THE TEMPLE

Body of Gods 

Heart of Men

I - THE TEMPLE, HEART OF MEN 

1-Where religion and teaching merge 

The Egyptian religion always seemed complex even inaccessible as if it addressed only to theInitiated, proud "apprentices-witches" who, from a teaching to another one, from a rite to another one, entered always more in the Great Mysteries.
The reality is different.
Whatever one says about it, the Egyptian religion is for everybody, because in these ancient times, the Gods walked among us. And their presence, so close, so tangible, spreads on hearts and spirits, a forgotten depth. 


What more evident than an artisan priest of Ptah?
Or a magistrate, of Mâat?
Does it not make sense that the one who creates with his hands serves Ptah, Great God Creator, Great Builder, God of artisans and artists? (Below in god potter Ptah/Knoum)


And that the one who applies the law and passes judgment devotes himself to Mâat, goddess of justice and of cosmic order, of which the famous feather crossed the ages?


So, the everyday life and the religious life are linked in a way that they are, most of the time "inextricable".
Contrary to the clergies today, no need to prove his faith or to show his vocation to become priest.
The religious in these times performed the tasks of management, of direction for their "community" of worship, spent time for their profession (teacher, sculptor, jurist, trading, scribe...) as with their family.
Most of the time, and whatever was the social origin, the very young child entered the Temple and began the learning (apprenticeship) of the divine words of God Thot, foundation of the Egyptian language and writing.



Once initiated, the grown up child could exert many professions because the "religious" training led to everything.
The teaching of the Egyptian language, centred on the learning of the hieratic hieroglyph, barely pressed cursive writing faster to draw, was the base of the training.


The education took place in the Temple, high centre of activity and interest in Ancient Egypt , also called "House of Life", taking back the word of the Primordial God Ea/Enki at Sumer.
This " mix faith-acquisition " results from the profound belief transmitted by Thot:

" No separation between science and religion because the Knowledge can only be obtainedby a bestowed revelation from a god or a prophet " 

The temple is thus the ideal place to be"inspired" and to receive understanding and enlightenment in everything.
In these Houses of Life in the heart of the Temple were preserved all the sacred books of Thot (52 as it's said, Manetho counts several tens of thousands), but also all the teachings of medicine, anatomy, herbal medicine and others. (see medicine of the Pharaoh).

(Ibis, manifestation of God Thot -
source Passion d'Egypte - editions Atlas).

In fact, all the useful subjects to serve Gods and Pharaohs: masonry, architecture, crafts, drawing, sculpture...

The Temple was prematurely a gigantic versatile and all-purpose university opened to everybody.
To pray the Gods with offerings is not enough.
It is necessary to participate.
To create, to build, to produce, to transmit, to teach, in short: to not only open hearts and souls, but also intellect and spirit.
Because everything is One, arisen from the thought of Ptah.

That's why also, the gods often appeared as mid-animal, mid-human! No difference between the human soul and the animal soul because both descend directly from the heart of the Great God Potter:Ptah / Knoum.

So the Gods "contained" in their so powerfully symbolic representations three big Reigns, divine, human and animal, in One.
Notice that we still find here the notion of the trinity, the unifying Spirit, the first Source.


Let's illustrate this approach with the example of the divine goddess Hathor 
Completely divine...


... mid-"human", mid-animal...

... in the entire animal symbolism.

Let's see now the Temple as a living character in the history of Ancient Egypt.
With his multiple facets, his magic power.

2 - The Internal Temple 
If you often come to this blog or if you know my books, you understood for a long time now that my main quality as writer is the synthesis.
For me, everything is always linked because the unconsciousness of the big human nation is one and only one.
No matter the words, the symbolism, the gestures, always everything crosschecks because the inspirer of any mythical or spiritual understanding is one and only one, also.
Enki / Ptah ceaselessly tought the man, transmitted to him the secrets of Gods, because in these old times, much more ancient than the datings of experts, we were very advanced, capable to integrate many divine notions which today would burst our brains.

Sumerian tablets or other papers of Ancient Mesopotamia give us an easy access to the Gods.(as in Atlantis).
If the priests had the privilege to " pamper " the sacred statuary, many people had easily access to Enki, in particular in his Houses of Breath of Life.
Enki looked after the sick persons with his hands, with Marduk and Thot. He took care himself of the survivors of the Big Calamity, directly in the field.
Enki did not remain sat on his throne to philosophize, far from the people and its everyday life.
Enki / Ptah was at the same time and entirely inspirer, builder, participant, body, soul and spirit.
Today, we would describe him as being involved, engaged.
(What he is besides more than ever. The activity of Enki today will be the object of future message).


That's why, Enki / Ptah put in the heart of the Man, the notion of the Interior Temple.
There, in us, in the heart of the chest vibrates our own Naos. There is our faith, our strength of soul. There is THE presence, that of Ptah.


The heart is " the real melting pot where all the opposites melt. The knowledge of the heart revitalizes the consciousness up to its most intimate components. What does not got through the heart remains in the intellect. To what use can be a learning which consists in gathering sterile information? The passage by the heart opens the path to a more just understanding of the Nature ".
(source : le livre de Thot-Hermès le Trismégiste - René Lachaud - Ed. Ramuel)


This temple was called by the Hindus, Anahata which means " center of life " or " point of life ".

Anahata, heart chakra, reflects the mental balance 
and the anima of an individual.
It is the junction point of all the emotional and psycho-spiritual plans of the being

: love, generosity, gifts, inner knowledge of the self, or hatred, miserliness, arrogance, chronic imbalance, fear of rejection or abandonment.
The love for oneself is there, emerald green, green as the enjoyment and the unlimited growth.
The love for the gods also. Because the love is inseparable. To love oneself, it's to love Humankind and especially his(her) God Creator, even if we do not still realize it.
There is the center of the lemniscate, there is the heart of Ankh, there sits Ea ( Enki / Ptah), there balance the physical body, the elements which stimulate it, and the blood and energetic circulation of the body.
To enter the Naos of the Temple and to love his(her) god, his Neter, means penetrating in the self, in his(her) inner Naos.
The worship to Ptah is, in a certain way, worship to the self. The worship to oneself (to take care of his (her) health, well-being, wish to improve, to progress....) recognizes the creation of Ptah. And rises towards him.
This has nothing to do with megalomania or vanity. But indeed

the Consciousness of his (her) Divine origins
and the eternal gratitude which ensues from it.

That's why the heart, for the Egyptians, was the essential organ, the one which conveyed the most solid, the most indelible, the most powerful link to Ptah.

This "descent" in the heart of the self existed, in Egypt, in the Temple. In this stony temple built to last the Eternity of Gods.
To most the priest or the believer penetrated the depths of the Temple, in direction of the Naos, the most the ground rose and the ceiling lowered, in order to form a long stripped corridor with reduced and dark space.



Even there, let's think to the relaxations and other therapeutic work. A good practitioner will take you to the inmost depths of yourself by the descent of a quasi-vertical staircase (or spiral staircase) which rushes into the abysses of the Earth, or still into the mysteries of a barely lit well.
The evocation of the descent acts strongly on the unconsciousness. Because always the isolation, the silence, the twilight and a more and more narrow way led towards the divine revelation and the enlightenment.

No need of others, because Ptah is everything.
No need of crash because in this silence which opens the soul,
Ptah embodies all the sounds, all the songs.
No need of light, because Ptah is any Light.
No need finally of useless space,
Because Ptah is the point in the circle,
the sought-after outcome, perfect focal point on the only ultimate purpose:
the fusion with Him.

To move in this narrow, dark and low corridor, it's to dive into the infinite heart of Ptah where everything is given in an instant: love, enjoyment, light and benefactions.


Let's see now at the structure of the temple.

3 - The structure of the temple and its symbolism.
To go to the Temple first of all led to cross a long path of defenders Sphinxes or dromos.
(Greek term which means race, and seems inadequate here. The Greeks used it to describe the lanes of the chariot races. Here, the believers "do not run" but walk solemn and focused).
This so beautiful, open-air road is, already the beginning of the "pilgrimage", the first step towards theobelisks,

Immense (often more than 30 m height), visible from a great distance, widely exceeding the heights of the temple, supported by pylons, symbols of the mountains of the horizon between which circulates the sun. (Below image wikipédia)

( Below entrance with pylons and obelisks of the temple of Luxor with the giants of Ramsès II)


By moving forward in this way, sometimes several kilometres long, the believer realizes that to meet Ptah asks for an effort, a self-sacrifice, a state of mind, a particular concentration of the Consciousness.
So, every sphinx represents a step " of linear staircase ", a border, a stage. And every stage spreads the Consciousness.
( Below, the path of sphinxes-rams with bodies of lions of Karnak, said " criocephales " which connects the temples of Karnak with the banks of the Nile. Indeed certain sphinxes have heads of ram with reverse horns. Registered since 1979 at the World heritage of Humankind, this path dates from the 19th dynasty around - 1300, (but be careful with the dates of chronologies, they are very uncertain), great dynasty which welcomed Ramses II.)


The obelisks, far away, motionless solar flames, always by pair, accompanied with banners, evoke the double aspect of gods, " yin and yang " as it would be said today, capable of engendering any thing.
Then, the courts, the rooms and the sanctuary.


I synthetized this walking like a plan, click to enlarge it.


Here is an example of plan (among many others) of a temple followed by a section.
The more the temple is big, the more it will contain rooms and secondary rooms which are used as stores and contain liturgical objects. Or still, several pylons in the entrance and courts in a row and up to three hypostyles rooms.
Furthermore, a temple generally possesses a salt lake, place of ablutions for the priests before the rites and the worships. (Below that of Karnak).



( Main legends plan of the temple above): a - pylons; b - peristyle court; c - first hypostyle room; d - second hypostyle room; f - offerings rooms; k - central room of the sanctuary; l - Naos;)
(below source of the section jfbradu.free.fr)


Back to our trip in the temple.
Once crossed the big open-air court, the believer reaches the hypostyle room with the columns so essential for their symbolism.
(Message: columns and divine phallus) 


Then the boat room appears.
This boat is used to transport the Neter in the streets and to show him to the believers during the holidays.
(Below boat room of the temple in Edfou dedicated to Horus).
But it is also, as it is said, the funeral boat of Pharaoh who will use it to join the subterranean world of Osiris and cross the Nile from East to West.
But it seems to me more coherent that the boat put in the sanctuary is for the Neter and not for the Pharaoh.
On the other hand, the boat can "base" outside, in the altar of the boat, as in the white chapel of Sesostris Ier and then would be dedicated to the Pharaoh. ( image wikipédia).

Finally, just after the offerings room, the sanctuary.
And in the sanctuary, the Naos, the tabernacle, where is the statue of the God.


In the sanctuary, only the Priest and the Pharaoh can enter.
There take place the rites of worship to the God (to clean the statue, to charge it with energy, to put down the offerings, to pray....) but also rites linked to the Great Mysteries, powerful magic rites intended to obtain the favours of the revered God.
The relation between the Neter and his "servants" is also a relation of reciprocity and gratitude of the importance for one another.
The Neter needs the priests, the Pharaoh, the people, and the opposite also is obviously exact.
This conception can seem curious to our narrow-minded Judeo-Christian spirits.
Nevertheless, in this intimate relation to the God, is strongly shown a monotheism too often denied by the usual experts who assert knowing everything, but, as everyone, perceive the world through their own filters.(Ndt: meaning that the experts adapt the information according to their own understanding, their limitations, their more or less open-mindedness) 
The condescension shown by some of them towards the Egyptian religion borders on blasphemy, so much it is true that the sacred Egyptian books speak about ONE god.
Indeed, in the Maximes de Ptahhotep, towards - 2500, we read: " It is not the dispositions of the men that come true, but the intention of God ".
Or still, under the 10th dynasty, we can read: " God knows the one who acts for him ". Many others can be quoted.
( For an exhaustive study of the Egyptian thought and philosophy, click here.)


So the relation to the sanctuary is essential. It also obliges to bring out the statue of the God from the Naos to show it to the people. From there appears the understanding of people who aspires to the rise and of an elite which jealously detains the secrets of the Gods. A very restricted elite but extremely evolved in its perception of the universe, its laws, and its alchemy.
Let's quote Thot / Hermes, here is what he teaches to the aforementioned elite:
"The half-initiated, acknowledging the relative non-reality of the Universe, imagine themselves that they can defy its Laws. They are insane and presumptuous fools who are going to break against stumbling blocks and that elements will tear because of their madness. The true initiated knowing the nature of the Universe, uses the Law against the laws, the Superior against the inferior, and by the Art of Alchemy, he transmutes the vile things in precious things: and so he triumphs. The Mastery does not show itself by abnormal dreams, visions and fantastic ideas but bythe use of the superiors forces against the inferior forces, by avoiding the sufferings of the lower plans, by vibrating on the superior levels. The Transmutation, not a presumptuous negation, is the sword of the Master ".


For all that, the symbolism of the Temple is indispensable to the people as to the upper class.
The Pharaoh himself, initiated since his youngest age, participates directly in the elaboration of the plans of temples, sculptures and frescoes.
He helps " to rise the Djed ", so that peace and prosperity spread on Egypt, land of Gods.
( Below Seti Ier helps Isis to rise the Djed).
By participating actively in the divine life, people and initiated develop their, every day. They expand and grow.
By prostrating themselves before the alive statue of Neter, they open their own heart and spread in their whole being, the powers and gifts of Gods.

II - THE TEMPLE, A MICROCOSM 
The construction of the temple evokes the environment in which it rises.
In fact, it synthetizes especially the capacity of the body of the God to which is dedicated the temple, to live in any thing, in any space, in any surface.


 The ground on which is built the temple equals to the essential mound, to the Sacred Land where the Gods began to set up the world.


 The salt lake, always near the Temple, there where the priests bathe, symbolizes the Noun, the primordial ocean, the Great Water, matrix of everything.
Noun extends all over the Earth, until the emergence of the Creator God Ptah who then " makes the earth get up from the waters of below ".


 The ceilings are starry vaults which remind the frescoes where Nout bends to infinity. The stars are the constellations from where the Gods come.


(below, extract from Les pharaons bâtisseurs - Henry Stierlin - ed. Terrail, an image showing the starry ceilings and the deceaseds navigate on their funeral boat. Note the hatoric columns to the right (with the face of Hathor) and palmiforme (?) to the left).

The columns are sculptured, most of them, in form of trees, such the sacred and preciousPapyrus, of which the flower closes in the evening and opens in the morning, at the sunrise. So, it is the solar flower, which accompanies the ceaseless trip of Khépri/Râ/Amon.



 The stone Temples last "eternally", as the Gods. Without temples, no gods. Without gods, arises the Chaos.
So, Gods' body is in stone, because he crosses the ages, his flesh is gold, because he is solar light.
( Below Ptah and the royal cobra) the flesh of gods is of gold - unknown internet source).

 The frescoes depict the everyday life of the people, his relation to the gods, Pharaoh's impact on the destiny of Egypt, his heroic deeds. They also show, naturally, the constant important presence of gods in all the acts of the existence. (Click on the images, most of them enlarge).


So, the heart of men bases in the divine body.
Every temple is dedicated to a god.
Every God helps and protects his believers in the domains which are his.
Things are in their places, it reigns there a clear and sound order.
That's why, I do not feel right the assertions made by the historians and the experts concerning the place (Ndt: the role, the function) of the temple in the Egyptian society. A microcosm? It depends on which point of view we look, here is mine:

THE TEMPLE IS NOT A MICROCOSM
OF EGYPT
BUT EGYPT WHICH IS AN EXPANDED PROJECTION OF THE TEMPLE


THE TEMPLE IS THE HEART, EGYPT THE BODY


GOD AT FIRST, WHO CREATED.
THEN THE MAN WHO ARISES FROM THE DIVINE CREATION.
THE MAN IS IN THE IMAGE OF HIS CREATOR GOD
NOT THE GOD CREATOR IN THE IMAGE OF MAN.

SO THE TEMPLE, MANIFESTED GOD, FEEDS EGYPT 

AND GIVES HER STRENGTH AND POWER.
IF THE NETER IS REMOVED FROM THE TEMPLE, 
THE CIVILIZATION COLLAPSES
THE CHAOS SETTLES DOWN.