the site was undisturbed when found.  In some cases, sarcophagi were found that were still sealed, and yet empty.  

Dr. Naydler argues that the pharaoh, guided by the priesthood, underwent a powerful death and rebirth experience, during which his consciousness became aware of the supernatural world and he or she experienced a cosmic ascent to the celestial realm, as well as a profound awareness that the end of material life was not the end of consciousness.  As a result of this experience, Dr. Naydler demonstrates, "the mystic knows that he or she is a spiritual being as well as a merely physical being" (121).  

He also shows how the language of the Pyramid Texts (among the oldest if not the oldest texts we can examine today) mirror the death and dismemberment and rebirth experience of shamanic tradition, as well as the cosmic ascent (by means of a ladder or by means of turning into a falcon, eagle, or other soaring bird) themes of shamanic tradition.

In Hamlet's Mill, Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend also noted this connection between the most ancient Egyptian texts and the shamanic tradition, but Dr. Naydler examines the connection in much greater detail.  The importance of the shamanic tradition for our understanding of human consciousness, the human experience, and human history has been discussed in other previous posts including this one, this one, and this one. 

Dr. Naydler's thesis also sheds important new light on celestial and mythical subjects central to those discussed on this blog and in the Mathisen Corollary book itself, including the theme of Osiris, Isis, Horus, and Seth, and the aspects of the heavens discussed in posts such as "The Undying Stars."

Author Lucy Wyatt has explored the possibility of ancient Egyptian shamanic consciousness further in her own work as well, including her book Approaching Chaos.  In fact, I became aware of Dr. Naydler's work through Lucy Wyatt's discussion of his thesis. 

Dr. Naydler's book is essential reading for anyone interested in ancient Egypt, and in the spiritual aspect of human experience in all eras, including our own.

Mantras: Sacred Words of Power, by John Blofeld

Blog posts will be rare for the next week and a half, as I am off learning matters related to a subject of great interest and importance to me.  Thank you to my readers for bearing with the lack of newer material while I'm away (and feel free of course to check out older material if you haven't seen it already -- the "search" function in the upper-left area of the blog is a handy way to find posts on subject matter topics that interest you).

While on my voyage of discovery I have been discovering the delightful contents of a little text written by John Blofeld and recommended to me by my friend String entitled Mantras: Sacred Words of Power.  If you're not familiar with John Blofeld, be sure to check out the blog post from earlier this year entitled "A heartfelt portrait of John Blofeld by Daniel P. Reid."

Not only is Professor Blofeld's writing wonderfully relaxed and engaging, but his subject matter is of great importance and interest.  The subject of this book is closely related to topics touched on in numerous previous posts, and expands on them and opens up new perspectives on them.  For a previous post on this very important subject matter, check out "How much time do you spend chanting praises?"

Interestingly enough, we do not have to go very far in the book before we find this remarkable passage:

On entering the shrine-room we would first stand facing a window and perform some purificatory mudras, each with its appropriate mantra which was as resonant to my ear as it was mystifying to my mind.  Then, facing the shrine, we would bow our heads to the floor thrice before seating ourselves cross-legged on the cushions.  Close to the low altar sat the chief celebrant (often it was Fifth Uncle), so that the censer and other ritual implements were comfortably within his reach.  To one side sat the musicians who would accompany the rite with clarinet, dulcimer (played by Elder Brother), tinkling instruments and a drum.  Starting with a melodious incense-chant and ending with a final mantra, the principal rite lasted rather more than an hour.  Some passages of the liturgy were sung; others, including the mantras, were chanted or intoned, but in a manner that bore little resemblance to the chanting that forms parts of Catholic or Orthodox rituals.  The mantras, which were generally recited 3, 7, 21 or 108 times depending partly on their length, were all couched in the strange language neither Chinese nor truly Indian of which I have given an example; they were accompanied by complicated gestures which others performed with charming grace, whereas my fingers, lacking Chinese suppleness, betrayed the awkwardness that I felt.  The liturgy was so beautiful that, although as yet I understood nothing of its meaning, I gladly put up with the torment of leg-cramp.  Miserably distracting as the pain would otherwise have been, I sat lost in fascination up to the moment when I had somehow to struggle to my feet and perform the final triple prostration.  6.

While there is certainly much to comment upon in the above passage, one of the most interesting aspects is the tidbit of information, given almost as an "aside," that the mantras were "generally recited 3, 7, 21 or 108 times."  This is fascinating, in that 108 is one of the principal precessional numbers relating to the celestial machinery of the rotating heavens.  Thus this passage indicates a linkage between the external harmonies of the "macroverse" and the internal harmonies sought by the devotees of the liturgy that Professor Blofeld describes.

The passage also brings to mind the subject matter discussed in the previous post entitled "A connection between ancient Egypt and Buddhist monasticism?"  

Later on in the same discussion, Professor Blofeld describes the personal impact of one particular part of the ceremony.  He writes:

[. . .] some vague inkling of the power of mantras was conveyed to me by the recitation 108 times of a single syllable -- BRONG.  At a certain point in the liturgy, the drum would be struck repeatedly and, at each stroke, we would utter a deep-voiced BRONG!  What the word means and how it would be pronounced in pure Sanskrit, I do not know, but the effect of participating in its rhythmic recitation was extraordinary.  BRONG!  BRONG!  BRONG!  While those 108 cries reverberated, a preternatural stillness fell.  My mind, now totally oblivious of the leg pains, soared upwards and entered a state of blissful serenity.  This transition, which my consciousness was destined to undergo in greater or in lesser measure in response to other mantras, is something to be understood only from experience; it can never be captured in words. 7.

His book appears to be out-of-print now, but you can still find a copy through various booksellers, and if you are interested in these matters I would highly recommend that you do.

The ideology of materialism

Materialism is an extremely pervasive philosophy which asserts that nothing exists beyond the material universe, which is composed of matter and energy (with matter and energy, of course, related as described by the work of Albert Einstein, who was not necessarily a materialist). 

The tenets of materialism flatly deny the existence of the supernatural, as well as the possibility that consciousness can exist separately from its material source (materialists assert that consciousness in humans and in anything else possessing consciousness is the product of electrochemical or other physical products of a material organ such as the brain).  Non-physical beings (such as angels, perhaps) are impossible in such a philosophy, as is life after death.

In two essays available on the internet, philosophy professor Dr. Neal Grossman argues (citing an assertion by philosopher Robert Almeder) that not only does the overwhelming scientific evidence support the possibility that a rational person could reject materialism, but that the overwhelming scientific evidence supports the assertion that it is irrational to continue to accept materialism.

In the essays (entitled "Who's afraid of life after death?" part one and part two), Professor Grossman presents compelling evidence that consciousness can exist separately from the material organs that materialists would argue are the engines of consciousness.  He cites, for example, the case of a patient described in cardiologist Dr. Michael Sabom's Light and Death:

In this case, the patient had her NDE while her body temperature was lowered to 60 degrees, and all the blood was drained from her body. “Her electroencephalogram was silent, her brain-stem response was absent, and no blood flowed through her brain.” A brain in this state cannot create any kind of experience. Yet the patient reported a profound NDE.

Those materialists who believe that consciousness is secreted by the brain, or that the brain is necessary for conscious experience to exist, cannot possibly explain, in their own terms, cases such as this one. An impartial observer would have to conclude that not all experience is produced by the brain, and that therefore the falsity of materialism has been empirically demonstrated. Thus, what needs to be explained is the abysmal failure of the academic establishment to examine this evidence and to embrace the conclusion: Materialism is false, and consciousness can and does exist independently of the body.

Professor Grossman has also written the foreword to Chris Carter's Science and the Near-Death Experience: How Consciousness Survives Death, which delves into this issue in great detail and examines many other pieces of evidence suggesting that the core materialist denial of consciousness apart from physical causes cannot be correct.  This book is the sequel to Mr. Carter's excellent Science and Psychic Phenomena, which was discussed in this previous post. 

Several other previous posts also present evidence and discussion that is relevant to the question of whether one can honestly continue to maintain a strict materialism in the face of the evidence, such as "Moving report of elephants mourning the passing of 'Elephant Whisperer' Lawrence Anthony," "Titanic, premonitions, and the nature of consciousness," "A heartfelt portrait of John Blofeld, from Daniel P. Reid," "Don't miss the intriguing interview with Sheldon Norberg on New Dimensions Radio," "Scary ghost story (West Point)" and  "Rupert Sheldrake and Morphic Resonance."

Aside from its tremendous importance to our day-to-day lives, and its inherent interest, what does this subject have to do with the topic of ancient civilizations and theories that contradict the conventional academic historical narrative?  Quite a lot. 

First, of course, much of what the ancient civilizations were about seems to involve consciousness and the survival of the soul after death. 

Beyond that connection, however, is the fact that the "conventional academic historical narrative" is firmly founded upon a strict materialist paradigm, one that is currently dependent upon the Darwinian theory of origins to explain the existence of humans at all, and therefore one which paints a picture of human history that involves slow and gradual progress from primitive towards greater and greater levels of sophistication and technological advancement.  Theories which demonstrate that the further back we go the greater sophistication and technological advancement we seem to find present a profound challenge to this materialist paradigm and are generally rejected out-of-hand.

Professor Grossman's article (and his introduction to Chris Carter's book) demonstrate that proponents of materialism vehemently reject any evidence that suggests consciousness can exist independently of physicality.  He notes that there is a category of belief in materialism in which "materialism as an ideology, or paradigm, about how things 'must' be, which is impervious to evidence (this is the hallmark of an unscientific hypothesis—that evidence is not relevant for its truth)." 

I would argue that this same "ideology of materialism" he is describing prevents many adherents of that ideology from an honest examination of the evidence regarding ancient civilizations, and the evidence regarding a catastrophic global flood.

The implications of materialism are thus quite profound.  We swim in an ocean that is so heavily informed by materialist assumptions that we do not often even think about them, let alone recognize their impact on our lives.  Articles such as those linked above by Professor Grossman, and books such as those by Chris Carter, are an extremely important reminder that we should be extremely suspicious of this pervasive ideology.

The Hexagon on Saturn

Above is an amazing series of images assembled by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory from imagery taken by the Cassini spacecraft's wide-angle camera in January 2009.  It shows Saturn's north pole region and the incredible hexagonal cloud/jetstream feature encircling Saturn's north pole at a latitude of about 77 degrees.  

This footage uses the visible-light spectrum and became possible as Saturn's northern regions emerged from permanent winter darkness: NASA's discussion of this feature explains that the black region of the footage over Saturn's north pole is due to the fact that the north pole had not yet emerged from the Saturn winter when this footage was taken.  While Saturn's north pole was still shrouded in polar night (which it entered in 1991 and emerged from in 2009), imagery of this hexagonal jet stream was taken using infrared sensors on Cassini, but this visible-light imagery shows the feature in more detail and better spatial resolution.

NASA's page explains that this hexagonal pattern was first seen in footage taken of Saturn in the 1980s by the Voyager spacecraft, and that scientists are amazed that it still persists thirty years later.  They do not know what causes it.  NASA's site simply says, "The six-sided shape remains a mystery."  

The excellent Red Ice interview with Richard Merrick discussed in an earlier blog post makes mention of this hexagonal feature of the planet Saturn, in contrast with the pentagonal shape created by Venus in its synodic pattern with earth and the sun.

Also, the outstanding book by Ross Hamilton, The Mystery of the Serpent Mound, mentioned in this previous post has some very important extended discussion of the hexagon, relating it to the insights of the Pythagoreans and to cultures even more ancient than Pythagoras.

On page 26 of that deep and far-ranging work, Mr. Hamilton tells us:

each and every individual spirit owns a "mass" which, united with its native homeland, essentially becomes the spherical shape.  In the body, however, the spiritual currents of the little soul become plastic in order to fit the mold of the human being by way of the nerve fibers.  At the time of death or initiation at the hands of a competent Mastersoul, the microsoul undergoes the return, however temporarily, to its original shape, experiencing great relief and high joy.

It is for this reason that the sphere and the circle, and subsequently the hexagon, are particularly interesting to the mind of the incarnate soul.  There is a substantial resonance in sympathy between the geometry and the underlying Reality.

Later, on page 67, he goes on:

The interrelationship of the hexagon and the ank-kabbalistic tree provides a basis for decoding much of the ancient mysteries, including enough of the Revelation to John to take its interpretation out of the immature ideologies of politically inclined Churchmen.  The hexagon alone provides much of this information.

Mr. Hamilton relates all of this to the amazing Serpent Mound in Ohio.  Whether the ancients were aware of the hexagon on Saturn (and whether that hexagon even existed thousands of years ago) remains a mystery we may never be able to answer.

The ancients and the "plant-based diet" debate

Forks over Knives is a thought-provoking independent movie released last year which chronicles the analysis and life's work of two American doctors, Colin Campbell and Caldwell Esselstyn, and their conclusion that a whole-food plant-based diet is best for health.  The movie also argues that such a diet can reverse the deleterious effects caused by the "standard American diet" (which is sometimes called the "Western diet," and is probably better referred to as the "modern [as opposed to traditional] post-industrial diet" since it long ago began spreading around the world).

The film's subject matter is highly pertinent to the topics and issues discussed in this blog, although the connection may not seem so obvious at first.  Most importantly, the film illustrates the dangers of simply relying on the "status quo" conventional wisdom, and the importance of conducting good analysis or "due diligence," especially in areas on which a lot is riding (human health and diet being one of them, clearly). 

The doctors at the center of the film were not afraid to follow the evidence to conclusions that went against their initial "gaps and biases" (as one of them explains towards the end of the film).  The film also touches on the fact that following the evidence -- particularly when it points to conclusions that are different from the dominant paradigm -- can have professional consequences and lead to marginalization, vehement opposition, and even ridicule.  

The history of science is replete with examples of this opposition, including the modern era right up to today (the doctors in the movie have certainly experienced it, and examples of opposition and ridicule in other scientific disciplines have been discussed in this blog previously, such as in this post about continental-drift theory originator Alfred Wegener and this post about the work of Nobel Laureate Professor Dan Schectman).

Secondly, the subject of diet and human health is certainly one that concerned the ancients, including those who were renowned for their concern with matters esoteric -- matters that are quite central to the subject matter of this blog and of the Mathisen Corollary book as well.  

We have already seen that Plutarch (who is really the author of the earliest extant full discourse on the Osiris-Isis-Set-Horus narrative) discussed the fact that the Egyptian priesthood abstained from wearing garments made from wool or other products of animal skin or hair, and in the same passage he explains that the same priests abstain from eating the flesh of animals as well (he even mentions the opinion of some that they abstain from eating salt because it could contain the remains of many minute creatures, but dismisses this idea as ridiculous, although it is always worth noting what these ancient initiates to the mystery schools -- as Plutarch was -- mention and dismiss as ridiculous, because sometimes they deliberately drop hints while denying they are doing so, in order to conceal their full message -- sort of like saying something with a "wink" of the eye to deny it while slyly leaving it open as a possibility).

Long before the time of Plutarch (AD 46 - AD 120), the sage Pythagoras was said to have abstained from the eating of animal flesh (and, interestingly enough, to abstain from wearing garments made of wool or other animal products), and his followers were said to do the same.  One passage which reveals this Pythagorean tradition of a vegetable diet (and linen or flax-based garments) is preserved in the biographical writings of L. Flavius Philostratus (AD 172 - AD 250), who begins his Life of Apollonius by saying:

The votaries of Pythagoras of Samos have this story to tell of him, that he was not an Ionian at all, but that, once on a time in Troy, he had been Euphorbus, and that he had come to life after death, but had died as the songs of Homer relate. And they say that he declined to wear apparel made from dead animal products and, to guard his purity, abstained from all flesh diet, and from the offering of animals in sacrifice. For that he would not stain the altars with blood; nay, rather the honey-cake and frankincense and the hymn of praise, these they say were the offerings made to the Gods by this man, who realized that they welcome such tribute more than they do the hecatombs and the knife laid upon the sacrificial basket. 

The historian Herodotus (484 BC - 425 BC), who lived after Pythagoras, mentions briefly the practice of abstaining from meat among some peoples of the world, particularly the Atlantians mentioned in Histories 4.186, who take their name not from Atlantis but from their location near the "Mountain called Atlas" according to Herodotus, and of whom "it is said that they neither eat anything that has life nor have any dreams."  

After describing them, Herodotus also goes on to describe some nomads who also live in North Africa and who "do not taste at all of the flesh of cows, for the same reason as the Egyptians also abstain from it, nor do they keep swine. Moreover the women of the Kyrenians too think it not right to eat cows' flesh, because of the Egyptian Isis, and they even keep fasts and celebrate festivals for her; and the women of Barca, in addition from cows' flesh, do not taste of swine either" (4.186).  The mention of the Egyptians and Isis is undoubtedly important, as it connects to the priests of Isis in the later passage of Plutarch, as well as to the tradition of the earlier Pythagoras, who is traditionally held to have spent significant time among the priesthood in Egypt.  

The abstention from eating the meat of cows by the ancient Egyptians alleged by Herodotus is also significant to the possibility of a connection between ancient Egypt and India, just as such a connection appears to be possible between the ancient Egyptians and ancient China (or perhaps a third and now-unknown source informed all these ancient civilizations).

The debate over whether or not to eat meat is also interesting in that the ancient Hebrew Scriptures appear to indicate some kind of connection between eating meat and the global flood.  It has been remarked that Genesis 1:30 appears to prescribe "the green herb for meat" to every living creature (mankind, presumably, included), but that Genesis 9:2-4 appears to alter that diet immediately following the flood to include the possibility of consuming animal products of some sort, although specifically prohibiting the eating of "flesh with the blood thereof, [which is] the life thereof" in verse 4.

It is interesting that the allowing of the eating of flesh for the first time (if that is indeed what is meant to be conveyed by this passage) is associated with the end of the flood.  We have already noted that the lifespans described in the Genesis account begin to drop dramatically in the generations after the flood.  

If human lifetimes really dropped that dramatically, it may have been due to the possibility that most of the radioactive isotopes on earth were the product of a flood catastrophe. It is certainly hard to argue that eating meat caused such a drop in lifespans (if such a drop actually took place).  After all, even the advocates of a plant-based diet do not argue today that those who stop eating meat could live to be "nine hundred sixty and nine years" as Methuselah is said to have done prior to the flood (in Genesis 5:27).

There are those who make the argument that the Genesis 9 passage was never intended to sanction a meat-based diet.  After all, they point out, the eating of flesh with its blood is strictly forbidden, and it is actually impossible to remove all of the blood from flesh, or to say that one can eat flesh without also consuming blood.  They argue that Genesis 9:2-4 gives permission to eat reptile eggs -- the "meat" of reptiles (one could perhaps think of it as "the fruit" of reptiles) arguing that the word translated "moving thing" in 9:3 means "reptile," but not the flesh of reptiles or of any other class of animal.

In light of the above discussion, it is interesting to note that some modern advocates of a plant-based diet argue that some of the problems associated with aging are actually produced by diet.  The Forks over Knives movie certainly contains interviews with patients who, using a completely dietary approach (no drugs) not only reversed serious cardiovascular symptoms but also problems such as arthritis.  

Separately, professional Ironman triathlete and vegan Brendan Brazier says on pages 46-47 of his book Thrive that cooking foods (which is generally mandatory for eating meat, particularly if you are trying to eat "flesh" but not "flesh with the blood thereof, the life thereof") can directly lead to problems associated with aging:

Food cooked at a high temperature can also cause inflammation in the body.  As well as destroying enzymes and converting essential fatty acids into trans fats (a dangerous compound that I discuss in detail in Chapter 5, page 143), high-temperature cooking creates advanced glycation end products, or AGEs.  The body perceives AGEs as invaters and so its immune cells try to break down AGEs by secreting large amounts of inflammatory agents.  If this natural process is called on too often, the result will likely be diseases commonly associated with old age but which actually have more to do with toxins created by high-temperature cooking.  Less elastic skin, arthritis, poorer memory, joint pain, and even heart conditions are often attributable to inflamed tissue.

This debate is interesting on many levels (and it is clearly not just an academic matter, but one with serious consequences for human health).  What is quite amazing, and often not discussed when this topic is examined, is the evidence that the ancients -- and especially the priests of ancient Egypt and those non-Egyptians who appear to have learned some of the secrets of the Egyptian priesthood -- appear to have come down on the side of a plant-based diet many thousands of years before the researchers highlighted in Forks over Knives.

Were the ancient Egyptians right?  Is a plant-based diet best for human health and longevity?  And, if so, how did they know it?  The scientific knowledge of the ancients continues to anticipate the "discoveries" of later millennia -- and it seems to continue to do so right up to the present day.

note: John Anthony West devotes considerable time in his excellent book Serpent in the Sky discussing the apparently advanced medical and health sciences of ancient Egypt -- other important aspects of Serpent in the Sky are discussed in previous posts such as this one and others linked inside that post.

A look back on the Venus transit of 2012

Now that some of the excitement and the flurry of news coverage from the 2012 transit of Venus is fading from the headlines, I will venture to share one of my favorite images of this historic event.

Above is perhaps the "least spectacular" image on the web of the Venus transit, but meaningful to me since I took it myself, and took it just a few seconds after getting my first glimpse of the progress of the planet across our sun's disc.  

I happened to be on the road, listening to some of the best engineers in the world discussing strategies they are implementing to process or transmit data over the electromagnetic spectrum, using many different engineering approaches to meet the demands and exigencies of the existing network, employing this or that Gigahertz (frequency), at this or that clock cycle, with this or that measurement of watts, throughput, and latency.

Then I stepped out into the brilliant Silicon Valley sunshine and observed a very different cycle, but one which (like the electromagnetic waves that carry data around the world, including the data that makes up this blog post) follows a very predictable pattern and can be said to have a frequency, and thus to resonate with the "harmony of the spheres" -- the motion of the planet Venus in relation to our earth as both heavenly bodies make their way around our sun.

While the image above is not very spectacular in comparison to some of the truly stunning images that were captured by other observers during this event, it was spectacular to me, as the light streaming from the sun to my location revealed the outline of the hurtling body of Venus traveling across the solar disc.

Meanwhile, the NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory was observing the same event and sending the incredible imagery that it captured through the ether of space (also using the electromagnetic spectrum and communications technology related to that being discussed by the engineers described above) for humanity on earth.  

Below is a video of the truly stunning images that it saw, using the imaging equipment capable of producing images at eight times better resolution than current-generation HD televisions, and capable of capturing light at frequencies above the visible portion of the spectrum.

In the video below, some of the footage shows imaging taken within the visible spectrum (orange-colored sun), while other footage shows imaging using various frequencies of the ultraviolet spectrum, including wavelengths of 1700 angstrom (magenta-colored sun), 304 angstrom (red-colored sun), and 171 angstrom (golden-colored sun).  An angstrom is a tenth of a nanometer, so those wavelengths translate to 170 nanometers, 30.4 nanometers, and 17.1 nanometers (wavelengths between 400nm and 10nm are designated as the ultraviolet spectrum).  Shorter wavelengths indicate higher frequencies, and those with wavelengths approaching 10nm at the upper end of the ultraviolet spectrum correspond to frequencies of approaching 30 Petahertz, with one Petahertz equal to a thousand Terahertz and one Terahertz equal to a thousand Gigahertz (and one Gigahertz equal to 1,000 Megahertz), meaning that 30 Petahertz is equivalent to 30 million GHz:

 For some previous blog posts discussing various aspects of the significance of our synodic cycle with Venus, see here, here, and here.