The Correspondences of Egypt

The
Correspondences
of Egypt:
A STUDY IN THE THEOLOGY
OF
THE ANCIENT CHURCH
BY
C. TH. ODHNER
THE ACADEMY BOOK ROOM
BRYN ATHYN. PA.
1914
Reprinted 1978, 500 copies
(DEDICATION) IN MEMORIAM - WILLIAM HENRY BENADE
Published in this LIMITED EDITION SERIES

By THE LION OF JUDAH SOCIETY’S
IMPERIAL PUBLISHERS
II
EŷǋƮèŃðŇĀŘôŘųƀŶɈ
þŗƱĘ ɕɌɈɖɔ1
1 See KJV, St. Matthew chapter 11, verse 29 according to Authorized 1961 A.D.
H.I.M. Haile Selassie I Revised Amharic Bible wherein the pure language MS
reads, Tehut for ‘lowly,’ i.e. humble; in Ancient Egyptian rendered Thoth, Tut
and Tehuti – the Egyptian DWD [David].
III
ëAņŖŠŸŶ ëŸǬă ųǫĈŖŠŸ ëģǖþƭ
Ŧǐë Ĉîė ƻûų ûŸǰĈŘɈ
ŃûǘŦŵŖŠŸ ŃIǋĔĘ ƐĐĘřĘ ŃǯřŠ
ǯŖŠŸ ƐńĐ ĘĀ ŖîĨ ĀĘǮŶŠŸŸ
EŶģĐņëŸɅ
IV
We present our many thanks to Our God-Father
and to Our King of Kings, to His Imperial
Majesty, HAILE SELLASSIE I’s Kingdome in the
Glorious name of Iyesus Kristos, Our Saviour –
Our Lord of Lords.
AMEN AND AMEN.
V
THE BIBLE SOCIETY OF
HIS IMPERIAL MAJESTY (BSHIM)
PUBLISHED BY: H.H. RAS IADONIS TAFARI,
& H.H. WOIZERO TEHETENA GIRMA-ASFAW
OF THE LION OF JUDAH SOCIETY (LOJS)
IMPERIAL PUBLISHERS TO THE H.I.M. UNIVERSITIES, COLLEGES &
CHRISTIAN [TEWAHEDO] CHURCHES
1991-2013 BSHIM-LOJ
VI
©2013 by LION OF JUDAH SOCIETY PUBLISHERS &
IYOBELYU [JUBILEE] PRINTING PRESS
The original intent of HIS IMPERIAL MAJESTY, HAILE
SELLASSIE FIRST, whose utterances are contained
elsewhere, according to the first publication’s foreword
note, We also herein affirm likewise, namely that: “Any
portion of this Book could be reproduced by any process
without permission.”
We are the CHURCH OF RASTAFARI, and therefore a
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books or entire volumes for the Education and Fine-Arts
development of Our people, the ETHIOPIAN-HEBREWS at
home and abroad. We ask only that, when reproducing
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line: “From The Correspondences of Egypt: A
Study in the Theology of the Ancient Church, by C. Th.
Odhner” herein reprinted and re-published in a new
edition by THE LION OF JUDAH SOCIETY. Imperial
permission granted in advance.”
All English-language scripture quotations, unless otherwise
noted, are taken from the King James Version of the 1611 A.D.
Holy Bible [KJV].
All Amharic-language scripture quotations, unless
otherwise noted, are taken the Emperor’s Bible, the
1961/2 A.D. Authorized H.I.M. HAILE SELLASSIE I
Revised Amharic Bible [RAB].
Published by THE LION OF JUDAH SOCIETY,
www.lojsociety.org
Our mission is to bring good tidings, that publisheth peace;
that bringeth good tidings of good, that saith to Zion, Thy God
reigneth. – Isaiah 52:7
Printed in the United States of America.
VII
SELECTED UTTERANCE OF HIS IMPERIAL MAJESTY
HAILE SELASSIE THE FIRST
The Bible Speech

“WE IN ETHIOPIA have one of the oldest versions of
the Bible, but however old the version may be, in
whatever language it might be written, the Word
remains the same, It transcends all boundaries of
empires and all conceptions of race. It is eternal.
“No doubt you all remember reading in the Acts of
the Apostles how Philip baptized the Ethiopian
official. He is the first Ethiopian on record to have
VIII
followed Christ, and from that day onwards the Word
of God has continued to grow in the hearts of
Ethiopians. And I might say for myself that from
early childhood I was taught to appreciate the Bible,
and my love for it increases with the passage of
time.......
“Because of this personal experience in the goodness
of the Bible, I was resolved that all my countrymen
should also share its great blessing, and that by
reading the Bible they should find truth for
themselves. Therefore I caused a new translation
to be made form our ancient language into the
language which the old and the young understood
and spoke.
“Today man sees all his hopes and aspirations
crumbling before him. He is perplexed and knows not
whither he is drifting. But he must realize that the
Bible is his refuge and the rallying point for all
humanity. In it man will find the solution to his
present difficulties and guidance for this future
action, and unless he accepts with clear conscience
the Bible and its great message, he cannot hope for
salvation. For my part I glory in the Bible.”
THE LION OF JUDAH SOCIETY,

Ministry of Education & Fine-Arts
IX
ǋǑóŸĘĎEǐɅĀEĎȰ5ɈĤȈĐ 5Ʌ
«ƋĠþǰïƱŜĀAŸǔɉAŖðĨĘɇEųéɈƋǐäǖųǫǘ
ǋéųưAŸŃĖEĐĔĀǋǖƭŘĈĐûȠóȬŸǐƻċǮƻŸǘ
ēņŔŸĀþŨœĀǐȫŖƻŸǘǘðųĈřAðAëƀɅ »
REVELATION CHAPTER 5, VERSE 5
“And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not:
behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of
David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose
the seven seals thereof.”2
2 According to the best and most accurate interpretation, to date, proposed by

Ras Iadonis Tafari, this scripture was fulfilled by THE CONQUERING LION OF
THE TRIBE OF JUDAH: HIS IMPERIAL MAJESTY, H.I.M. HAILE SELLASSIE I, ELECT
OF GOD, KING OF KINGS OF ETHIOPIA; initially beginning when He, Our
Kinsman Redeemer, who was known as ‘Ras Tafari Makonnen,’ plenipotentiary
and Heir to the Davidic Throne of Solomon. At His own expense and goodwill,
RAS TAFARI, purchased and brought the first modern Printing Press into
Ethiopia for the expressed purpose of dissemination of Our Ancient culture,
education, and in the strengthening of the Tewahedo True Faith by way of the
translations and printing of rare and very ancient Judeo-Christian manuscripts
and scrolls from the old Ethiopic, or GE’EZ, into the Amharic language,
culminating in the First Haile Sellassie Bible (1936) and later the 1961 A.D.
Authorized Revised Amharic Bible, also called and known as the Emperor’s
X
Bible. For more, refer to the recently published Rastafari Preliminary Notes to the
H.I.M. Haile Sellassie I Amharic Bible: An Introduction to the Book of the Seven Seals.
XI
PUBLISHER’S GENERAL NOTE TO THE READER:
The Correspondences of Egypt, by C. Th. Odhner, was published
c. 1914, a year of great historical significance and ongoing fulfillment
of biblical prophecy, namely that of the “Son of Man,” revealed to us
in The Rastafari Revelation. As the great apostle, St. Paul, hath
written in 2nd Corinthians 4:3, “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to
them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the
minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel
of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” This
STUDY IN THE THEOLOGY OF THE ANCIENT CHURCH illuminates more
ray of light of the “GLORIOUS GOSPEL OF CHRIST,” that has been
called, and herein recalled, “…Out of Egypt.” The Science of
Correspondences is utilized to prove biblical, historical, racial and
cultural truths formerly ignored, greatly ridiculed, often suppressed
and now gradually being accepted by those who love the truth.
This book presented here in this reprinted version should be studied
along with Gerald Massey’s voluminous Egyptology volumes,
particularly A Book of Beginnings, E.A. Bullinger’s Witness of the
Stars, and also the British Egyptologist Sir. E.A. Budge’s numerous
Ethiopic translations and Ancient Egyptian titles that we also have in
publication, reprints and multimedia available for students and
disciples so interested in learning, the ‘half of the story’ that was kept
hidden, cryptic and even relegated to the occult and apocryphal
classifications of the religionists, Pharisees and scribes.
Therefore, we pray that this ANCIENT TRUTH be learnt and taught
diligently to this generation and told to the generation that has not yet
been born, as both a testimony and a reminder. AmƝn.
RAS I. TAFARI
Brooklyn, New York
U.S.A.
XII
The
Correspondences
of Egypt:
A STUDY IN THE THEOLOGY
OF
THE ANCIENT CHURCH
BY
C. TH. ODHNER
THE ACADEMY BOOK ROOM
BRYN ATHYN. PA.
1914
Reprinted 1978, 500 copies
(DEDICATION) IN MEMORIAM - WILLIAM HENRY BENADE
Published in this LIMITED EDITION SERIES

By THE LION OF JUDAH SOCIETY’S
IMPERIAL PUBLISHERS
2
ILLUSTRATIONS
Amen-Ra, 74.
Anch, 12.
Anqet, 85.
Anubis, 49.
Apis, 43.
Bast, 49, 94.
Beetle, scarabxus, 38.
Composite Animals, 60.
Crowns and head-dresses, 17.
Divine Proceeding, 54.
Dog-headed Ape, 43.
Eye, symbolic, 23.
Hathor, 43.
Hippopotamus, 60.
Horus, 49, 126.
birth of, 124.
giving "life" to Osiris, 115.
triumphant, 129.
"Four Children" of, 132.
Ibis, 49.
Isis, mourning over Osiris,
113.
Jackal, 49.
Khnemu, fashioning man, 72.
Khnemu and Amen-Ra, 77.
Maat, 94.
Menat symbol, 23.
Mnevis bull, 43.
Mut, 85.
Osiris, in Judgment hall, 109.
on his throne, 119.
with Isis and Nephthys,
111.
Ptah, 88.
Ptah and Ra, 78.
Ram, 38.
Satet, 85.
Set-animal, 60.
3
Staffs and Scepters, 14.
Sun of heaven flowing into
the sun of the world, 80.
Ta-urt, 60.
Tet-pillar, 21.
Thoth, 43, 49, 98.
Mirror of, 94.
Uraeus, or royal serpent, 32.
Various Sacred Symbols, 23.
Vulture, 32.
4
p. 5
CONTENTS
Introduction ......................................... 7
Chapter I. The Sacred Symbols of Egypt
.............. 11
Chapter II. The Sacred Animals ......................
28
Chapter III. Egyptian Monotheism
................... 62
Chapter IV. The Egyptian Pantheon
.................. 69
Chapter V. Khnemu, the Divine Esse
.................. 71
Chapter V. Amen, the Divine Existere
................ 74
Chapter VII. Ra, the Spiritual Sun ...................
78
Chapter VIII. Satet, Anqet, and Mut
.................. 84
Chapter IX. Ptah, the Divine Logos
................... 87
Chapter X. Bast, the Affection of Good
............... 93
Chapter XI. Thoth, the Ancient Word
................. 97
Chapter XII. Maat, the Affection of Truth
............ 106
Chapter XIII. Osiris, the God-Man
.................. 108
Chapter XIV. Isis, Heaven and the Church
............ 121
Chapter XV. Horus, the Divine Proceeding
............ 125
p. 6
5
FOREWORD
The mythological studies of Carl Theophilus Odhner
explore the application of Emanuel Swedenborg's "Science of
Correspondences" to Egyptian, Greek, and Roman myths.
Swedenborg, 18th-century scientist, philosopher, and
theologian, attributed to the world's myths a consistent inner
content of spiritual meanings, veiled in symbolism. His own
exegesis was confined primarily to the Testaments; but he
demonstrated by profuse examples that the same interpretive
key might be used to discover a common origin and a harmony
of hidden meaning in all of these survivals of an ancient
wisdom.
Mr. Odhner himself wrote at the turn of the century,
when secular scholarship in these fields was relatively
primitive. Republication of his explorations has been put off
for a number of years because of doubts as to their accuracy in
some areas of fact -- especially in his often undisciplined
etymologies - and instances in which patient scholarship
appears the victim of his far-reaching search for grander
patterns. The hope has persisted that the suspect elements
might be amended, and from time to time various men have
begun revisions of the text; unfortunately the press of other
duties has kept these efforts from completion.
But Odhner wrote from a unique combination of
strengths, and his works show it. He possessed a broad
command of Swedenborg's teachings, a wide knowledge of
history and ancient languages, and a joyous appreciation of the
imagery in Bible and in myth. What seems passe or naive
today, his sometimes overreaching enthusiasm, his tendency to
scoff at secular scholars, mars only the surface of these warm
and vibrant studies.
Today a reawakened interest in the world of antiquity -
- new archaeological discoveries, the decoding of antique
inscriptions, and new psychological perspectives -- have
produced a whole great secular literature on the meaning of
myth. In the face of this new material, Odhner's penetrating
6
explorations, inspired and guided by the revealed wonders of
genuine correspondences, may be more valuable than ever.
The reprinting of these books does not deny the hope
of new work being done which will more accurately answer to
modern knowledge. It simply expresses the conviction that,
until a better way is opened, our students should not be
deprived of the dramatic introduction to the wonders of the
ancient past that may be found on almost every page penned by
this dynamic guide.
Bryn Athyn, Pa., 1978 Aubrey C. Odhner
7
p. 7
INTRODUCTION
Swedenborg, in a paper addressed apparently to the Royal
Swedish Academy of Sciences, writes as follows concerning
the Egyptian hieroglyphics:
"It is well known that in Egypt there were Hieroglyphics, and
that these were inscribed on the pillars and walls of the
temples, etc.; and it is known, likewise, that no one at the
present day knows what things were signified by them. But
they are nothing else than the Correspondences of natural and
spiritual things, which were cultivated by the Egyptians in their
times more than by any of the people in Asia. The earliest
inhabitants of Greece composed their fables according to these
correspondences, and the most ancient style was none other
than this.
"'I shall add here this new information, that all the things which
appear before angels and spirits in the spiritual world, are
nothing else but pure Correspondences. For this reason also the
whole of the Sacred Scripture was written by Correspondences
in order that by means of it, and because it is such, there may
be a conjunction of the men of the Church with the angels of
heaven. But because the Egyptians -- and with them others in
the kingdoms of Asia -- began to turn these Correspondences
into idolatries, to which the children of Israel were prone,
therefore the latter were forbidden to recall these for any use
among themselves, as appears clearly from the first precept of
the Decalogue: 'Thou shalt not make unto thee the sculpture of
any figure which is in the heavens above, or which is in the
earth beneath, or which is in the waters under the earth: thou
shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them, for I am
Jehovah thy God,' (Deut. 5 : 8, 9), besides many other things
elsewhere.
"From that time the Science of Correspondences fell into
oblivion and, indeed, gradually to such an extent that scarcely
anyone at the present day knows that there ever was such a
science, or that it is of any importance. But as the Lord is now
about to establish a New Church, which is to be founded upon
8
p. 8 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, INTRODUCTION,
CONT
the Word, and which is meant by the New Jerusalem in the
Apocalypse, it has pleased the Lord to reveal that Science, and
thus to open the Word such as it is interiorly in its bosom, i. e.,
in its internal sense. This was done through me in the arcana
coelestia, published at London, and afterwards in the
apocalypse revealed, published at Amsterdam.
"Inasmuch as this Science of Correspondences was the Science
of sciences among the ancients, whence their wisdom was
derived, it is of importance that someone of your Academy
should devote labor upon this science, which may be done
especially from the Correspondences disclosed in the
apocalypse revealed and there demonstrated from the Word. If
it should be so desired, / am willing to explain the egyptian
hieroglyphics, which are nothing else than Correspondences,
and to publish the explanation; nor can this be done by anyone
else. "em. swedenborg."
The italics are Swedenborg's own. The Latin original is
published as an appendix to swedenborg's dreams, 1744,
(Stockholm, 1860), and a rather faulty translation is given in
Tafel's documents, Vol. II, pp. 753-755.
It does not appear that this remarkable paper was ever sent to
the Royal Academy, but we can imagine the smiles of
incredulity with which it would have been received. But the
members of the New Church can realize that Swedenborg alone
would have been able to explain the spiritual mysteries of
Egypt, and that it remains for scholars connected with some
New Church Academy to do so now or in the future. For in
spite of the enormous development of modern Egyptology,
from a linguistic and historical point of view, the sacred
symbols of the ancient Egyptians are still enigmas which can
be unfolded by the Science of Correspondences alone.
The Word of the Old and the New Testament abounds in
references to Egypt, and the Writings of the New Church are
9
teeming with statements concerning the spiritual significance
of Egypt and its hieroglyphics. In the New Church,
consequently, there has always been a great expectant interest
in these matters, and especially in the Academy of the New
Church where, from the beginning, this interest was cultivated
by our great founder,
p. 9 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, INTRODUCTION,

CONT
the Rev. William H. Benade. Throughout his life he collected
works on Egyptology, and these are now preserved in the
Academy's Library. After his visit to Egypt in 1878 he became
acquainted with the eminent Egyptologist, Prof. Lanzone, of
Turin, and, through the generosity of Mr. John Pitcairn,
acquired for the Academy Prof. Lanzone's choice collection of
genuine Egyptian antiquities. This unique and invaluable
collection is now exhibited in the archeological museum of the
Academy, and constitutes, we believe, the most complete
collection of mythological figures to be found in America. On
his return to Philadelphia Mr. Benade gave a series of lectures
on the antiquities of Egypt, and ever afterwards cultivated
among his students an ardent interest in this subject.
In extenuation of the audacity of the present writer in
attempting to unravel some of the mysteries of ancient Egypt,
we can only say that this study has been our "pet hobby" for
thirty years, not from a scientific but from a purely
mythological and theological point of view. We believe that in
the Science of Correspondences we have found the key to the
symbols of Egypt, and that on applying the key to the doors of
the ancient temples we have found there the Theology of the
Ancient Church, in mar-velous prophetic agreement with the
universal Theology of the New Church. We know that this
claim and our tentative interpretations, will be received with
incredulity by many of our brethren in the Church; they will
seem like the births of an overheated imagination, but someone
must make a beginning, fearless of ridicule. The illustrations
10
will speak convincingly for themselves, and future scholars
will improve upon these our earliest efforts.
Before entering upon an interpretation of the Egyptian system
of Mythology, it will be necessary to explain some of the most
common emblems or symbols by which the various divinities
are distinguished from one another, or which they possess in
common. Many of them still remain unexplained, owing to the
difficulty of ascertaining their exact natural meaning, for the
Egyptologists do not always know what natural objects are
represented by some of these symbols. They seem but little
interested in this branch of their science and care only for the
linguistic
P. 10 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, INTRODUCTION,

CONT
value of the hieroglyphics. We will therefore confine our
interpretations to those symbols which are most readily
recognizable as to their natural signification, or most self-
explanatory to the eye of a New Churchmaan.
_______________
ABBREVIATED REFERENCES.
E. H. H. = Wallis Budge, Egyptian Heaven and Hell.

E. M. = Budge, Egyptian Magic.
G. E. = Budge, The Gods of the Egyptians.
H. E. = Maspero, History of Egypt.
M. C. = Wilkinson, Manners and Customs of the Ancient
Egyptians.
O. E. R. = Budge, Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection.
R. M. = Wiedemann, Religion of the Ancient Egyptians.
R. M. = Brugsch, Religion und Mythologie der Alten Egypter.
p. 11
11
Chapter I.
THE SACRED SYMBOLS OF
EGYPT.
These may be divided into two general classes: first, the
conventional or artificial emblems, and, second, the
sacred animals. Among the first we have the "anch" or
sign of life; the scepters or staffs of various kinds; the
crowns, feathers, plumes and other forms of headgear; the
"tet-pillar" or tree of degrees; the "neter" or sign of
divinity; the "menat" or emblem of joy; etc.
Among the animals we have beasts such as the ram, the
bull, cow, and calf, the lion and the cat, the dog-headed
ape and the jackal, the "Set" animal, the hippopotamus
and the swine; birds such as the hawk, the vulture, the ibis
and the sphinx; reptiles such as the "uraeus" or royal
serpent, the frog, and the crocodile; and two insects, the
"scarabaeus" beetle and the scorpion. The
correspondences of the animals are easily determined, but
the conventional signs require more study. For the
illustrations, copied by our untrained hand, we crave the
indulgence of the reader.
1. the "anch."
SYMBOL OF REGENERATION AND SPIRITUAL
LIFE.
Of all the symbols of the Egyptians, the one most
frequently seen is the peculiar cross which is known as
the "anch" or "crux anchata," -- formed by the
combination of a cross and a loop which was, perhaps,
originally a circle. Almost every Egyptian divinity carries
the "anch" in one of his hands, while with the other he
grasps the long staff or scepter, known as the "tcham."
The rays proceeding from aten, the god of the solar disk,
12
terminate in hands, each of which extends an "anch" to
the worshippers. The resurrected spirit is often
represented as rising out of the sepulchre, holding an
"anch" in each hand, and on his final entrance into
"Amenti" or Heaven, the justified spirit is again presented
with the "anch" and the staff, as the symbols of eternal
life and spiritual power of progress and usefulness.
p. 12
p. 13 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, THE

SACRED SYMBOLS
13
While all Egyptologists admit that they do not know the
origin of this symbol, or what natural object it represents,
they unanimously declare that it signifies life, and
especially life after death, eternal life. The reason for this
signification they do not profess to know, but they tell us
that the earliest Christians in Egypt adopted it as the
symbol of the crucifixion, and it is frequently found on
the Christian monuments in Egypt."*
To a Newchurchman this interesting symbol suggests
many things, -- most obviously the crown of eternal life
which is won by the cross of temptations. The
signification of the cross, as meaning temptation,
suffering, and death, was known to the Ancient Church
throughout the world, long before the crucifixion of the
Lord made it the most sacred emblem of the Christian
faith. Its very form suggests at once the idea of the self-
will of man, (the downward stroke), being broken by the
level stroke of rational truth, the experience, when
successful, resulting in the circle of eternal happiness.
The "anch" was represented in various elaborate forms,
and in the book of the dead it is often provided with a pair
of human arms and legs. In Fig. 3 (Plate i) of our
illustrations the "anch" clearly represents the regenerated
human soul, with delicate arms raised in adoration of the
heavenly Sun. To us this simple symbol is full of tender
and touching religious affection.
Closely connected with the "anch" is a symbol named
"shen," which consists simply of a circle touching a
horizontal line beneath it. "This amulet," says Wallis
Budge in his work on egyptian magic, p. 61, "is intended
to represent the sun's orbit, and it became the symbol of
an undefined period of time, i. e. eternity; it was laid upon
the body of the dead with a view of giving to it life which
should endure as long as the sun revolved in its orbit in
14
the heavens." To us it seems more likely that it represents
the Sun of the eternal world and for this reason eternity
itself.
*Wilkinson, manners and customs of the ancient

egyptians, vol. v, p. 283. We shall refer to this work as
"Wilkinson, M. C"

SACRED SYMBOLS

SACRED SYMBOLS
2. staffs and scepters. symbols of the power of good and
truth in ultimates.
15
Next to the "anch," the most common conventional
symbol of the ancient Egyptians is the peculiar staff or
scepter called "tcham" or "user," which every male
divinity holds in his left hand. (Fig.1, Plate 2). It consists
of a long rod, with two prongs at the nether end, and is
surmounted with the head of a "cucupha," an unknown
but evidently gentle animal, whose ears terminate in a
feather. (Fig. 2.)* The Egyptologists are unanimous in
declaring that the back part of the ear represents a feather,
and the whole, therefore, is a startling combination of the
bird and the beast forms. Birds, with their wings and
feathers, signify intellectual things, doctrinals and truths,
and the feather, as will be seen, was the universal emblem
of truth among the Egyptians. Gentle beasts, on the other
hand, represent affections and goods, and the handle of
the staff, therefore, represents the conjunction of good and
truth, while the staff itself signifies the power of good and
truth in ultimates.
A staff signifies the power and forces of life from truth
and good. In the original tongue a staff is so-called from
its being leaned upon and affording support, which, in the
spiritual world, is effected through truth and good. (A.
9098.)
As a "rod" represents the power of truth, that is, the power
of good through truth, kings carried scepters, and the
scepters were formed like short rods; for kings represent
the Lord as to truth, and the scepter signifies the power
which they have, not through dignity, but through the
truth which must command, and no other truth than that
which is from good.(A. 4876.)
The "tcham" scepter is often seen in combination with the
"anch" and the "tet" or pillar of degrees, (Fig. 3), and a
representation of thoth, the scribe of the gods, shows this
divinity holding a bowl, in which is seen the "anch"
16
enclosed on each side by a staff. (Fig. 4.) The staff
represents the Divine Truth in ultimates and thus most
especially the letter of the Word which supports the
internal sense and contains it in its fulness and
*Maspero, history of egypt, [H. E.], vol. ii, p. 29. Wallis
Budge, the gods of the egyptians, [G. E.], vol. i, p. 520.

SACRED SYMBOLS
power. The pillar of degrees, as shall be shown, represents
the three degrees of the internal sense, and the "anch"
signifies spiritual life. Fig. 3, therefore, represents the
whole of the Word, with its life and spirit from good and
truth, contained in their fulness and power in the sense of
the letter. And Fig. 4, -- the symbol of thoth, who stands
for the whole Ancient Word, -- signifies the letter of that
Word, enclosing its internal spirit and life.
This staff or scepter was, like the "anch," presented to
every justified spirit upon his final entrance into heaven,
and the two "were deemed the greatest gifts bestowed by
the Deity upon man." (Wilkinson, M. C., Vol. V, 283).
osiris, -- who represents the risen Lord in His glorified
Human, judging "the quick and the dead," -- is often seen
holding this staff in his two hands, together with the
shepherd's crook and the flagellum or whip, (Fig. 5). The
staff prophetically signified Him who is the Word
incarnate and glorified. The shepherd's crook stands for
His priestly office, the power of Divine Good gently
leading the justified to the rewards of heavenly life. And
the flagellum or whip stands for his royal office, the
power of Divine Truth, by which evildoers are punished
and cast into hell.
17
The staff held by the female divinities is a stalk of the
papyrus plant, (Fig. 6), from which paper was made in
ancient times. This plant, therefore, became the symbol of
books, and especially the sacred books of the Ancient
Word. The ark of "bulrushes.' (Exod. 2:3), in which the
infant Moses was hidden, was made of the papyrus reed,
and we may thus see why this ark represents the letter of
the Word. In the hands of the goddesses, however, the
papyrus staff represents more particulary the affection of
truth, the love of the Word.
3. crowns and head-dresses. symbols of love and wisdom.
The crowns and head-dresses of the Egyptian divinities
are of many and curious shapes. The simplest of all is the
Feather of the goddess maat, (Fig. 1, Plate 3), which has
furnished us the key to the interpretation of the other
coronal emblems.

SACRED SYMBOLS
18
SACRED SYMBOLS
The name of the symbolic feather, as of the goddess, is
moat, which means "what is straight," a rod, rule, canon,
and it came to mean everything that is "right, true, truth;
what is real, genuine, upright, righteous, just, steadfast,
unalterable." (Wallis Budge, G. E., I:417). "The reason
for the association of the ostrich feather with Maat, the
goddess of truth, is unknown, as is also the primitive
conception which underlies the name, but it is certainly
very ancient, and probably dates from pre-dynastic
times." (Ibid, p. 416). To a Newchurchman, however, the
reason is not far to seek. The feather is the constituent part
of a wing, and wings signify doctrines of spiritual truth,
the systematic and orderly arrangement of truths in a
series, by means of which the mind is elevated into higher
regions of thought. Such were the wings of Pegasus; such
are the "wings" of the angels. Thus the "great eagle with
19
great wings and many feathers," in Ezechiel 17:7,
"signifies the truths of faith, with an abundance of the
knowledges of truth and good." (A. 8764; E. 281). The
feather became the universal emblem of truth from the
fact, also, that from time immemorial the quill has been
used as the writer's pen, ("pen," from the Latin penna,
means a feather), and writing -- strange to say -- was used
originally for no other purpose than to communicate truth.
This correspondence having been established, we may
now discover the meaning of the two crowns of Upper
and Lower Egypt, (Figs. 2 and 3), which, when united,
resemble a champagne bottle in an ice-cooler. The crown
of Lower Egypt (called "tesher") evidently represents a
vessel for drawing water, and the curled feather, which is
always seen rising out of it, is the general emblem of
truth. The combination, therefore, suggests the faculty of
the understanding containing the truths of wisdom, and as
a divine crown it would seem to represent the Divine
Wisdom whence the Divine Truth is derived. It is always
painted a red color, because wisdom is of good.
That this is the meaning of the red crown became a
certainty when we discovered the signification of the
crown of Upper Egypt (called "hetch"), the key to which
was furnished by an ancient picture in which it was
represented as a sheaf of wheat tied together near the top.
Now, wheat is a general representa-

SACRED SYMBOLS
tive of good, and the will of good, and when used in a
divine crown it represents the Divine Will, the Divine
Love which consists of nothing but the Divine Good. The
crown of Upper Egypt is always painted white, to show
20
that Love is of Wisdom. The two crowns, taken together
(Fig. 3, called the "pshent" crown), signify therefore the
spiritual and the celestial, the understanding and the will,
truth and good, faith and charity, and in the supreme sense
the Divine Love within the Divine Wisdom.
Applying this key, the mysteries of the whole Mythology
of Egypt opened up as if by magic, for the key fitted into
every door. Whenever a divinity carries the lower crown
he represents some quality of the Divine Spiritual, and
whenever he carries the upper crown he represents some
quality of the Divine Celestial. This never fails, and it is
confirmed by all the scientific facts of Egyptology.
Sometimes the crown of Lower Egypt is in the
background, as in Fig. 4, to signify that the celestial
characteristics are more prominent in the divinity
represented. Fig. 5 shows the headdress of the goddess
sati, who represents the celestial heaven. The vulture
beneath the crown is the symbol of maternal love and
protection, and the horns signify the power of celestial
love. The "atef" crown consists of the crown of Upper
Egypt alone together with a pair of feathers, and is shown
either in profile, as in Fig. 6, or in full view, as in Fig. 7.
The latter rests upon a pair of ram's horns and shows also
the two suns, the Sun of the upper world and the sun of
nature. Both figures represent celestial good with its own
truth.
The "ureret" crown, symbol of Amen-Ra, consists of two
long double feathers or plumes, (Fig. 8), painted red, blue
and green, in alternating sections. Its very form suggests
at once something "standing forth," and, like Amen-Ra
himself, it represents in fact the Divine Existere, the
Divine in its first manifestation and proceeding out of the
Infinite Esse.
21
A crown signifies the wisdom which is of good, (A.
9930), and the Divine Good, from which is the Divine
Wisdom, (E.272). The golden crown seen on the Son of
Man in Rev. 14:14, signifies the Divine Wisdom from His
Divine Love, (R. 643). The reason a crown signifies
wisdom is that all things which clothe a man derive their
signification from that part of

SACRED SYMBOLS
the body which they invest or distinguish. A crown,
therefore, signifies wisdom, because it is a distinction for
the head, by which is understood wisdom, because
wisdom has there its residence, (E. 126).
4. the "tet"-pillar, or tree of degrees. symbol of heaven as
the "maximus homo."
Another very common symbol is the Pillar or "Tree of
Degrees," of which thousands of little images, in clay or
stone, have been found in the mummy cases. The
hieroglyphic name has been variously read as "tet," "tat,"
or "didu"; we do not know which is the correct name, but
for the sake of convenience we shall call it "tet."
All the Egyptologists agree that it is "the emblem of
stability," but as to its further signification there have
been all sorts of speculations. "The 'didu' has been
variously interpreted," observes Maspero. "It has been
taken for a kind of Nilometer, or a sculptor's or modeler's
stand, or a painter's easel, or an altar with four
superimposed tables, or a sort of pedestal bearing four
door-lintels, or a series of four columns placed one behind
another, of which the capitals only are visible, one above
the other, etc. According to the Egyptian theologians, it
22
represented the spine of Osiris." (H. E. 1:184). Maspero
himself believes that it represents "the trunk of a tree,
disbranched, and then set up in the ground. The symbol
was afterwards so conventionalized as to represent four
columns seen in perspective, one capital overlapping
another; it thus became the image of the four pillars which
uphold the world." (Ibid, p. 111). Dr. Budge, on the other
hand, is certain that it is "intended to indicate the four
branches of a roof-tree of a house, which were turned to
the four cardinal points." (G. E., II:125). Others, again,
hold that it represents "the sycamore tree, in the trunk of
which the body of Osiris was hidden by Isis," but all
agree that "it became a symbol of the highest religious
importance," (W. Budge, egyptian magic, p.44).
Comparing the various pictures of the "Tree of Degrees,"
we have become convinced that it was originally a
representation of a palm-tree, (Fig. 1, Plate 4), but its
natural origin is of less interest than its spiritual
signification. We believe that it stands in
23
SACRED SYMBOLS

SACRED SYMBOLS
general for (a) the Tree of Life, which figures so
prominently in all the ancient mythologies, and that in
prophetic anticipation it signifies (b) the glorified body of
the Risen Lord, who Himself is the Tree of Life.
It is to be noted that the "tet" is always and exclusively
the symbol of osiris, the God-man, who was born on
earth, who blessed mankind with his wise teachings and
beneficent rule, who was treacherously slain by the power
of evil, but arose after death in his whole human but
glorified body, to reign henceforth as the Divine Judge of
the other world. Hence we often find the "tet" represented
24
in the form of the mummied body of Osiris, holding the
flagellum and the shepherd's crook.
And since it is the Divine of the Lord that makes Heaven,
the "tet" also represents (c) Heaven in its three degrees, as
pictured, somewhat grotesquely, in Fig. 2. The lowest
degree, which is furnished with two horizontal lines,
appears to signify the natural heaven with its two
divisions. The second degree, which is represented with a
pair of eyes, clearly signifies the spiritual heaven, the
heaven of intelligence. The third degree, forming the
forehead, is the celestial heaven, above which there are
two other degrees, colored dark, which perhaps represent
the super-celestial regions, immediately beneath the Sun
of the spiritual world. This remarkable figure is copied
from Wilkinson's manners and customs, Vol. VI, plate 25.
Another wonderful representation, (Fig. 3, copied from
the same work, Vol. IV, p. 253), shows a man kneeling
upon the earth and upholding the "tet" with his hands;
above his head is a small sun. The "tet" itself shows a pair
of arms and the usual three degrees, above which a scarab
is standing with its forelegs raised in adoration of a higher
sun. The meaning of the figure is self-evident to a
Newchurchman and could well be used as an illustration
of the doctrine that the human race beneath the natural
sun is the support and basis of Heaven as a Grand Man.
The scarab represents human life in ultimates and in
inmosts, the whole of which is, or should be, directed
solely to the worship of the Lord in His heavenly Sun.
Figure 4, (copied from Wilkinson, M. C., Vol. VI, plate
23), shows the god ptah in the mummied form of Osiris,
holding in
25
SACRED SYMBOLS

SACRED SYMBOLS
his hands the staff and the "anch," and behind him is the
Tree of Degrees. The staff, as has been shown, represents
the Divine Truth in ultimates. ptah, as a mummy, with
face and hands bare, represents the letter of the Word,
which in itself would be dead but for the spiritual truth
which in some places shines through it, (compare S. S.
55). The pillar behind him represents the Word in the
heavens, i. e. the three degrees of the internal sense.
5. VARIOUS SACRED SYMBOLS
Besides the symbols described in the preceding pages
there are many other conventional or conventionalized
26
emblems, of which we shall mention only the most
prominent.
The "symbolic eye," called "utat or "utchat," is one of the
most common of the symbols and is frequently found as
an amulet made of glazed faience, wood, precious stones,
silver, or gold, Whole necklaces, made of nothing but
these eyes, were wrapped around the mummies within
and also outside the cloth wrapping, and in the
inscriptions the eye was placed wherever the emblem of
"understanding" seemed appropriate. Sometimes it was
furnished with a pair of wings, or wings and legs, or with
a pair of arms in a worshipping attitude (Fig. 3), or
holding the "anch" in the hands. It is usually seen as a
single eye, either the left or the right, but very often both
eyes are represented, and sometimes it is seen in triple or
quadruple forms. It was a most popular amulet, as its
possession was supposed to confer safety and happiness
under the protection of the all-seeing eye of God, and as a
word the "utat" or "utchat" means "good health, safety
and happiness." (Budge, the mummy, p. 264). The whole
land of Egypt, among its other designations, was called
"the land of the Eye," (Wilkinson, M. C., V:48), perhaps
from the national self-consciousness that the science of
correspondences was cultivated and understood in Egypt
more than in other parts of the Ancient Church.
The Eye was especially associated with the worship of
ptah and thoth, the gods of the written Word, and it is
strange that not one of the Egyptologists has been able to
hit upon the simple meaning of the Eye in front of these
gods. They know that both Ptah and Thoth, (who really
are one and the same divinity), sig-
27
SACRED SYMBOLS
nify "revelation," but to the learned the Eye means simply
"good luck," instead of its obvious signification as the
understanding of the Word. But they do not know that the
Ancient Church had a Word of its own. The Eye was not
confined to these two divinities, however, but is found in
connection with almost every god, and it is associated
especially with the sacred boats or barges which so often
are seen carrying the images of the various gods.
The association of Boats with religious ceremonies was
not confined to Egypt, but is found in the rituals of many
other ancient nations, especially Greece, where the image
of Pallas Athene was carried about in a boat in the annual
Panathenian festival. This was observed also in Rome, in
the festival of Minerva on the Nineteenth day of June, and
the reason was that Minerva or Pallas Athene represents
Divine Doctrine, springing immediately from the brow of
Divine Wisdom, and a boat signifies the same, -- Divine
Doctrine drawn from the Word, laden within with the
good things of spiritual life. (A. 6385). This spiritual ship
is made of the beams of rational truths well fitted
together, -- a system of interior truths absolutely needed
in order to navigate in safety -- to interpret correctly -- the
deep waters of the Word in the letter. This religious
significance of a boat or ship was carried over into the
Christian Church, without any understanding of its
meaning. Little models of ships were preserved in the
reliquaries of the churches throughout the Middle Ages
and may still be seen in some of the old country churches
in Europe, (the present writer has seen it more than once),
and it is quite possible that the term "the nave" of a
church (from navis, ship), is derived from this source. In
ancient Egypt, however, every divinity had his own
28
sacred boat, (which was carried about without touching
water), for every god represented some general principle
of religion, and each general principle had its own chapter
of doctrine. And on each boat there was painted an Eye,
or several eyes, because the value of each doctrine
depends upon the correct understanding thereof. The boat,
shown in Fig. 10, is copied from the work of Dr. Wallis
Budge, entitled the egyptian heaven and hell, Vol. I, p. 23,
where it is called "the Boat of the Full Moon." (The title
of this work suggests an association of ideas connected
with Swedenborg's work on heaven and hell, and the

SACRED SYMBOLS
suspicion that the distinguished author is acquainted with
Swedenborg is confirmed by the numerous and truly
spiritual ideas which are found throughout his many
works. In learning and intelligence Dr. Budge stands
facile princeps among the Egyptologists of past and
present, and his sincere and simple faith in the One-ness
of God and in the reality of life after death, make his
works a pleasure to read. German and French
Egyptologists are, nearly all of them, skeptics, materialists
and atheists, and their attempts to interpret the lofty
mythology of Egypt are simply ludicrous and, what is
worse, "unscientific." According to them, alt religion is
based on the worship of dead matter. Osiris is the Nile,
Isis the fruitful mud of the Nile, etc. But the English
Egyptologists, such as Wilkinson, Rawlinson, Sayce, and
especially Dr. Budge, show a more rational spirit, derived
from the light of the Christian Religion, -- and, with the
last-named, the new and true Christian Religion may have
had some unacknowledged influence.)
29
The menat, (Fig. 4, 5 and 6), is a curious emblem, the
origin of which is not fully determined. It is sometimes
carried in the hand by the gods, but is usually seen
pendent from the back of the neck. It is always painted a
light color and is said to be symbolic of joy and pleasure,
(Budge, G. E., I:430). As a word "menat" means death
and a happy ending, and, to judge from its form and its
position behind the head, it would seem to signify
happiness after death from the conjugial of good and
truth. Fig. 6 is the special symbol of hathor, the goddess
of beauty, joy and conjugial love.
neter, (Fig. 6 and 7), is supposed to represent an axe and
is the universal emblem of Divinity. One axe signifies the
One God (Osiris) ; many axes mean a company of gods;
three axes stand for all the gods. (Budge, book of the
dead, Vocabulary, p. 182.) The axe evidently represents
truth in its power, and hence dominion and authority; it
was for this reason the Roman "lie-tors" carried an axe in
a bundle of rods in front of the chief magistrates, and it
may have been from a similar reason that the axe became
the symbol of divinity among the ancient Egyptians, but
the subject is involved in considerable obscurity.
The curious emblem shown in Fig. 9 is introduced here
simply

SACRED SYMBOLS
in order to invite suggestions from our readers as to its
possible meaning. It is often seen proceeding from the
knees of the gods, but we have not been able to find any
notice of it in the works on Egyptology, and it has proved
too difficult for our unaided ingenuity. The tail, which is
30
seen hanging behind the divinities, without touching their
bodies, remains another mystery.
There are many other conventional emblems, of minor
importance, which are more easily interpreted and which
will be noticed in connection with the various gods and
goddesses.
P. 28 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT.
Chapter II.
THE SYMBOLIC ANIMALS.
Swedenborg, accompanied by an angel guide, once
visited the heaven of the Silver Age. "We came first to a
hill on the border between the east and the south, and
while we were on its sloping height he pointed out to me a
very extended region of country and far away as it were a
mountainous eminence, and between it and the hill on
which we stood there was a valley, and beyond that a
plain and an acclivity gently rising from it.*
"We descended the hill to cross the valley, and we saw
here and there on either side images of wood and stone
carved in the likeness of men, and of various beasts, birds,
and fishes. I asked the angel, 'What are these ? Are they
idols ?'
"He replied, 'Certainly not! They are figures
representative of various moral virtues and spiritual
truths. With the people of that age there was a knowledge
of Correspondences; and as every man, beast, bird, and
fish, corresponds to some quality, therefore each
sculptured form represents some aspect of virtue or truth,
and a number of them together represent the virtue or the
31
truth itself in a general comprehensive form. These, in
Egypt, were called hieroglyphics." (C. L. 76.)
And in the work on divine providence we read:
Amongst the ancients there was the science of
correspondences, which is also the science of
representations, the very science of the wise, which was
especially cultivated in Egypt; hence their hieroglyphics.
From their science of correspondences they knew the
signification of animals of every kind, also the
signification of all kinds of trees, and of mountains, hills,
rivers and fountains, and of the sun, the moon, and the
stars. And as all their worship was representative,
consisting of pure correspondences, they therefore
worshipped on mountains and hills and in groves and
gardens. And for this reason also they consecrated
fountains, and in their adoration of
*The view was such as might be gained by the mind's eye
looking eastward from the Libyan hills over the valley of
the Nile towards the mountains of Canaan and Sinai, and
beyond these the plane of Babylonia and the plateau of
Assyria.

SACRED ANIMALS
God they turned their faces to the rising sun. And they
furthermore made sculptured horses, oxen, calves, lambs,
and also birds, fishes, and serpents, and in their houses
and other places they arranged these in series according to
the spiritual things of the Church to which they
corresponded or which they represented. They also placed
such things in their temples, in order to call to mind the
holy things which they signified. After a time, when the
32
science of correspondences had been forgotten, their
posterity began to worship the very sculptures as in
themselves holy, not knowing that their fathers of ancient
times had not seen any holiness in these things, but only
that they represented and therefore signified holy things
according to correspondences. (D. P. 255.)
The custom of representing spiritual goods and truths, and
their opposite evils and falsities, in the form of symbolic
animals, arose from the representatives seen in the world
of spirits in the days when the ancients enjoyed open
communion with the other world. Here angels and spirits
and their various affections and thoughts are actually seen
represented in the forms of the animal world, especially
when viewed at a distance, for on closer approach the
human forms appear. And the reason for this is that as
man was created in the image and likeness of God, so
animals were created in a more or less remote likeness of
man, in correspondence to human thoughts and affections.
To the Greeks and Romans, -- among whom the Ancient
Church itself had never existed, -- the symbolic animals
of Egypt were a source of merriment and ridicule. Thus
Antiphanes, in his lycon, speaking jestingly of the
Egyptians, says: "Clever as they are reputed in other
things, they show themselves doubly so in thinking the eel
equal to the gods; for surely it is more worthy of honor
than any deity, since we have only to give prayers to the
gods; but upon the eel we must spend at least twelve
drachms or more, -- merely to smell it, -- so perfectly holy
is this animal!" And Juvenal, in his I5th Satire, thus lashes
the superstitions of Egypt: "Who knows what monsters
mad Egypt can worship? This place adores a crocodile;
this one venerates an ibis full of serpents; whole towns
worship a dog, but nobody Diana," etc. But to such
ignorant misapprehensions the Egyptian priests replied, in
a conversation with the wisest man of Athens: "O Solon,
33
Solon, you Greeks are always children, nor is there
among you such a thing as an aged Grecian.

SACRED ANIMALS
All your souls are juvenile, neither containing any ancient
opinion derived from remote tradition, nor any learning
hoary from its existence in former periods of time."
(Plato, in timaeus, p. 467.)
Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson observes, in this connection: "In
justice, therefore, some allowance should be made for the
allegorical religion of the Egyptians; and when we reflect
that it contained many important truths, founded upon
early revelations made to mankind, and treasured up in
secret to prevent their perversion, we may be disposed to
look more favorably on the doctrines they entertained,
and to understand why it was considered worthy of the
divine legislator [Moses] to be 'learned in all the wisdom
of the Egyptians.' " (manners and customs, vol. iv, p.
166.)
The symbolic animals of Egypt may be divided into four
classes, according to their natural qualities:
First, a few clean and useful animals, such as the ram, the
bull, the cow and the calf, naturally representing good and
noble things.
Second, a great number of beasts, in themselves unclean
or evil, but possessing certain particular properties which
enabled them to represent qualities of good and truth;
these included the lion and the cat, the dog-headed ape
and the jackal, the hawk, the vulture and the ibis, the royal
serpent, the frog and the beetle.
34
Third, certain unclean and evil animals always
representing infernal things; among these we have the
hippopotamus and the swine, the crocodile, and the
scorpion.
Fourth, composite animals, of a purely mythological
character, such as the sphinx, the "Set" animal, the
phoenix, etc., representing either good or evil, according
to their varying forms.
In the present study, however, it seems necessary to
consider these animals in the order of the frequency of
their representation, taking up first those which have the
most general and inclusive signification.

SACRED ANIMALS
1. THE ROYAL SERPENT.
The most common of all the symbolic animals is the
"uraeus" or royal serpent which meets us everywhere on
the monuments; his winged emblem surmounts the
"pylon" or gateway of every temple; his head and inflated
chest protrude from the crown or head-dress of every god
and king. He is, par excellence, the national emblem of
Egypt, which in its very geographical formation by the
winding path of the Nile resembles a serpentine beast.
The royal serpent of Egypt was, by the Roman writers,
named "Uraeus," from the Egyptian arart, which is
connected with the Coptic word ouro, "a king," while by
the Greeks it was named "basilisk," from basileus, "king."
It is a species of cobra, (Fig. I, plate 6; copied from
Maspero. H. E. 1:42), a small, black, poisonous asp, still
abounding in Egypt; when approached it will erect its
35
head and inflate its throat and chest in readiness to dart
forward. Its bite is frequently fatal, but it is quite easily
tamed by the serpent charmers and, if well fed with milk,
it will even become a pet, permitting children to play with
it. This quality, perhaps, is what is referred to in the words
of Isaiah II :8: "The sucking child shall play upon the hole
of the viper, and upon the den of the basilisk shall the
weaned child thrust his hand."
A conventionalized and winged form of the "uraeus" is
shown in Fig. 2. Its puffed-up chest is a vivid image of the
inflated pride of sensual science. Fig. 3 is the national
emblem of Egypt: two great wings extending from a solar
disk encircled by two basilisks. This is the figure which is
always found above the pylons of the temples; the sun
signifies love, the serpent wisdom in ultimates, and the
wings the doctrines of scientific truth, protecting the
worship of a sensual church.
Fig. 5, (Budge, Ib. 1: 147), shows a serpent with a human
head, and in front three anch crosses and a pair of
tongues. With this may be compared the image of the
Philistine god, Dagon, "who was like a man above and a
fish below; this image was so devised because a man
signifies intelligence, and a fish knowledge, and these two
make one." (S. 23.)
Below this figure we have two serpents (Figs. 6, 7,
Budge, Ib.

SACRED ANIMALS
36
SACRED ANIMALS
1: 237), one carrying on his back the crown of Upper
Egypt with a human head on either side and the other
carrying the crown of Lower Egypt with one head in
front. The latter represents, perhaps, science as the means
of progress in the human understanding, while the former
indicates that science is, or should be, more especially the
means of progress in the doubly human virtue of charity
and the good of life.
The papyrus stalk with a winding serpent, (Fig. 8), is very
commonly seen in the hands of the goddesses, and seems
to represent the power of the affection and perception of
scientific truth.
As to the spiritual meaning of the serpent there is a great
deal of information in the Writings.
37
By serpents, in the Word, are signified sensual things
which are the ultimates of the life of man. The reason is
that all animals signify the affections of man, and the
affections of angels and spirits in the spiritual world also
appear at a distance like animals, and the merely sensual
affections appear like serpents. This is because serpents
creep on the ground and lick up the dust; and sensuals are
the lowest things of the understanding and the will, for
they stand forth next to the world and are nourished from
its objects and delights, which affect only the material
senses of the body. Harmful serpents, which are of many
kinds, signify the sensuals which are dependent on evil
affections, which make the interiors of the mind with
those who are insane from falsities of evil; and harmless
serpents signify the sensuals which are dependent on good
affections, which make the interiors of the mind with
those who are wise from truths of good. (R. 455.)
To the Egyptians, therefore, the serpent -- cautiously
raising his head to look about him -- because the special
symbol of the prudence, circumspection and astuteness
which constitute the wisdom of the natural man; it is to be
remembered that the Lord Himself taught His disciples to
be "wise as serpents and innocent as doves." Nay, the
Lord Himself assumed a human sensual nature which He
glorified or made Divine, and this Divine Sensual was
prophetically represented by the brazen serpent on the
cross, which brought healing to those bitten by the fiery
flying serpents, if they looked to it. This Divine Sensual is
the visible and audible form of the Divine Human now
revealed in the 3
38
SACRED ANIMALS
Writings of the New Church, and only by looking to Him
can men be saved from the deadly influence of modern
sensual science and modern sensual life. Here alone is our
protection, for the brazen serpent "signifies the Divine
Sensual of the Lord who alone exercises circumspection
and Providence." (A. 179, 425; E. 70.)
We may understand, therefore, how the royal serpent of
Egypt came to signify in the supreme sense the Divine
Wisdom itself, and hence Divine Science, the science of
Divine things, and especially the science of
correspondences, which was the science of sciences in
Egypt. In the Garden of Eden this serpent was a harmless,
useful and necessary thing, created by God Himself, for
the celestial man could not have existed in this world
unless endowed with an ultimate sensual nature. This
serpent, with them, was the possessor of "the tree of
science," for all knowledges must first be imbibed by
means of the external senses. It became a seductive and
poisonous beast only when the men of the Golden Age
permitted the appearances of the senses to over-rule the
voice of celestial perception which spoke from within.
Throughout the subsequent ages, for good and for evil,
the role of the serpent has been played by Egypt. In the
Ancient Church the science of correspondences reached
its highest development in Egypt, and from this spiritual
science there gradually developed, a priori, the
beginnings of natural sciences such as astronomy,
geometry, mathematics, chemistry, geography, etc. In
classical times Egypt was the great international
university, where men such as Herodotus, Pythagoras,
Plato and possibly Aristotle pursued their studies, and
after the Macedonian conquest the "Museum" at
39
Alexandria not only contained the greatest library in the
world but was for centuries the home of the leading lights
of science. Here also the Hebrew Scriptures were first
translated into Greek, and here Philo, the Jew, laid the
foundation for the Neo-platonic school of philosophy. But
corruption, also, went hand in hand with the great
scientific development; from the beginning of historic
times Magic flourished in Egypt by means of
correspondences perverted, turning religion into
superstition and spreading moral corruption far and wide.

SACRED ANIMALS
The destruction of Egypt through the influence of a
perverted science found a fitting symbol in the suicide of
Cleopatra by the poison of the basilisk.
In the Christian Church, also, Egypt at first proved a
blessing, and then a deadly curse. The catechumenal
school at Alexandria became the first Christian university,
where the Christian Theology received its first scientific
development at the hands of Clement and Origen. But the
new light was soon extinguished by the jealousy of the
hierarchy. Alexandria became the centre of gnostical
heresies, (gnosis means a pretended hidden "knowledge"),
and from this tree of science there came forth a two-
headed serpent to seduce the Christian Church with
Arianism on the one hand, and Athanasianism on the
other, -- both based originally on Egyptian tritheism.
2. THE ROYAL VULTURE.
As the "Uraeus" is the royal emblem of gods and kings, so
the "Mut" or royal vulture is the emblem of goddesses and
queens, who almost always wear a representation of this
40
bird upon their heads, in place of a crown or head-dress:
the head of the vulture protruding in front, with the wings
falling down on either side of the lady's neck, and the tail
feathers extending from the back (Fig. 11. Plate 6), the
whole made into a kind of helmet, generally of gold. And
as the winged "uraeus" is placed above the pylons of the
temples, so the vulture is represented with widespread
wings (Fig. 10) on the ceilings of the temples, in the
central avenues of the portico, and on the under side of
the lintels of the doors which lead to the sanctuary. As an
amulet a golden vulture was placed on the neck of the
mummy on the day of the funeral, for this was supposed
to carry with it the protection of "Mother" Isis. (Budge,
the mummy, p. 260.)
The name of this vulture, mut, -- written with the
hieroglyphics for a vulture, a female breast, an egg, and a
woman, -- is the regular word for "mother," and as such
this animal is the special symbol of the goddess mut, who,
as the female counterpart of amen-ra represents "mother
nature," the "great world mother," or the idea of
motherhood itself. It is known in Egypt under

SACRED ANIMALS
the Arabic name rdkham, which is identical with the
Hebrew word racham, a "gier-eagle," as it is translated in
the Authorized Version, (Levit. 11:18 and Deut. 14:17).
The Hebrew root racham means originally "womb," and
hence "mother love, mercy, compassion," and the name
was given to the Egyptian vulture on account of her
intense love for her young. (Gesenius Heb. Lex.)
This maternal instinct accounts for the Egyptian choice of
an otherwise unclean bird to represent maternal love and
41
protection, though it was venerated also on account of its
great usefulness in removing dead bodies, offal, and other
impurities which, if left on the ground, might cause great
damage in the hot climate of Egypt. On this account it is
treated with great consideration by the modern
Mohammedans of Egypt, to whom it is known as
"Pharaoh's hen." (Wilkinson M. C., V:2O3.) According to
Budge "the cult of the vulture is extremely ancient in
Egypt, and dates probably from pre-dynastic times, for
one of AElian the oldest titles of the Pharaohs of Egypt is
'Lord of the city of the Vulture (Nekhebet or
Eileithyiapolis), lord of the city of the uraeus' (Uatchet, or
Buto), and it is found engraved on monuments of the late
prae-dynastic and early archaic periods. [a Roman writer
in the time of Alexander Severus] . . . says that all
vultures are females, and no male vulture was ever
known; to obtain young they turn their backs to the south,
or south-east wind, which fecundates them, and they bring
forth young after three years." (G. E. 11:372.)
The vulture, like the eagle and the hawk, can have nothing
but an evil correspondence, both being in themselves evil
beasts. But even as evil men by certain external qualities
may represent heavenly and Divine things, so the
maternal instinct in the vulture makes a basis for a good
representation. And on comparing the qualities of the
vulture and the eagle, we find that they have a very
similar signification, so much so that we may clearly
interpret the symbol of the vulture by the meaning of the
eagle.
We read in Deuteronomy that Jehovah found Israel "in a
desert land and in a waste howling wilderness; He led him
about, He instructed him, He kept him as the apple of His
eye. As an
42
SACRED ANIMALS
eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young,
spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on
her wings, so Jehovah alone did lead him." (32:10-12.)
It is the instruction in the truths and goods of faith which
is here described, and is compared to an eagle. (A. 3901.)
Their instruction in truths, guarding from falsities, and the
opening of the interiors of their minds so that they may
come into the light of Heaven and thus into the
understanding of truth and good, which is intelligence, is
described by an "eagle," its nest on high, its brooding over
its young, and carrying them upon its wings. (E. 281.)
It is the work of education, therefore, that was especially
symbolized by the royal vulture of Egypt, for this work is
the especial use of the maternal love of Heaven and the
Church, as represented by the goddesses and queens of
Egypt. For the work of Education was developed in Egypt
as nowhere else in the Ancient Church, and Egypt as a
whole, as has been shown, was the great international
university of the ancient world.
"The fourth animal was like a flying eagle," (Rev. 4:7),
signifies the Divine Truth of the Word as to cognitions
and thence understanding. By "flying eagles" are signified
the cognitions from which comes understanding, for while
they are flying they know and see; they also have sharp
eyes and see clearly, and the eyes signify understanding.
"To fly" signifies to. perceive and instruct and, in the
supreme sense, to look out for and provide. (R. 244.)
43
A "flying eagle" signifies the appearance of the Divine
Protection and Providence in ultimates as to intelligence
and as to clear-sightedness on every side. (E. 281.)
The "face of an eagle," (Ezech. 1:10), signifies
circumspection and thence Providence. . . . Such was the
signification of an eagle in the Ancient Church. (A. 3901.)
3. THE SCARABAEUS BEETLE.
"Flying things of the lowest sort, which are insects,
signify truths or falsities which are more ignoble and
obscure, such as are those things which belong to the
Sensual." (A. 7441.)
"Flying insects signify such things as are of the thought,
thus truths or falsities, but in the extremes of man." (A.
9331.)
Egypt as a whole represents the lowest or sensual degree
of the human mind, and hence, consciously or
unconsciously, the

SACRED ANIMALS
Egyptians were led to adopt some of the lowest forms of
animal life -- such as the serpent and the beetle -- as
symbols of the high -est principles. As the serpent with
them represented wisdom in ultimates and hence in the
inmost, so the beetle represented to them life in ultimates
and hence all life, life itself, for the ultimate is the
containant of the whole.
44
The particular beetle which was chosen for this supreme
representation, (Fig.1, plate 7), belongs to a very
numerous group of dung-feeding Lamellicorns, (i. e.,
beetles having antennae terminating in a set of flat
lamellae or little plates). The Greeks gave to this beetle
the name of skarabeios, -- a word of unknown meaning, -
- but the Egyptians called it khepera, which means both
45
esse and fieri, "being" and "becoming;" it also means "to
roll, to

SACRED ANIMALS
evolve," -- a fact which should encourage the
evolutionists in looking to the beetle as their racial
ancestor.
The scarabaeus beetle "is generally of a black hue, but
amongst them are to be found some adorned with the
richest metallic colors. A remarkable peculiarity exists in
the structure and situation of the hind legs, which are
placed so near the extremity of the body, and so far from
each other, as to give the insect a most extraordinary
appearance when walking. This peculiar formation is
nevertheless particularly serviceable to its possessors in
rolling the balls of excrementitious matter in which they
enclose their eggs." (Budge, the mummy, p. 232.)
The scarabseus is said to be born at the edge of the desert
and spends the half of its life in crawling down to the
bank of the Nile. Here the female gathers a ball of dung
and mud, from one to two inches in diameter, and
deposits in it a great number of eggs. The male and the
female then take turns in rolling the ball back to the edge
of the desert, where they bury it in a hole in the sand, to
be hatched out by the heat of the sun. They usually drag it
along with their hind legs, but are often seen carrying it
on their heads with the front legs.
There is scarcely any difference, externally, between the
male and the female of the species, and hence there arose
the notion that there were no females among them, but
that all were male. On this account the scarabaeus came to
46
typify the idea of "the Only-begotten of the Father," the
medium of original creation. A survival of this ancient
conception still remains in Upper Egypt and Nubia, for
"to this day the insect is dried, pounded, and mixed with
water, and then drunk by women who believe it to be an
unfailing specific for the production of large families."
(Budge, G. E., II:38i.)
The beetle was especially associated with ra, the sun-god,
-- partly, perhaps, on account of the round shape of its
ball, which contains the germs of a new generation as the
ball of the sun contains the germs of all life in the
universe, -- and partly, also, because the scarabaeus
becomes especially lively during the hottest hours of the
day, flying about in the sunlight when all other creatures
seek shade and rest. Hence the sun-god is often
represented with a beetle on the top of his head, or with a
beetle

SACRED ANIMALS
instead of a head. (Fig. 2.) Very often, also, the
scarabaeus is shown with a small red ball behind him, and
a large red ball in front, the two representing the nether
and the upper sun.
The resurrection of man in a spiritual body was also
"symbolized by the germs of life rolled up in the egg-balls
of the beetle, and the power which made those to become
living creatures was that which made man's spiritual body
to come into being.'' (Budge, G. E., I: 357.) "It was this
idea which was at the root of the Egyptian custom of
wearing figures of the beetle, and of placing them in the
tombs and on the bodies of the dead; the myriads of
scarabs which have been found in all parts of Egypt
47
testify to the universality of this custom." (Ibid.) These
scarabs, made of black or green stone, often contain brief
inscriptions, stating the name of the deceased, with
prayers or sacred formulas supposed to be useful in the
other life. (Fig. 3.)
4. THE RAM.
Of all the symbolic animals of Egypt, the ram has the
highest and holiest correspondence. While seldom used as
an hiero-glyphic, he is seen most frequently in the shape
of a sphinx, either in his own entire form, or as a ram with
a human head, of with the body of a lion, or in various
other combinations. Long avenues of these majestic
sphinxes, beautifully carved and polished, are seen among
the ruins of Upper Egypt, sometimes extending for miles,
as in the case of the great avenue leading from Karnak to
Luxor. These avenues of sphinxes represented to the
Egyptians the stream of the Divine Providence,
everywhere leading, guarding and protecting. This
symbolic ram was furnished with two pair of horns, -- one
pair curving down and forwards, the other, long, flat and
twisted, extending upwards and sideways, -- (Figs. 4 and
5, plate 7) to represent the Divine Power of Love
extending everywhere.
The ram was the special symbol of two divinities, khnemu
and osiris. The former stands at the head of the Egyptian
Pantheon and represents the Infinite itself, the supreme
Esse, the Divine Father of all creation. The ram, as the
father of the flock, was the fitting symbol of the Divine
Fatherhood, and hence Khnemu was almost always
represented as a man with the head
48
SACRED ANIMALS
of a ram; he is also painted a dark blue, to signify the
invisible Divine.
When associated with Osiris, the ram is a prophetic
symbol of the Lord in His Divine Human, the "Lamb of
God," the God-Man who has rendered visible the Infinite
Divine. Hence Osiris is often represented with a pair of
ram's horns, and he himself is called "the Ram, lord of
Tattu," which means judge of the dead in the under world,
or world of spirits. (Budge, G. E. I:103.) The Greeks,
mistaking this for "Amend," or Heaven, made the Osiris
ram known as the "Ram of Mendes," in whom the soul of
Osiris was supposed to dwell. Mendes was also identified
with a town in ancient Egypt, where a sacred ram was
kept in honor of Osiris. Like the Apis-bull, this ram was
distinguished by certain peculiar markings, and when one
ram died his successor was sought for with great diligence
throughout the country, and, when found, consecrated
with great festivities.
As the sheep in general corresponds to celestial
affections, the goods of charity and innocence, so the ram,
as the male of the sheep, corresponds to the truth of
celestial good, and the power of this truth. And in the
supreme sense the ram signifies "the internal of the Lord's
Divine Human united to the Divine good of His Divine
love, which was in Himself," (A. 10052, 10076), that is,
the union or unition of Osiris with Khnemu.
5. the Cow and the bullock.
It is a curious fact that the more a people is steeped in the
doctrine of salvation by faith alone, the more do they
worship merely natural good. Of spiritual charity they
49
have no conception and do not wish to hear, but natural
good, kindness, "helpfulness," "altruism," are to them the
summum bonum, as long as it does not necessitate the
shunning of spiritual evils as sins against God.
This fact lies at the bottom of the worship of the bovine
species among the faith-alone branches of the Hamitic
race, nations such as the Babylonians, Phoenicians and
Egyptians. The worship of the bull and the cow first arose
among the Chaldeans, the direct descendants of Ham, in
the idolatry of Enlil and Ishtar, and spread thence on the
one hand to Canaan, where the Phoenicians

SACRED ANIMALS
worshipped the bull-headed Baal and the cow-headed
Ashtoreth, and on the other hand to Egypt, where the bull
became the special symbol of Osiris, "the Lord" par
excellence, and the cow the symbol of Hathor, the
goddess of beauty and love.
To an agricultural people, such as the Egyptians, the bull
and the cow naturally represented that which is most good
and useful on the natural plane, furnishing as they do not
only food-products such as milk, cream, butter, cheese
and meat, but also service as beasts of burden. Thus the
cow, by her usefulness, gentleness and beauty, (even the
Romans spoke of "cow-eyed Juno" as the type of beauty),
came to represent not only goodness in general, but that
highest form of domestic good which we call conjugial
love. This love they termed "Hathor" and represented it as
a cow coming forth from the mountains of "Amend" or
Heaven. (Fig. 2, plate 8.) And the bull, on account of his
great strength, fecundating power, and mightiness in
battle, they looked upon as representing the truth of
50
natural good, in which all interior forms of good and truth
reside in their generative potency and fulness of power.
Hence they regarded the sacred bull at first as the special
representative of Osiris, the prophecied Redeemer, and
afterwards as the incarnation of that god.
Greek and Roman writers, such as Herodotus, Plutarch,
AElian, Ammianus Marcellinus, Diodorus Siculus and
Pliny, relate many marvelous stories of the sacred bull,
Apis, (in Egyptian Hap or Hapi), but their accounts are so
full of manifest absurdities and contradictions that we can
adopt as facts only those few features which they have in
common and which agree with the discoveries of modern
Egyptology.
From these sources we learn that the veneration of the
bull, Apis, is of unknown antiquity, dating from prae-
dynastic times, and that it continued to the last period of
Egyptian history. According to Herodotus, (book II:27-
29), the sacred bull, which was always kept at Memphis,
was black, with certain peculiar white markings, having a
square white spot on the forehead, on the back the figure
of an eagle, the outlines of a beetle on the tongue, and
double hairs in the tail. But in the numerous antique
bronze figures of the Apis, he is usually represented with

SACRED ANIMALS
51
SACRED ANIMALS
a triangular piece of silver in his forehead, between his
horns a solar disk and a serpent, on the back above the
forelegs a vulture, (not an eagle), then the outlines of a
square saddle cloth, and over the hind quarters a winged
scarab. (Fig. 1, plate 8.)
At Memphis the sacred bull was tended with the utmost
care in a special temple and by a special priesthood. Here
he was washed daily in hot baths, the body anointed with
precious unguents, perfumed with sweetest odors, fed
52
with the choicest food, watered from a special well, rested
on the softest bedding, etc. His birthday was celebrated
annually in a festival of seven days, when he was led
about garlanded amidst the adoring shouts of the
populace. It is said that he was allowed to live only
twenty-five years, when he was disposed of, carefully
embalmed and buried at enormous expense, while all
Egypt went into mourning until his successor had been
found. Each Apis was buried in a rock-hewn tomb, and a
small chapel was built over it. The chain of these
subterranean tombs at Memphis was called the Serapeum,
and in later times it became known as "the Labyrinth,"
which may still be seen at Sakkara.
To find a new Apis was the next most important "new
business" of the nation. The calf had to be born on the day
when the old Apis died, and had to have the same peculiar
markings. Every herd in Egypt was minutely searched,
and lucky was the owner of the herd in which the Apis
was found. All Egypt went wild with rejoicing, and the
bull-calf, after forty days of purification, was installed in
his new honors amidst great festivities. For the use of the
Apis was more than merely ornamental or representative;
he was, in fact, the chief living oracle in Egypt, being
consulted on all important national affairs. If he ate
certain food offered to him, it was a good omen; if he
refused, a bad omen. If he went into one of his stalls, the
prospects were favorable; if into another, unfavorable, etc.
Besides the Apis-bull at Memphis, there was another
sacred bull, called Mnevis, (Fig. 3), kept at Hieropolis, to
the northeast of modern Cairo, and there are reasons to
believe that this one was the model of the "golden calf"
made and worshipped by the Israelites at Mount Sinai.
Hierapolis or On, the most ancient shrine in Egypt, was in
the neighborhood of the land of
53
SACRED ANIMALS
Goshen, where the Israelites had sojourned, and Joseph, it
will be remembered, had married the daughter of the
priest of On. The Mnevis of On, moreover, is colored
bright yellow on the monuments, while the Apis is
painted black and white. But no images of either of them,
actually made of gold, have been found in Egypt, for
reasons easily imagined.
Living or dead, the Apis was connected with Osiris.
When dead, the soul of the old Apis went to join Osiris,
while the soul of Osiris immediately filled the new Apis.
The combined souls were called "Ausar-Hapi," or Osiris-
Apis, whom the Greeks called Serapis. This divinity was
represented with the mummied body of Osiris, having the
head of a bull, on his head the sun and the moon, and the
two feathers of Amen-Ra; in his hands the full regalia of
staffs and sceptres, and on his side a breastplate of
divination. Under the form of Serapis, the combined
worship of Osiris and Apis survived the rest of the old
Egyptian cult, and his image and temple were not
destroyed until the fourth century A. D.
The bulls and cows, adored by the Egyptians, were
usually represented as young bullocks and heifers, and
hence these images are spoken of as "calves" in the letter
of the Word. Thus we read in Jeremiah 46:20 that "Egypt
is a very beautiful cow-calf," -- the historical sense
evidently referring to the national worship of Hathor. And
of the sacred "calves" in Egypt we read as follows in the
Writings:
54
For the sake of illustration, take the worship of the calf
with the Egyptians. They knew what a calf represented,
namely, the good of charity; and so long as they knew this
and thought of this when they saw calves, or when in their
feasts of charity they made the calf ready, and afterwards
when calves were made use of in sacrifices, they thought
sanely and together with the angels in heaven, to whom a
calf stands for the good of charity. But when they began
to make calves of gold, and placed them in their temples
and worshipped them, they then thought insanely and
together with the infernals. Thus they turned a true
representative into a false one. (A. 7779.)
The reason the children of Israel made themselves a
golden calf and worshipped it as Jehovah, was that the
Egyptian idolatry remained in their hearts. ... In Egypt, the
chief of the idols were cow-calves and bull-calves of gold,
for the reason that a cow-calf signified scientific truth,

SACRED ANIMALS
which is the truth of the natural man, and a bull-calf the
good thereof, which is the good of the natural man; also
because gold signifies good. . . . But when the
representatives of celestial things there were turned into
idolatry and finally into magic, then, there as elsewhere,
the very representative images became idols and began to
be worshipped. Hence came the idolatry of the ancients
and the magic of the Egyptians. (A. 9391.)
By a "bullock" in the Word is represented "what is
celestial natural, or, what is the same, natural good," (A.
2180), and in the supreme sense "the Divine Natural of
the Lord." (A. 2830.) This is the reason why the Apis was
considered the special representative of Osiris, for even as
55
the Egyptians knew from the Ancient Word that the Lord
as a Divine Man would glorify His Sensual degree,
(which they represented by the royal serpent), so they
represented the whole of the Natural with Him, glorified
both as to truth and as to good, by the Apis of Osiris,
whom they termed "the bull of the other world."
6. THE DOGHEADED APE.
Among the sacred animals of Egypt, one of the most
curious is the Cynocephalus or Dogheaded Ape, which,
usually painted green, is frequently seen on the
monuments and in the papyri. This ape, in Egyptian called
aan or aanau, was in ancient times, as at present, brought
from upper Nubia and the Sudan, which is its native
habitat and where it is still regarded as an extremely
clever beast, in intelligence superior even to man.
At sunrise these apes set up a mighty chattering in the
forests and they were on this account regarded by the
ancient Egyptians as incarnations of "the spirits of the
dawn, which, having sung hymns of praise whilst the sun
was rising, turned into apes as soon as he had risen."
(Budge, G. E., II: 365.) On account of their supposed
cleverness, also, they were generally represented as
companions of thoth, the god of science, literature and the
written Word, and are almost invariably seen standing in
the sacred boat of this Ibis-headed divinity, with forepaws
stretched out in an attitude of adoration. Sometimes the
ape is seen alone, holding a small Ibis in his hand, and
sometimes he is associated with ra, the sun-god, or
khonsu, the moon-god, always in a

SACRED ANIMALS
56
boat, and always in a worshipful attitude. The Egyptians
supposed that he was singing hymns in praise of the god
whom he is facing.
In the remarkable "judgment-scenes" in the book of the
dead, -- representing the final judgment upon man in the
world of spirits, -- the Cynocephalus is seated on top of
the pillar which supports the great Balance, in the scales
of which the heart of the man is weighed against the
"feather of truth." Being regarded as skilled in the science
of numbers and measurements and as "the genius of the
equilibrium and the equinoxes," the duty of the ape in the
weighing of the soul was to watch the pointer and report
to thoth, (who is standing by with pencil and pad in his
hands), when the beam is exactly level. He appears again
in a scene representing the judgment upon a wicked spirit,
who in the form of a dejected-looking pig is being driven
away in a boat by two apes with whips. (Wilkinson, vol.
VI., plate 87.) The head of the Cynocephalus also forms
the cover of one of the four funerary urns in which were
sealed up some of the entrails of the mummy and which
were deposited in its sepulchre. The first urn is crowned
with the head of a man, the second with a hawk, the third
with a jackal, and the fourth with an ape; these were
known as the "four genii of Amend" or "the four children
of Horus," which, we believe, originally represented the
four divisions of heaven: the man, the celestial heaven;
the hawk, the spiritual; the jackal, the celestial natural;
and the ape, the spiritual natural.
In attempting to interpret the Cynocephalus as a symbol
we must consider the signification of the dog as well as
the ape. Dogs generally correspond to unclean lusts, but
they also have a good signification. "Dogs are the
appetites of saying and teaching such things as are of
doctrine. When the appetites are good, the dogs are good;
and when the appetites are evil, so are the dogs." (D.
57
4853.) For instance, the three hundred Israelites "who
lapped water with their hands as a dog lappeth," in Judges
7:5, signify "those who have an appetite for truths; thus
who, from some natural affection strive to know truths."
(E. 455.) In a good sense, therefore, dogs, on account of
their humility, obedience and faithfulness, represent those
who are the lowliest

SACRED ANIMALS
within the Church, and also the Gentiles outside the
Church. (A. 7784, 9231.)
Apes, similarly, in general correspond to falsities and
crazy persuasions, notions that are rational and human in
appearance only, but they also have a good signification,
as in I Kings 10:22, where we read that "once in three
years there came the navy of Tharshish, bringing gold and
silver, ivory, apes and peacocks to Solomon," all these
tributes signifying "the truths and goods of the external
Church." (E. 514.) From all these considerations we judge
that the Dog-headed Ape stands as the representative of
simple good spirits of the lowest order, or angels of the
spiritual-natural heaven; in other words, affections of the
natural truth revealed in the letter of the Word and the
simple love of justice and fairness. Hence the association
of the ape with thoth, the letter of the Word; and hence his
position in the . scene of the judgment. The illustration of
the ape in the boat, (Fig. 3, plate 8), with the Eye above
his hands and facing Thoth, seems to us to speak as
clearly as the words of the Psalmist: "The opening of Thy
words giveth light; it giveth understanding to the simple."
(Ps. 119:130.)
7. THE JACKAL.
58
The Jackal, which is always associated with anubis, the
god of the burial and the resurrection, is a canine animal
which in external appearance and internal structure is very
similar to the domestic dog, especially a shepherd's dog; it
has a long head, a very pointed muzzle and grayish-
yellow fur, and is, in fact, regarded by some naturalists as
representing that original stock from which the dog is
supposed to have evolved. Though extremely shy and
cunning, he is easily tamed, when in captivity, and
becomes quite gentle and obedient, but on account of his
offensive odor he is seldom adopted as a pet.
Of distinctly nocturnal habits, the jackals of Egypt come
forth at sunset from the caves and holes in the mountains
of the desert, hunting in packs, prowling about the ancient
ruins, (Fig. 1, plate 9), prying on the henroosts and
vineyards of farms and villages, and making the night
hideous with their peculiarly mournful howling. A shriek
from one member of the pack is the signal

SACRED ANIMALS
59
SACRED ANIMALS
for a general chorus of screams, barks and dismal whines,
which often sound like the wailing cries of a child lost in
the wilderness, and this is kept up during the greater part
of the night.
This melancholy concert may account in part for the
association of the wicked jackal with a gentle and
benevolent divinity such as Anubis, as it probably
reminded the ancient Egyptians of the lamentations and
dirges of the mourners at a funeral party. The full figure
of the animal is seldom represented on the monuments,
60
but Anubis himself is always depicted as a human figure
with the head of a jackal, (Fig. 2, plate 9), always painted
black, to suggest night and death; the god is generally
seen bending over the bier on which rests the body of the
dead, gently stroking him into renewed life, and then
conducting the resurrected spirit in his spiritual body into
the judgment hall of Osiris in the intermediate world.
Just as the significance of the Egyptian vulture can be
explained only by that of the eagle, so the symbolic
meaning of the jackal can be solved only by the
correspondence of the closely related dog. Those Greek
and Roman authors who have written on Egypt, all
supposed that the head of Anubis was simply the head of
a dog who watched over the spirit of man in life and in
death, because the dog, as Plutarch observes, "is equally
watchful by day and by night." Wilkinson admits that "it
is difficult to distinguish between the jackal and the fox-
dog." (M. C. 5 :i43), and Wallis Budge regards it as
proved that the Egyptians themselves "did not carefully
distinguish between the wolf, the jackal, and the dog." (G.
E. 11:367.). We may regard it as settled, then, that the
ancient Egyptians looked upon the jackal as nothing but a
species of dog whom they associated with the ideas of
death, burial and resurrection, not only because of his
mournful howling, but also because of his nocturnal
habits, his habitat in the mountains and deserts where the
dead were buried, and his prowling about the tombs at
night. Thus they adopted him as the symbol and
representative of those gentle spirits who stand guard over
the dead body, who assist in the process of resuscitation,
and who introduce the resurrected man into his new and
spiritual life. (Comp. H. H. 449, 450.)
61
SACRED ANIMALS
Obedience is the one great virtue of a good dog, and
obedience, simple and unquestioning obedience to the
will of the Lord, is the distinguishing virtue of the angels
of the lowest or natural heaven, especially of those of the
celestial natural heaven, even as obedience is in general
the virtue that introduces man into the life of
regeneration. Death and burial represent nothing else than
the death of the self-life and resurrection into the
regenerate life. Hence we conclude that even as the dog-
headed ape of Thoth represents the simple affection of
knowing and understanding the natural truth of the letter
of the Word, and thus the angels of the spiritual-natural
heaven, so the jackal of Anubis represents the affection of
obeying this same truth in life, and thus the angels of the
celestial-natural heaven.
8. THE LION AND THE CAT.
The Lion is usually associated with Ra, or Horus, or
deities of a solar character, the great, round, yellow face
of the king of beasts calling to mind the solar disk, his
fiery eyes and terrible power recalling the fierce heat of
the Egyptian sun, etc. Dawn and sunset were represented
as two lions, seated back to back, supporting between
them the horizon over which the sun is seen travelling.
Thus far go the somewhat obvious "interpretations" of
modern Egyptologists, to whom the idea of both the lion
and sun representing the Sun of spiritual life would seem
like "wild allegorizing." They know, however, that the
lion as an hieroglyphic signifies power, and as a phonetic
sign stands for the letter R, because this sound expresses
power. Spiritually considered, the lion, in his fighting and
62
conquering strength, represents "the good of celestial love
and the derivative truth in its power, and in the opposite
sense the evil of the love of self in its power." (A. C.
6367.) To "roar like a lion" signifies an ardent affection to
defend Heaven and the Church, and thus to save the
angels of Heaven and the men of the Church, which is
done by destroying the falsities of evil by means of
Divine Truth and its power." (A. E. 601.) And the Lord in
His Divine Human, who from His own power subjugated
the hells and reduced all things into order, is "called 'the
lion of the tribe of Judah' from the Omnipotence

SACRED ANIMALS
which is of His Divine Love and His Divine Truth
thence." (Ibid.) This power He exercised through His
Word, in which the Divine Truth is in its fulness, in its
holiness and in its power, and hence "a lion signifies the
Divine Truth of the Word as to power; and as the Lord is
the Divine Truth itself, or the Word, He is called a lion."
(A. R. 265.)
It was on this account that the cherubim seen by Ezechiel
and John "had the face of a lion, from the omnipotence of
Divine truth from the Divine good, which is of
Providence," (A. C. 6367), for the cherubim represent the
power of the Word in the letter guarding and protecting
the internal sense. Hence "because lions represent power,
guard, and protection against falsities and evils, there
were two lions at the sides of the ivory throne of
Solomon, and twelve lions upon its six steps." (A. E.
278.)
This also was the origin of the sphinxes of Egypt, which
were of various forms, but most commonly figures of
63
lions with human head. "The Egyptians placed statues of
lions at the doors of their palaces and tombs to guard both
the living and the dead, and to keep evil spirits and fleshly
foes from entering into the gates to do harm to those who
were inside them." (Budge, G. E. II:361.) For the ancients
were well aware of the protective sphere of the celestial
angels, whom the sphinxes represent, "because where
these come, the evil flee away, for the evil cannot endure
their presence; it is these who are signified by 'an old
lion.'" (A. C. 6369.)
The "great Sphinx" guarding the pyramids of Ghizeh is
the noblest example of these leonine cherubim, even as it
is without doubt the most ancient monument in Egypt,
antedating the pyramids themselves. Exactly facing the
rising sun, it was placed there not only as a protector of
the vast necropolis of Memphis, but also, we believe, to
represent the Divine Providence itself guarding the whole
land of Egypt and the Church there. For from the east
came the Egyptians themselves and all their light, and
from the east came the worst of their enemies in a
spiritual as well as a natural sense.
Inasmuch as a lion signifies not only the Lord as to the
Divine Truth, but likewise Heaven and the Church in
respect to that Truth from the Lord," (A. E. 601),
therefore the Egyptians rep-

SACRED ANIMALS
resented a very prominent goddess, named bast, with the
head of a lioness. (Fig. 3, plate 9; G. E. I:444.)
Concerning this divinity there has been much speculation;
the Greeks identified her with Diana or Athene, (both
erroneously), and she is generally known as "the cat-
64
headed goddess," though her head is unmistakably that of
a lioness. Wallis Budge has given us the clue to the
signification of bast, when he informs us that the name
bast is derived from bes, the word for fire, and that he
regards this goddess "as a personification of the power of
the sun, which makes itself known in the form of heat."
(G. E. I :447.)
On the basis of this natural interpretation, which is
supported by the evidence of all modern Egyptologists,
we conclude that Bast, the lioness-headed "lady of the
East," goddess of fire and heat, represents the same as the
Greek Hestia or Vesta, goddess of the hearth and of the
sacred fire: i. e., celestial good, which simply means the
celestial love of the Divine Truth.
This identification of Bast with Vesta suggests an
explanation of the extraordinary veneration of cats in
Egypt, which caused so much merriment in the rest of the
classical world. As at the present day, so in ancient times
Egypt was swarming with cats, and they were regarded as
so sacred that, as Cicero observes, "never did anyone hear
tell of a cat having been killed by an Egyptian," while
Diodorus Siculus tells a story of a Roman who was
lynched by an Egyptian mob because he had accidentally
killed a cat. When a cat died in a house, all the inmates
shaved their eyebrows as a sign of mourning, and the
body of the sacred puss was embalmed with great care,
ceremoniously buried, and sometimes carried from great
distances to Bubastis, the center of the worship of Bast,
where thousands of cat-mummies have been found. This
veneration for cats in the end proved the ruin of Egyptian
independence, for it is related that Cambyses, when
invading Egypt in 528 B. C., collected a great quantity of
cats and placed them in front of his army at the fateful
battle of Pelusium. The Egyptians, rather than hitting the
65
sacred animals with their arrows, turned tail and fled, and
left the country open to the Persians.
The constant association of the cat with Bast, the
Egyptian Vesta, goddess of the fire and the hearth, does
not require a far-

SACRED ANIMALS
fetched explanation. As in Greece and in other countries
of the ancient world, so also in Egypt the domestic hearth
and the everburning fire upon it were regarded as most
sacro-sanct in the private life of the family. And the cats
constantly crouching by the fireside, thus became the
companions of Bast and partakers of her supreme
sanctity.
9. THE HAWK.
Among the symbolic birds of Egypt the most prominent
are the hawk and the Ibis, the former sacred to horus, the
latter to thoth. Birds, with their power of elevating
themselves from the ground and of proceeding rapidly on
higher planes, represent rational and intellectual
affections which "on the wings of thought" lift themselves
from earthly things to higher and wider perspectives. (A.
C. 3901; A. E. 282, 1100.)
The hawk, keen-eyed and swift, serenely soaring in
highest air, was to the Egyptians a symbol of the Divine
in the heavens, which is the Divine Truth proceeding from
the Divine Intelligence. Hence this bird is always
associated with horus, who is sometimes represented
simply as a hawk, sometimes as a hawk
66
with human head, or as a human figure with a hawk's
head. (Fig. 4, plate 9; G. E. I.: 466). In order to emphasize
the idea of "intelligence," the sculptors adorned the face
of the hawk with peculiar conventional features, making
prominent its sharp eyes. That "to fly" signifies to
proceed, is evident without any arguments, and it is
equally self-evident that Horus, the son of Osiris,
represents the Divine Proceeding. An inscription which
we found in Dr. Budge's egyptian heaven and hell, and
which we here reproduce, describes Horus as always
"journeying, journeying, travelling." (E. H. H. I:115.)

SACRED ANIMALS The first figure of the above
hieroglyphics represents an ax and is the ideogram for a
god; the second is an "anch" and represents life; the third
is a feather and signifies truth; then follow three snails in
the act of creeping, and below them two papyrus rolls,
each furnished with a pair of legs in the act of walking,
and finally a single line with a pair of legs. The whole is
translated by Dr. Budge as "the god, living and true,
journeying, journeying, traveling." But why the two
papyrus rolls? The papyrus roll signifies a book, and here
evidently the Word of God, which is the Divine Truth
67
proceeding from the Lord. In this connection it is of
interest to note a statement by Diodorus, (quoted by
Wilkinson, M. C., vol. V., p. 205): "The hawk is reputed
to have been worshipped because augurs use them for
divining future events in Egypt; and some say that in
former times a book (papyrus), bound round with a purple
thread, and containing a written account of the modes of
worshipping and honoring the gods, was brought by one
of these birds to the priests at Thebes." This manifestly
refers to the primeval revelation of the Ancient Word,
proceeding from the Divine in the heavens.
10. THE IBIS.
The banks of the Nile are teeming with all kinds of water
fowls, but the reasons why among all these the Ibis was
selected for extraordinary honors will perhaps never be
fully known. There seems to be nothing very remarkable
about this bird, which at the present day is seldom found
in Egypt. Its native habitat is Nubia and Sudan, but in
ancient times it must have been very common throughout
Egypt, as mummies of the bird are found in all parts of
the country. Bronze figurines are also very common and
on the monuments and in the papyri it is one of the most
familiar figures. It is the constant companion of thoth,
"the god of the divine words," and the god himself is
invariably represented with the head of an Ibis. (Fig. 6,
plate 9.)
On account of its religious associations the bird is known
to zoologists as the Ibis religiosa; its body measures
about two feet six inches, and it has long black legs, white
and black plumage, short tail, and a very long black bill,
curved and slender. (Fig.
68
SACRED ANIMALS
5, plate 9.) It does not, as far as is known, consume any
greater quantity of reptiles than other water fowls, but
Herodotus reports that it was revered because "it
destroyed the winged serpents which were brought over
into Egypt from the deserts of Libya by the west wind,"
and the ancient priests related that Thoth, when pursued
by Set, the evil power, saved himself by assuming the
form of an Ibis. The name of Thoth (tehuti) is, in fact,
derived from tehu, which is the most ancient name of the
Ibis.
We are not able to give the particular correspondence of
the Ibis, but its general significance seems clear. It is a
bird of the water and as such signifies the affections of
natural and sensual truth, such as stands forth in the letter
of the Word. It is typically "a bird out of Egypt," (Hosea
11 :11), which signifies "the scientific intellectual," (A: C.
1186), and it may be that the sight of this bird, standing
on the bank of the Nile and gazing into the waters, as it
were, in deep meditation, reminded the ancient Egyptians
of an earnest student of the Ancient Word inquiring into
the mysteries hidden in the letter. Hence, perhaps, its
association with thoth, and hence the figure of the sacred
eye, which almost always accompanies the picture of the
Ibis.
11. ANIMALS REPRESENTING EVIL.
Among the animals which never have a good
signification, but always represent evils and falsities, we
need to note only the hippopotamus, the swine, the
scorpion and the crocodile.
69
A. the hippopotamus. The name of this ugly and useless
monster is certainly a libel on the noble horse, for it
should be called a river-swine rather than a river-horse. It
is no longer found anywhere in Egypt, but was very
common in ancient times, and it was by no means
regarded as sacred or worshipped, as the Egyptologists
assert, but was feared, hated and killed, as is proved by
frequent scenes representing the hunting of the beast. In
the day-time wallowing lazily in the mud, at night they
left the river, coming up in troops to cultivated ground,
where they did immense damage to the growing crops, by
their ponderous tread destroying even more than they
could devour. Though generally harmless to people, they
are apt to become ferocious when pursued, capsizing
boats or crushing them between their enormous jaws.

SACRED ANIMALS
According to Plutarch, the hippopotamus "was reckoned
amongst the animals emblematic of the Evil Being,"
(Wilkinson, M. C. vol. V:178), and the goddess ta-urt, the
female counterpart of set, the evil power itself, is always
depicted with the head and body of the hippopotamus,
long and flaccid breasts, hind quarters of a lion, and back
and tail of a crocodile; in her hands she holds the emblem
of lasciviousness, -- most certainly a repulsive
combination of sinister suggestions. (Fig. 2, plate 10.)
The hippopotamus is not mentioned either in the
Scriptures or the Writings, but as a great and evil beast of
the river of Egypt it clearly corresponds to evil in general,
more especially the evil of perverted sensual scientifics.
As a convincing illustration we reproduce a picture
representing Horus, standing victoriously upon the back
70
of a chained hippopotamus and driving a spear into its
head. (Fig. 1, plate 10. Budge, G. E. I:494.)
B. the swine. That the swine represents filthy lusts is
known by common perception. In Egypt this animal was
always associated with Set or Typhon. In the book of the
dead, (chapter 112), we are told that Ra one day said to
Horus: "Let me see what is coming to pass in thine eye,"
and having looked he said to Horus, "Look at that black
pig." Horus thereupon looked and immediately felt that a
great injury had been done to his eye, and he said to Ra,
"Verily, my eye seemeth as if it were an eye upon which
Suti had inflicted a blow." The text goes on to say that the
black pig was none other than Suti (Set), who had
transformed himself into a black pig and had aimed the
blow which had damaged the eye of Horus. As the result
of this, the god Ra ordered his companion gods
henceforth to regard the pig as an abominable animal. (G.
E. II:368.)
C. the scorpion is frequently depicted on the monuments;
it is generally associated with the powers of evil, but
sometimes the goddess Isis is represented with a scorpion
on her head. This, however, means that the goddess had
overcome the evil represented by the scorpion, for it was
quite common, both in Egypt and in Greece, to affix to
the deities symbols of the enemies which they had
vanquished. Scorpions are frequently mentioned in the
Word, and by them and their poisonous tails are

SACRED ANIMALS
signified "adroit reasonings from falsities through which
they persuade and thus cause injury." (A. C. 10071.) "By
a scorpion is signified a deadly persuasion. For a
71
scorpion, when it strikes a man, induces a stupor on his
members, and if the wound is not healed it causes death."
(A. R. 425, 428.)
D. the crocodile, like the scorpion, was naturally regarded
as the incarnation of falsity and evil, of death and all the
powers of darkness. Owing originally to the fear which it
inspires, it afterwards came to be regarded as sacred in
some districts in Egypt, while diligently hunted in other,
often neighboring districts. This sometimes led to bloody
naval combats between the worshippers and the hunters of
the crocodiles. As to their signification we learn that "they
who are in falsities from evil appear as basilisks and
crocodiles," (A. R. 601). "In the Word, the deceitful are
signified by crocodiles." (Ibid. 624.)
12. FABULOUS AND COMPOSITE ANIMALS.
Our account of the symbolic animals would not be
complete without a brief consideration of a purely
mythological and representative class of beasts, such as
the phoenix, the "Set"-animal, the hell-dog, and a great
variety of composite animals. These fabulous forms are
not mere figments of imagination, but are actually to be
seen in the world of spirits, and they were seen there by
those in the Ancient Church who still possessed the open
eye. We read that "in the world of spirits there are
presented to view animals such as horses, oxen, sheep,
etc., together with other animals of various kinds,
sometimes such as are never seen on the earth but are
only representative." (A. C. 2179.) All these animals are
spiritual appearances formed out of the sphere-substances
of the spirits and they vary according to the affections of
the spirits. "There are as many spheres as there are
affections, and compositions of affections," (A. C. 1505),
and hence also "there are seen composite animals like
those seen by the prophets and described in the Word."
72
(A. E. 1200.) Swedenborg states that he had seen there
such composite animals, as, for instance, "a monster
rising out of the earth, with seven heads, his feet like
those of a bear and his mouth like a lion's, altogether

SACRED ANIMALS
like the beast which is described in Apoc. 13: 1, 2." (A. R.
926.) A person who in the life of the body had studied the
things of the memory only was seen at a distance as an
animal combining in parts the forms of a horse, a cow,
and a dog. (S. D. 4011.)
A. The phoenix or "Bennu" was a fabulous bird well
known throughout the ancient world, but originating
probably in Egypt. "This bird is said to have created itself,
and to have come into being from out of the fire which
burned on the top of the sacred Persea tree of Hieropolis;
it was essentially a Sun-bird, and was a symbol both of
the rising sun and of the dead sun-god Osiris, from whom
it sprang and to whom it was sacred. The Bennu not only
typified the new birth of the sun each morning, but in the
earliest period of dynastic history it became the symbol of
I the resurrection of mankind, for a man's spiritual body
was believed to spring from the dead physical body, just
as the living sun of today had its origin in the dead sun of
yesterday." (Wallis Budge, G. E. II:371.)
B. The "set"-animal is so called partly because it is unlike
any known beast, and partly because it is always
associated with Set, the power of Evil. His pictures look
like the combined caricatures of a tapir, sheep, camel and
ass; it is always of a dead black color, and adorned with
ludicrous clipped ears and a long upstanding tail,
bifurcated at the end. (Fig. 3, plate 10; Budge, the
73
mummy, p. 277; G. E. II:242.) The original may have
been some night-prowling beast of thieving and wicked
disposition, and it may have been hunted and slain with
such diligence that it became extinct in Egypt even in
prehistoric times. It is
reported that an animal remarkably like the "Set" has
recently been found in the forests of the pigmy people in
central Africa. i
The combined figures of set and the hawk-headed Horus,
(Fig. 4, plate 10), strikingly represent the contrast of light
and
darkness, truth and falsity, keen-eyed intelligence and
weak-eyed folly. But more will be said of Set in the story
of Osiris.
C. The hell-dog was a composite animal having the head
of a crocodile, the forequarters of a wolf, or perhaps lion,
and the hindquarters of an hippopotamus, the whole
nevertheless leaving the impression of a barking dog.
(Fig. 6, plate 10; G. E. II:

SACRED ANIMALS
74
SACRED ANIMALS
144.) Its name in Egyptian is "Am-mit," and this name is
said to mean "the eater of the dead," or "the devourer of
the unjustified," (Budge, G. E. I: 60), because it was
supposed to devour the souls of all those who had been
weighed and found wanting in the judgment hall of Osiris.
(Ib. II: 146.) In the judgment scenes it is always depicted
as "the Accusing Spirit" seated on the closed portals of
hell and reporting to Osiris all the evil things that could be
found against the spirit who is being weighed, while on
the other hand all the good things the man had done in his
natural life are represented by cakes, fruits, onions, etc.,
piled on an altar in front of the merciful god. It is one of
those frequent Egyptian illustrations that would seem to
have the power to convince even a hardened sceptic.
75
D. Beside the fabulous animals mentioned above there are
a great number of other composite beasts of the most
curious combinations, such as the leopard with the head
of a serpent, (Fig. 5, plate 10; G. E. I: 59), a winged lion
with the head of an eagle, the indescribable animal called
"Sak," (Fig. 8, plate 10; G. E. I:60), and the leopard with a
human head and a pair of wings in the middle of his back.
(Fig. 7, plate 10.) This latter brings strongly to mind one
of the four beasts seen by Daniel, which was "like a
leopard which had four wings upon his back," the leopard
signifying the Word falsified, and the wings signifying
the confirmations of falsity by means of perverted
intellectual reasonings. (A. R. 575; A. E. 780.)
p. 62 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT
Chapter III.
EGYPTIAN MONOTHEISM.
"From ancient times the Egyptians knew Jehovah,
because the Ancient Church had been in Egypt." (A. C.
7097.) Under the name Jehovah the one true God was
worshipped universally in the Ancient Church; to the men
of the Silver Age in its purity this name was the Divine
name, and to them it involved the whole of all theology
and religion. But so holy is this name, so replete with
Divine arcana, that "when Divine worship had been
perverted in Egypt, they were no longer permitted to
worship Jehovah, and at last not even to know that
Jehovah was the God of the Ancient Church, lest they
should profane the name of Jehovah," (A. C. 7097; 5702),
as is evident from the reply of Pharaoh to Moses: "Who is
the Jehovah, whose name I must hear, to send away
Israel? I know not the Jehovah." (Ex. 5:2.)
76
This loss of the knowledge of Jehovah must have taken
place at a very early period of the decline of the Ancient
Church in Egypt, -- probably in pre-dynastic times, for the
most ancient records that have been deciphered bear no
trace of the name. There are, indeed, certain minor
divinities whose names faintly resemble the sacred name,
but these have been so variously trans-scribed by the
Egyptologists that the connection must be considered
doubtful.
But while the knowledge of the sacred name seems to
have been utterly lost even among the highest ranks of the
Egyptian hierarchy, a knowledge of the Unity of the
Godhead lingered with the priesthood even to the end of
the nation.
In the esoteric religions of antiquity this knowledge was
guarded with jealous care by those who had been initiated
into the sacred mysteries, while the common people, more
and more tending to sensualism and superstition, were
suffered to remain in gross polytheism, lest ignorance and
vice should profane the last remnants of spiritual truth.
Such, at least, was the pretence of the hierarchy.
Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson, in his manners and customs of
p. 63 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, EGYPTIAN

MONOTHEISM
the ancient egyptians, was, perhaps, the first Egyptologist
who clearly recognized the essential monotheism of the
Egyptian religion. "The priests who were initiated into,
and who understood the mysteries of their religion,
believed in one Deity alone; and, in performing their
adorations to any particular member of their Pantheon,
77
addressed themselves directly to the sole ruler of the
universe, through that particular form.
"Each form, (whether called Ptah, Amun, or any other of
the figures representing various characters of the Deity),
was one of His attributes; in the same manner as our
expressions 'the Creator,' 'the Omniscient,' 'the Almighty,'
or any other title, indicate one and the same Being; and
hence arose the distinction between the great Gods and
those of an inferior grade, which were physical objects, as
the sun and the moon; or abstract notions of various
kinds, as 'valor,' 'strength,' 'intellectual gifts,' and the like,
personified under different forms.
"Upon this principle it is probable that gods were made of
the virtues, the senses, and, in short, every abstract idea
which has reference to the Deity or man; and we may
therefore expect to find, in this catalogue, intellect, might,
wisdom, creative power, the generative and productive
principles, thought, will, goodness, mercy, compassion,
divine vengeance, prudence, temperance, fortitude, fate,
love, hope, charity, joy," etc. (Vol. 4, pp. 172-I73-)
"Though the priests were aware of the nature of their
gods, and all those who understood the mysteries of the
religion looked upon the Divinty as a sole and undivided
Being, the people, not admitted to a participation of those
important secrets, were left in perfect ignorance
respecting the objects they were taught to adore; and
every one was not only permitted, but encouraged, to
believe the real sanctity of the idol, and the actual
existence of the god whose figure he beheld." (Ibid. p.
175.)
"It is still doubtful if the Egyptians really represented,
under any form, their idea of the unity of the Deity; it is
not improbable that His name, as with the Jews, was
78
regarded with such profound respect as never to be
uttered; and the Being of Beings, 'who is, and was, and
will be,' was, perhaps, not even referred to in the
sculptures, nor supposed to be approachable, unless under

MONOTHEISM
the name and form of some deified attribute, indicative of
His power and connection with mankind." (Ibid. p. 178.)
Dr. Wallis Budge, after showing that the Egyptian term
seklier neter, (in the Prisse Papyrus), should be translated
"Divine Providence" and not "fate," asks this question:
"Who then is the God whose power and providence and
government of the world are here proclaimed? The
answer to this question is that the God referred to is God,
whose power men of the stamp of Ptah-hetep discerned
even at the remote period in which he lived, and whose
attributes they clearly distinguished; He was in their
opinion too great to be called anything else but God, and
though, no doubt, they offered sacrifices to the gods in the
temple of Memphis, after the manner of their countrymen,
they knew that God was an entirely different Being from
those 'gods.' " (G. E. I:126.)
"We have no means of saying whether this idea of
oneness or unity was first applied to Ra or to some more
ancient god such as Horus, but it is, in the writer's
opinion, quite certain that it existed in the minds of the
educated classes of Egypt in the earliest times, and that in
all periods it was the central point of their conceptions of
God." (Ibid. p. 133.)
According to the late Prof. C. T. Tiele in his histoire
comparee des ANCIENNES religions, the Symbolism of
79
Egypt "being misunderstood by the ignorant folk,
produced serious errors, and the forms under which the
Egyptians represented their gods, and which are repellant
to our refined tastes, answered in their minds to an idea of
divinity which was purer and more spiritual than the
noble and beautiful forms of the gods of Hellas. The
ignorant felt no repugnance to monstrous representations
because they appeared as representations having a
profound and mysterious meaning; the learned understood
the meanings of the symbols, and paid their adoration
through them to the truth of which they were the
coverings. In other words, the uneducated loved a
plurality of gods, while the priests and educated classes
who could read and understand books, adopted the idea of
One God, the creator of all beings in heaven and on earth,
who, for want of a better word, were called 'gods.' "

MONOTHEISM
De Rouge, writing in the revue archeologique, (1860, p.
73), says: "The unity of a supreme and self-existent
Being, his eternity, his almightiness, and eternal
reproduction thereby as God; the attributing of the
creation of the world and of all living beings to the
supreme God; the immortality of the soul, completed by
the dogma of punishments and rewards; such is the
sublime and persistent base which, notwithstanding all
deviations and all mythological embellishments, must
secure for the beliefs of the ancient Egyptians a most
honorable place among the religions of antiquity."
Mariette Bey, in his description of the principal
monuments at the Egyptian Museum at Bulak near Cairo,
says: "At the head of the Egyptian pantheon soars a God
who is One, immortal, uncreated, invisible and hidden in
80
the inaccessible depths of his essence; he is the creator of
the heavens and of the earth; he has made everything
which exists, and nothing has been made without him;
such is the God who is reserved for the initiated of the
Sanctuary." (notice, 1876, p. 17.)
Chabas states that "the One God, who existed before all
things, who represents the pure and abstract idea of
divinity, is not clearly specialized by any one single
personage of the vast Egyptian pantheon. Neither Ptah,
nor Seb, nor Thoth, nor Ra, nor Osiris, nor any other God,
is a personification of him at all times; but of these
sometimes one and at other times another is invoked in
terms which assimilate these intimately with the supreme
type; the innumerable gods of Egypt are only attributes
and different aspects of this unique type." (calendrier des
jours, p. 107.)
Perhaps the greatest of all the supporters of the doctrine of
ancient Egyptian monotheism was the late Dr. Brugsch,
"who assigned to the word for God, neter, the highly
philosophical meaning which has been quoted above.
Accepting the view, which the Egyptians themselves held,
that the gods were only names of the various attributes of
the One God, he searched through the ' religious literature
and collected from the hymns, prayers, etc., which were
addressed to the various gods and goddesses in various
periods, a number of epithets and attributes which were
bestowed upon them by their worshippers. These extracts
he

MONOTHEISM
classified, and when they were grouped and arranged they
formed a description of God such as it would be difficult
81
to find a parallel for outside of the Holy Scriptures."
(Budge, G. E. I:140.)
"Whence came the Egyptian conception of monotheism,
or when it first sprang up, cannot be said, but in its oldest
form it is coeval with the dynastic civilization of Egypt at
least, and it may well date from far earlier times. The
monotheistic idea is not the peculiar attribute of any one
people or period. It may seem unnecessary to discuss
Egyptian monotheism at such lengths, but the matter is
one of great interest and importance because the literature
of Egypt proves it to have been in existence in that
country for more than three thousand five hundred years
before Christ; in fact, Egyptian monotheism is the oldest
form of monotheism known to us." (Ibid. p. 145.)
"The Egyptians, after the period of the IVth Dynasty,
were the victims of conservatism and conventionality,
and, we might also add, of the priesthoods of Heliopolis
and Thebes; but for these powerful and wealthy
confraternities the history of the religion of Egypt would
have been very different. The conception of monotheism,
which is so clearly expressed in the moral precepts of the
Early Empire, would have developed rapidly, and in its
growth it would have obliterated the remains of the old
and obsolete faiths which had crystallized, and which
existed in layers side by side with the higher doctrine. But
the decay which set in after the IVth Dynasty, and which
stifled the development of painting and sculpture, also
attacked the religion of the country ; and the noble
conception of monotheism, with its cult of the unseen,
was unable to compete with the worship of symbols
which could be seen and handled." (Ibid. p. 154.)
In view of the almost unanimous testimony of the
Egyptologists as to the original and essential monotheism
of the Egyptian religion, the gross idolatry of the people
82
as a whole, and the complicated polytheism of the
Pantheon seem all the more amazing. In no other nation
of the ancient world do we find such a bewildering
multitude of divinities. "One would think," says Maspero,
"that the country had been inhabited for the most part by
gods, and contained just sufficient men and animals to
satisfy

MONOTHEISM
the requirements of their worship." (history of egypt, I. p.
108.) The people of Egypt represented the scientific mind
in the Ancient Church, and this mind, being external,
delights in a multiplicity of forms, of fixed and well
defined systems, which, when once adopted, are adhered
to with the greatest tenacity. The theology of the Ancient
Church was thus formulated and systematized in Egypt
more than in any other country. The essentials, the
qualities, attributes and various operations of the one God
were here enumerated and arranged in precise systems,
and in a great variety of such systems; each quality was
marked with a distinct name and received a distinct
embodiment in some representative image, and these
masses and images remained as objects of worship long
after the internal ideas had been perverted and forgotten.
Again, the number of the deities were greatly increased by
the habit of adding to their original appellations the names
of the localities where temples had been erected for their
worship. New divinities arose also by the combination of
the names of several older ones. The rival priesthoods in
Heliopolis, in Memphis, in Thebes, and other cities,
insisted upon their own conceptions of the old ideas under
special favorite names, systems and images. The
veneration of departed saints and heroes added to the
83
number of deities. A highly developed spirit-worship
followed as a result of open intercourse with spirits
among the Egyptian magicians. Foreign gods were
gradually introduced by successive invaders from Syria
and Ethiopia, and to add to the confusion, nature-worship
arose as the spiritual correspondences were forgotten,
demanding the adoration of natural auras and elements,
the sun, the moon and the hosts of the sky, the four
quarters of heaven, the Nile, the desert, etc., not to speak
of all the sacred animals.
When, in the year 1890, the present writer first essayed to
unravel the intricate coil's of Egyptian mythology, --
having tried his hand, as we believe with some success, in
the simpler systems of the Assyro-Babylonian-
Canaanitish Pantheon, -- *he was forced
*See new church life, 1889, pp. 141, 157, 177, 191; and
1890, pp. 39, 59, 104, 139.

MONOTHEISM
to give up the attempt an account of the apparent
hopelessness of discovering any coherent system of
theology in the mazes of Egyptian polytheism which were
continually growing more confusing on account of the
habit of each Egyptologist to give a new reading to most
of the divine names. The effort, therefore, was permitted
to rest for some twenty years, but in the meantime light
was received in the interpretation of the Graeco-Roman
system of mythology,** which we gradually recognized
as being very closely related to the Egyptian system. We
must acknowledge our indebtedness, also, to the epoch-
making work of Dr. Wallis Budge, the gods of the
84
egyptians, which has summarized and greatly simplified
the Egyptian Pantheon. For the sake of convenience we
have adopted the nomenclature introduced by Dr. Budge.
*See new church life, 1905, pp. 21, 79, 145, 270, 403,
593, 647; 1906, pp. 211, 347, 533; 1907, pp. 27, 83, 160;
1909, p. 351.
Chapter IV.
THE EGYPTIAN PANTHEON.
The Pantheon of Egypt numbers about eight hundred
deities, but out of this chaotic multitude there are only
about two dozen that stand forth in very distinctive
outlines. These group themselves as follows, according to
their emblems and attributes, in correspondence with the
essential ideas of the Theology of the Ancient Church as
understood in Egypt.
MALE DIVINITIES
1. khnemu. Symbol, the ram = the Infinite Father, the
Divine Esse.
2. amen. Symbol, the two long plumes = the Divine Form,
the Divine Existere.
3. ra. Symbol, the solar disk = the Divine within the
spiritual sun.
4. ptah. Symbol, the pillar of degrees = the Logos, Divine
Revelation.
85
5. thoth. Symbols, the Ibis and writing tablet = the written
Word.
6. horus the elder. Symbol, the hawk = the Divine
Proceeding, before the Incarnation.
7. khensu. Symbol, the moon = the Divine Truth as the
proceeding Divine.
' 8. osiris. Symbols, the staff and the whip = the glorified
Human, the promised Messiah, judging the quick and the
dead. 9. horus the younger. Symbol, the infant lock of hair
= the Holy Spirit proceeding from the glorified Human.
10. anubis. Symbol, the jackal = resurrection after death.
11. khem, the one-armed mummy with a whip = Ham,
father of Mizraim and ancestral god of Egypt.
12. aten. Symbol, the solar disk with rays ending in hands
= the "Adonai" of the Hebrews.
13. bes, a grotesque figure, with a harp = the god of mirth.
14. set. Symbol, the black tapir = the evil power.

EGYPTIANPANTHEON
FEMALE DIVINITIES.
15. Isis, the wife of Osiris. Symbol, a throne = the
Celestial Kingdom and the Internal Church.
16. nephthys, the associate wife of Osiris. Symbol, a
house = the Spiritual Kingdom and the External Church.
86
17. satet, the wife of Khnemu. Symbol, the Upper Crown
= celestial good; identical with Isis.
18. anqet, second wife of Khnemu. Symbol, a cap of
feathers; identical with Nephthys.
19. mut, the wife of Amen. Symbol, the vulture = the
universal motherhood of Heaven and the Church.
20. maat, the wife of Ptah. Symbol, the single feather =
spiritual good, the affection of truth in general.
21. hathqr, the goddess of love and beauty. Symbol, the
cow -- natural good, conjugial love.
22 bast, Symbols, the lioness and the basket = the good of
charity in general.
23. neith. Symbols, the bow and the shuttle ,= the good of
faith in general.
24. taurt, the wife of Set. Symbol, the female
hippopotamus = the love of evil.
Chapter V.
KHNEMU, THE DIVINE ESSE.
As the supreme head of the Egyptian Pantheon we
recognize without hesitation the divinity with the head of
a ram, whose name has been variously rendered as
Khnemu, Chnumu, Chnu-phis, Kneph, Neph, with several
other variants. According to inscriptions quoted by Dr.
Brugsch,* "the most glorious image of the Divine in
Elephantine is the ram's headed Chnumu, the Former of
man, the creator of the gods, he who first shaped this
87
earth with his hands, he who is his own origin, the
original creative power, primeval fountain of all that is,
source of all being, the father of the gods;" and the
inscription further describes him as "the god Nun," i. e.
the watery or elementary first substance out of which all
forms, heavenly or earthly, have been made. He is "the
maker of things which are, creator of things which shall
be, the source of things which exist, Father of fathers, and
Mother of mothers." He "made the first egg, [Chaos],
from which sprang the sun, and he made the gods, and
fashioned the first man upon a potter's wheel, and he
continued to 'build up' their bodies and maintain their
life." (Budge, gods of the egyptians, II: 50, 51).
According to all the authorities the name of Khnemu is
connected with a root meaning "to join, to write," and also
"to build," -- a derivation which suggests the idea of the
Infinite Esse, the Divine Love, as the first and continuous
Divine substance, in which all things are infinitely and yet
distinctly one, -- the one and only substance out of which
all finite forms have been created or built. This original
substance is represented by the water-jug which forms the
first and only essential component part of the
hieroglyphics which form the name of Khnemu, -- the
others having a purely alphabetic value, the owl standing
for the letter M, and the chicken for U. As the god of the
primeval water or creative element, he is sometimes
*religion und mythologie der alten egypter, part II, pp.

297-311.
p. 72 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, KHNEMU,

THE DIVINE ESSE
88
seen with outstretched hands over which water is flowing,
and sometimes he is seen with the water jug above the
horns of the ram.
Ancient as well as modern students of the Egyptian
religion unite in ascribing to Khnemu the attributes of
primeval
creative power. Porphyry states that this god "is

represented with an egg proceeding out of his month, and
out of this egg proceeds another god, named Ptah."
(Wilkinson, manners and customs, IV : 240.) "The
inhabitants of the Thebais," says Plutarch, "worship their
god Khneph alone, whom they look upon, as without
beginning, so without end." (Ibid, 238.) Wil-
p. 73 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, KHNEMU,

THE DIVINE ESSE
89
kinson regards him as identical with "the Spirit of God
which moved upon the face of the waters," (Ibid, 237),
and Wallis Budge describes him as "the god who existed
before anything else was, who made himself, who was the
creative power which made and which sustains all things"
(G. E. II: 42.) "We have seen that the spirit or soul of
Khnemu pervaded all things, and that the god whose
symbol was a ram was the creator of men and gods, and
in connection with this must be noted the fact that,
together with Ptah, he built up the edifice of the material
universe according to the plans which he had made under
the guidance and direction of Thoth," (Ibid, p. 54), -- that
is, according to the Word which was in the beginning
with God. The invariable symbol of Khnemu is the ram,
which, as the father of the flock, represented the supreme
Fatherhood of the Divine Itself, the Divine Esse. In order
to represent this inmost Divine as being in itself invisible
and incomprehensible, the body of Khnemu was painted a
dark blue; and in order to signify that this inmost Divine
is the Divine Celestial itself, or the Divine Love, the head
of the ram wears the crown of Upper Egypt alone.
90
Chapter VI.
AMEN OR AMEN-RA, THE

DIVINE EXISTERE.
In Amen or Amen-Ra, the great god of Thebes, we have a
clear-cut conception, easily distinguished and interpreted.
The very first glance at his strong manly figure, -- always
depicted in an attitude of stepping forth, and always
wearing the "ureret" crown of two lofty plumes towering
from his head-dress, -- im-
presses the beholder with the idea of something Divine

standing forth. Sometimes he is seen with the head of a
ram, to indicate his close relation to the Infinite itself as
represented by Khnemu; sometimes with the head of a
hawk, to show his relation to the Divine Proceeding
91
represented by Horus; but always he is wearing the two
plumes, in alternate sections colored
p. 75 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, AMEN OR

AMEN-RA, THE DIVINE EXISTERE
red, blue and green; and it is said in the book of the dead,
(chapter 17:30), that "the plumes upon the head of Amen-
Ra are Isis and Nephthys," and again, "his two eyes are
the two plumes which are upon his head."
A feather, as we have shown, was the universal Egyptian
emblem of Truth, and the two great feathers or plumes of
Amen-Ra represent to our mind the two great truths or
doctrines of good and of truth, of charity and of faith,
which proceed from the Divine Wisdom of the Lord.
These two, in their three degrees, (the colored sections),
make the whole of the Word, and in their reception by the
angels they constitute the two kingdoms of heaven, (Isis
and Nephthys). And Amen-Ra himself, -- whose body is
often colored light blue, like the Brahman Vishnu, as if to
indicate his exalted and heavenly character, -- is a striking
representation of the Divine in its first Standing Forth out
of the Infinite, the Divine in its first Form and
Manifestation, in other words, the Divine Existere, the
Divine Spiritual itself. This interpretation is supported not
only by his distinctiv symbol, the two feathers, but also by
the meaning of his name and by the fundamental
characteristics attributed to him in the inscriptions.
The name amen, (as a Sun-god he was called Amen-Ra),
is said to mean "what is hidden," "what is not seen," and
according to Dr. Budge "it indicates the god which cannot
be seen with mortal eyes, and who is invisible as well as
inscrutable, to gods as well as men." (G. E. II: 2). But
according to the same authority, the name is also
92
connected with a root meaning "'to abide, to be
permanent,' and one of the attributes which were applied
to him was that of eternal." (Ibid.) All this agrees with the
character of Amen-Ra as the Divine Form or Existere,
which in itself is Infinite and therefore "hidden," yet in its
proceeding becomes manifest as the Eternal Form, the
Divine Human from eternity. In the hymns to Amen-Ra
we find the following expressions: "Homage to thee, O
Amen-Ra, who dost rest upon Maat [Truth]. . . . Thou are
unknown, and no tongue hath power to declare thy
similitude; only thou thyself [canst do this]. . . . Thou are
the lord of in-

telligence, and knowledge is that which proceedeth from
thy mouth. . . . Hail, thou form who art one, thou creator
of all things; hail, thou only one, thou maker of things
which exist. . . . Thou art the Beautiful Face which
gladdeneth the breast. Thou art the Form of forms, with a
lofty crown." (G. E. II: 10, 11.)
And in other papyri we read: "This holy god, the lord of
all the gods, Amen-Ra, . . . the first Divine substance
which gave birth unto the other two Divine substances!
The Being through whom every god hath existence, the
one one who hath made everything which hath come into
existence since primeval times when the world was
created; the Being whose births are hidden, whose
evolutions are manifold, and whose growths are
unknown; the holy Form, beloved, terrible, and mighty in
his risings; . . . the terrible one of the double Divine Face;
the Divine Aged one; the Divine Form, who dwelleth in
the forms of all the gods. . . . Though he can be seen in
form, and observation can be made of him at his
93
appearance, yet he cannot be understood." (Ibid, pp. 13-
15.)
Equally distinct is the idea of Eternity which is attributed
to Amen-Ra: "Thou dost travel through untold spaces
millions and hundreds of thousands of years; . . . the
everlasting one who cometh and hath his might; who
bringeth the remotest limit of eternity; . . . who maketh
decrees for millions of double millions of years; . . . who
hath formed eternity and everlastingness." (Ibid.) In this
connection, and when comparing Khnemu with Amen-Ra,
we call to mind the teaching of the Heavenly Doctrine
that "by the Infinite the angels understood the Divine
Esse, and by the Eternal the Divine Existere." (D. P. 48;
T. C. R. 31; A. E. 972).
A highly significative scene which we here reproduce,
(from G. E. II:17), represents Amen-Ra under two forms
standing back to back, -- the one form, with the head of a
ram, facing inward, while the other form, with the plumed
head of a man, faces outward. We have here a wonderful
representation of the Esse and the Existere, the Infinite
and the Eternal, and the picture strongly reminds us of
Swedenborg's descrip-

tion of "the Nexus" and the First Natural Point, in the
work on the infinite and in the principia, -- that first and
only Form of forms which is "infinite on one side and
finite on the other," "the first Divine Substance which
gave birth unto the other two Divine substances," -- the
first and the second finite! This grand conception, which
forms the very crux of the whole doctrine of creation, was
not absolutely original with Swedenborg, but was vaguely
94
known also to the Greek philosophers, who undoubtedly
derived the idea from Egypt and thus from the theology
and cosmic philosophy of the Ancient Church.
Chapter VII.
RA, THE SPIRITUAL SUN.
Very closely connected with Amen, and almost
undistinguishable from him as to general attributes, is the
95
great and ancient deity known as Ra, who, like Amen, is
generally represented in the human form, with the heavily
bearded face of a man, though he is often seen with the
head of hawk. His one distinctive emblem is the large, red
solar disk above his head, with a royal serpent entwined
about the sun; the body itself of Ra
is usually painted red. The centre of his worship was the

ancient city of an, the Hebrew on, a few miles to the
northeast of Cairo. The Egyptians also called it Pa Ra, the
"city of the Sun," which the Hebrews translated into
Bethshemech and the Greeks into Heliopolis. Here was
the greatest university and theological school in all Egypt,
and here was kept the bull Mnevis, sacred to Ra; this
place, also, was the supposed birth-
96
p. 79 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, RA, THE
SPIRITUAL SUN
place of the mythical bird Phoenix, which represented the
daily death and re-birth of the sun.
With the exception of Osiris, none of the Egyptian gods
enjoyed as general a worship as Ra, who seems to be the
leading representative of the supreme Being, although he
was not regarded as the supreme Being himself, and in
some respects appears to have been inferior to Khnemu,
Amen and Osiris. Like them he was termed the creator of
gods and men, the maker of heaven, the earth and the
lower world, source of all life and light, the
personification of goodness and truth, the eternal
opponent of darkness and evil. As Dr. Budge remarks,
"there is scarcely an attribute of importance ascribed to
our God, for which there is no equivalent in the hymns
and texts which relate to Ra." (G. E. I:342).
The reason for this universality of Divine attributes
ascribed to Ra, and the merging with him of almost every
other deity, is to be found, we believe, in the root meaning
of his name. Attempts have been made to derive the name
from roots signifying "to make to be," "operative and
creative power," etc., but most of the Egyptologists admit
the name to be of unknown origin, and materialistic
interpreters such as Maspero and Wiedemann, insist that
"it means the sun and nothing more," but they refrain
from telling us the origin of the word for the sun, (ra). But
knowing as we do that the Egyptians did not possess the
sound of L in their language, but always pronounced it R,
we feel convinced that the name ra is nothing but the
Egyptian form of the Hebrew el or the Assyrian ilu, both
of which involve the root meaning of strength and power,
and stand for the general idea of "God."
97
That Ra was a sun-god, and was identified with the sun of
the natural world, we freely admit, but to the Egyptians
the natural sun itself was but the chief mundane
representative of the spiritual Sun, "the sun of the
intellectual world," as Plato terms it. And as they knew
this higher sun to be the first proceeding or immediate
encompassing sphere of the God-man in its midst, so Ra
became identified with the spiritual Sun and with the idea
of God as a Man within it. His symbols, the red solar disk
with encompassing serpent, signify the Divine Love,

SPIRITUAL SUN
surrounded by the Divine Wisdom. As the Divine Man
within the spiritual Sun, Ra is represented with the head
of a man; as the first proceeding from the God-man, he is
represented with the hawk's head of Horus, and in each
case he stands for the general idea of "God."
That the Egyptians were well aware of the existence of a
spiritual Sun, is abundantly evident from direct statements
in their sacred texts, and is self-evident also from
symbolic representations too numerous for references. We
need call to mind only the double suns, one nether and
one upper, which are to be
98
seen on almost every atef crown, (the white crown of
Upper Egypt). As a final and convincing proof we
reproduce here a figure of the upper Sun, inflowing into
the lower one, as found in Maspero's history of egypt, vol.
I, p. 148. The two bird-men, seen at each side, represent
the souls of the blessed, in an attitude of adoration.
In regard to the sun-worship of the Egyptians we learn in
the Heavenly Doctrine that "the Ancient Church
understood nothing else by the sun than the Lord and the
Divine Celestial of His Love, and, therefore, they had the
rite of praying toward

SPIRITUAL SUN
the rising of the sun, not even thinking of the sun at that
time. But their posterity, after they had lost this
knowledge, began to worship the sun itself, and the moon;
99
and this worship spread to many nations, to such an extent
that they dedicated temples and set up pillars [obelisks] to
them; and as the sun and the moon then took on an
opposite meaning, they now signified the love of self and
the love of the world, which are directly contrary to
celestial and spiritual loves." (A. C. 2441; A. E. 401).
In Egypt, according to Wilkinson, (vol. 4, p. 210), "the
sun was both a physical and metaphysical deity, and
under these two characters was worshipped as Ra and
Amen-Ra: the real sun the ruler of the world in the
firmament; and the ideal ruler of the universe as king of
the Gods." And besides this, "it appears that the Egyptians
made of the sun several deities: as, the Intellectual Sun,
the physical orb, the cause of heat, the author of light, the
power of the sun, the vivifying cause, the sun in the
firmament, and the sun in his resting place" (Ibid, p. 299).
The same enlightened Egyptologist emphatically declares:
"I must, from the evidence before me, deny that physical
agents constituted the principal deities of the Egyptians. If
their metaphysical doctrines, divulged alone to the
initiated, are not within our reach, sufficient is shown to
convince us that the nature of the great gods was not
derived from mere physical objects." (Ibid, pp. 292, 293).
The fact is that the wiser ones amongst them did not at all
worship, nor even think, of the physical sun, when
adoring Ra or any other of the forms of the Sun-god, but
all these were so many representations of the Divine Man
who in ancient times revealed Himself within the sun of
the spiritual world.*
Besides his character as the god of the Sun, Ra figures
also as the king or god of the most ancient times, the
Golden Age in Egypt, even as Ouranos figures in Graeco-
Roman mythology. During his reign, long since vanished,
"the soil was more generous; the harvests -- without the
laborer's toil -- were higher
100
*See further our paper on "The Sun of Heaven as
represented in the Ancient Mythologies," in new church
life, 1907, pp. 83, 160. 6

SPIRITUAL SUN
and more abundant, and when the Egyptians of the
Pharaonic times wished to mark their admiration of any
person or thing, they said that the like had never been
known since the time of Ra." (Maspero, hist. egypt, vol.
1:229.) According to this original representation of Ra,
we find in Egypt distinct traces of legends from the
Ancient Word, referring to the fall of the Most Ancient
Church, -- confused and tedious stories such as the
Legends of Ra and Isis, describing in many words how
Isis grew weary of men and was seized with the desire to
rule over Ra in heaven, a power which could be obtained
only by forcing the god to reveal his secret name. Ra, in
the meantime, was growing old; his mouth ran, and the
spittle fell upon the earth. Out of the mud resulting from
the mixture Isis now shaped a serpent which she placed in
the way of Ra. The god, bitten by the serpent, could find
no relief until he had revealed his secret name to Isis, who
then cured him by her magic formulas. (Wiedemann,
religion of the ancient egyptians, pp. 54-58). It does not
seem difficult to discern here the essential elements of the
story in Genesis: the woman, her desire to know and be as
God, and finally the serpent. Other stories, related in the
book of the dead, allude to a myth in which Ra is said to
have been mutilated by his son or grandson, Seb, even as
Ouranos was mutilated by Kronos, (signifying that the
Divine Truth of the Most Ancient Church was profaned
by the Antediluvians). From the drops of blood which fell
101
from Ra after his mutilation there arose a race of fearful
giants known as the Ammiu, just as the Cyclops and
Erinnyes arose from the blood of Ouranos. In another
papyrus Seb is said to have been punished for this
impious act by his son, Osiris, even as Kronos was
overthrown by his son, Zeus. In the text Osiris states: "I,
even I, am Osiris, who shut in his father, Seb, together
with his mother, Nut, on the day of making the great
slaughter," (Budge, G. E. II:99, 100).
In support of the same genealogical correlation we quote
the following note from Wiedemann (R. A. E. p. 32)
"According to a remarkable cosmogonical myth, at the
beginning of the creation, after heaven and earth were
uplifted from out the

SPIRITUAL SUN
primeval waters, Ra produced his children Shu and Tefnut
of his own body alone, without the cooperation of any
goddess. From Shu and Tefnut were born Seb and Nut,
and from these Osiris, Horus the Elder, Set, Isis, and
Nephthys."
This genealogical descent of Osiris, and the stories
concerning Ra and Seb, are of the greatest importance in
establishing the correlation of Egyptian with Greek
mythology, as may be seen from a comparison between
the two family trees:
Osiris
Horus the
Shu Seb "
younger
102
Ra " " Isis
Horus the
Tefnut Nut
elder
Nephthys
"
Set
Jupiter
Ouranos Kronos " Mars
" " Juno
Gaea Rhea Neptune
Ceres
Pluto
In the Greek genealogy there is no generation
corresponding to the Egyptian Shu and Tefnut, (by whom
is probably represented the earlier posterity of the Most
Ancient Church), but even so conservative an
Egyptologist as Dr. Brugsch admits the striking
correlation of the other generations of the two divine
dynasties: Ra = Ouranos, [the Most Ancient Church itself]
; Seb = Kronos or Saturn, [the Titanic antediluvians] ;
Osiris = Zeus or Jupiter, as Isis = Juno, [both of them
representing the Ancient Church]. That Ra afterwards
became the chief representative of the Lord in the
spiritual Sun, may have been caused by a memory of the
fact that the man of the celestial church actually did
worship the Lord as a Divine Man surrounded by the Sun
of heaven.
103
p. 84 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, SATET,
ANQET AND MUT .
Chapter VIII.
SATET, ANQET AND MUT .
Always associated with Khnemu, in the sacred triad
worshipped especially in the island of Elephantine in
Upper Egypt, there are two sister-goddesses named Satet
and Anqet.
satet or sati, the principal wife of Khnemu, wears the
crown of Upper Egypt alone, from which projects upward
a pair of long and slender cow's horns. The distinctive
hieroglyphic in her name is an arrow piercing the skin of
an animal, and it is possible that this was intended to
represent the faculty of celestial perception penetrating
sensual appearances. According to Horapollo, (an
Egyptian priest who wrote a treatise on the Hieroglyphics
some time after the birth of the Lord), Satet represents
heaven; and he adds the observation that "the Egyptians
think it absurd to designate the heaven in the masculine,
[as the Greeks do], but represent it in the feminine,
inasmuch as the generation of the sun and the moon and
the rest of the stars is perfected in it, which is the peculiar
property of a female." (W. 4:268.) All the goddesses of
Egypt represent Heaven and the Church, but Satet, as
indicated by her crown, clearly stands for the Celestial
Kingdom of Heaven, and consequently the Internal
Church, which immediately receives the Divine Celestial
represented by Khnemu.
anqet, (also called Anouke or Anukit), the second wife of
Khnemu, is depicted with a foreign-looking crown of
feathers standing upright in a close ring. Her name is said
to be derived from a root meaning "to surround,
104
embrace," and she is supposed to represent "the waters of
the Nile which embrace, nourish and fructify the fields."
(G. E. II: 57) ; just as Satet is supposed to represent "the
Inundation of the Nile." But while in later ages the
spiritual correspondences were replaced by natural ones,
the more ancient ideas were distinctly internal. We learn
that as Khnemu had two sister wives, Satet and Anqet, so
Osiris, (who is but another name for Khnemu, in a
different series), had two sister wives, Isis and Nephthys.
Dr. Brugsch and Dr.
p. 85 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT - SATET,

ANQET AND MUT
`
105
p. 86 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT - SATET,
ANQET AND MUT
Budge agree in identifying Satet with Isis and Anqet with
Nephthys. And as both Satet and Isis represent the
Celestial Kingdom and the Internal Church, so Anqet and
Nephthys both represent the Spiritual Kingdom and the
External Church. (Compare Adah and Zillah, the two
wives of Lamech; and Rachel and Leah, the two wives of
Jacob.) That such is the signification of Anqet is indicated
by the crown of feathers, by the meaning of her name "to
surround," and by the determinative hieroglyphic of her
name, a serpent, signifying "knowledge."
The female counterpart of Amen-Ra is known by the
name of Mut, (variously read Ament, Maut, or Tmau), a
name which simply means "mother," and she was
regarded as the great "world-mother" who conceived and
brought forth all things that exist. Other goddesses, such
as Isis, Nephthys, and others, are occasionally hailed as
the "mother goddess," but Mut carried this title par
excellence, and she had hardly any other attributes. Her
distinctive symbol is the double crown of Upper and
Lower Egypt, and the hieroglyphics constituting her name
are a vulture, a female breast, an egg, and a sitting
woman. She is often represented with large protruding
wings on her arms, stretched out at full length at right
angles from her body.
The Egyptologists say that this goddess "symbolized
Nature, the mother of all things," but a New Church
student may venture to say that she, the wearer of the
double crown, represents Heaven as a whole, as to both
good and truth, and, in cosmic sense, that first and
universal aura which makes Heaven as a whole, and
which constitutes that first passive, receptive and reactive
106
element in which and out of which all lower forms have
been conceived and created.
Chapter IX.
PTAH, THE DIVINE LOGOS.
This interesting deity is considered one of the great
primeval gods of Egypt, and from earliest times to the end
of the nation his distinctive characteristics appear to have
suffered no change. So great was the reverence paid to
him throughout the land that the whole country became
known as Het-ka-Ptah, "the house of the 'double' of Ptah,"
which by the Greeks was pronounced Aigyptos, and by us
"Egypt," though originally it was only the name of the
city of Memphis, the most ancient capital of the nation.
With singular unanimity all the Egyptologists agree that
the name of Ptah, (by the Greeks written "Pthah"), can be
recognized, letter for letter, in the well known Hebrew
verb patach, "to open," "to begin," and derivatively, "to
carve, to engrave, to make a sculpture." Each of these
meanings thoroughly supports our interpretation of the
significance of Ptah, who stands for the idea of
Revelation, the Divine Word, the creative Logos which
was in the beginning with God. By it were all things made
that were made; by it the Infinite created, [in Hebrew
bara, "carved"], all things out of His own Divine
substance, and by it He opens His Infinity to His human
creatures in representative types or letters which in
ancient times were carved upon tablets of stone. Ptah is
generally represented as a man clothed in a close-fitting
garment or mummy shroud, with face and hands bare,
107
while on his head is a skull-cap without any crown or
other emblematic ornaments. He is sometimes seen
standing, sometimes sitting on an ornamental chair or
throne, holding in one hand a roll of papyrus, and in the
other a writer's pen ;* but whether standing or sitting there
is always beneath him a kind of pedestal, the name of
which is Moat, (= truth), "shaped like a cubit rod which is
the sign for truth and just measurement." (Wiedemann, p.
131.) When standing he holds in his two hands the usual
staff, com-
*"The writings of Ptah" are referred to in the book of the

dead. g.E. i:502.)
p. 88 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT - PTAH,

THE DIVINE LOGOS.
108
THE DIVINE LOGOS.
bined with the anch and a miniature tet-pillar, and at his
back there is again the tet-pillar with its three degrees,
while from the back of his neck there extends into the
highest degree of the tet-pillar the menat, formed like a
pendant bell-shaped flower.
Every one of these emblems is full of significance,
representing various truths of the Doctrine concerning the
Word.
1). The close-fitting garment or mummy shroud
represents the letter of the Word, in itself dead, while the
naked face and hands represent the internal sense which
in places is open even in the letter. The Assyrians and
Babylonians in the same way represented the letter of the
Word by their god Nebo.* The bald head with the skull-
cap again represents the letter of the Word in which, as a
whole, spiritual truths are not apparent, (compare the
"bald head" of Elisha, who represents the letter of the
Word).
2). The papyrus-roll and the writer's pen speak for
themselves as signs of the written Word. The pedestal of
"truth" also, is the self-evident emblem of the letter of the
Word as the basis of the internal senses. The staff
represents the Word as the "firmament" which confirms
and supports the interior truth, while the anch in his hands
is the universal emblem of spiritual life and holiness.
Thus we find that the ancient Egyptians were well
acquainted with the "New" Church Doctrine that the letter
of the Word is the basis, firmament and containant of the
internal sense, and that in it the Divine Truth is in its
fulness, in its holiness and in its power.
109
3. The tet-pillar behind Ptah speaks volumes concerning
that internal sense behind the letter which is contained in
a series of three successive degrees, while the menat, --
the emblem of conjunction and delight, -- is a symbol of
the affection and delight which is extended especially to
those who enter into the inmost sense of the Word, -- the
sense which treats of uses, of goods, of love to the
neighbor and to the Lord, and which like a flower exhales
the fragrant delight of perception.
Porphyry states that Ptah came forth from an egg which
issued
*In Hebrew, nebu, a prophet, from naba, to bubble forth,

to utter inspired sentences. The name is frequently used as
part of personal names such as Nebuchadnezzar,
Nabopolassar, etc.

THE DIVINE LOGOS.
from the mouth of Khnemu, and the monuments describe
him as "the Lord of Truth;" "the very great god who came
into being in the earliest time;" "the Father of the mighty
fathers; Father of the beginning; he who created the sun-
egg and the moon-egg;" he from whose eye the gods
came forth, while men came forth from his mouth. Ptah is
recognized as the primeval creative power; not such as the
sun, for he is never represented with any solar emblems,
"but as an abstract idea of intellectual power." A basrelief
in the island of Philae shows him turning upon a potter's
wheel a lump of clay, or, as others say, a chaos-egg, from
which all things were made, just as Khnemu, Amen and
Ra are represented in the same creative act. But their
distinctive emblems show that the One Creator is thus
110
variously represented as to His distinct essentials, just as a
Newchurchman might, without contradicting himself,
ascribe the act of Creation successively to the Divine
Love itself, to the Divine Wisdom, to the spiritual Sun,
and to the Word.
Regarded originally as the creative Logos, Ptah became
gradually invested with the character of a demiurge and
master architect and designer of everything created, as the
chief god of all handicraft, the great artificer in metals, as
smelter, caster, sculptor and engraver of all forms in the
universe. By the Greeks he was identified with
Hephaistos or Vulcan, (= Tubal-cain, the "loud-sounding
smith," the "instructor of every artificer in brass and
iron"), but Hephaistos was a very subordinate deity as
compared with Ptah, and Wiedemann shows that "Ptah
has no essential connection whatever with Hephaistos,"
(R. A. E., p. 137), unless it be, as he suggests, that the
name of Hephaistos was originally derived from Ptah.
Many of the Egyptologists recognize the close relation of
Ptah with the Ibis-headed god Thoth. The attributes and
associations of the two are, indeed, very similar. Ptah like
Thoth, figures as the scribe of the gods, and like him is
called "Lord of moat," i. e., of "truth." The goddess Maat,
the wife of Thoth, is also said to be the wife of Ptah, and
Dr. Budge comes very close to the true interpretation of
the two deities when he states that "Thoth was in reality
only a personification of the intelligence of Ptah." (G. E.
i:516.) For though both of them represent the Word,
Thoth
111
THE DIVINE LOGOS.
more particularly stands for the understanding of the
Word in its interior sense, as is evident from his emblems:
the Ibis bird, the utchat eye, the crescent moon, etc.
The form of Ptah figures also in various combinations
with other deities, forming new series of representations.
Of these we will mention only two: Ptah-Tanen and Ptah-
Seker-Asar.
Ptah-Tanen shows the mummied body of Ptah, with the
ram's horns of Khnemu, the plumes of Amen, and the
solar disk of Ra. The Egyptologists do not know the
meaning of the word "Tanen," and are equally in the dark
as to the significance of the composite deity himself; but,
judging from the emblems on his head, we feel safe in
suggesting that he represents the Divine Trinity of Esse,
Existere and Procedere, the whole contained in the letter
of the Word. (G. E. i:508.)
Another composite form is that of Ptah-Seker-Asar, or, as
the Greek writers name him, Phthah-Sokaris, whom
Budge interprets as "a personification of the union of the
primeval creative power with a form of the inert powers
of darkness, or in other words, Ptah-Seker is a form of
Osiris, that is to say, of the night sun, or the dead Sun-
god." (G. E. i:503). Now Seker* is a somewhat obscure
deity, represented by the mummied body of Ptah and the
hawk's head of Horus. But by the hawk the Egyptians
invariably represented the Divine Proceeding, and the
combined forms of Ptah and Horus, (Ptah-Seker), clearly
signify the Word as the Divine Proceeding. And the
further combination of Ptah-Seker with the crown of
Osiris, (the crown of Upper Egypt), represents the
112
combined idea of the Word as the Divine Proceeding
fulfilled in the glorified resurrection-body of the promised
Redeemer. A curious form of Ptah-Seker-Asar is that in
which the triune god appears as a chubby infant or squat
pigmy, with a large bald head and thick limbs; on the top
of his head he usually has a beetle, but sometimes the
plumes of Amen. "An examination of the variants of this
form proves that he was supposed to possess the creative
power of Khepera, which is symbolized by the beetle, and
the youth and vigor of Harpocrates, [the
*His name still survices in the neighborhood of the vast

necropolis of Memphis in the village of Saqqarah.

THE DIVINE LOGOS.
younger Horus], which is represented by the lock of hair
on the right side of his head; and as he sometimes stands
upon a crocodile, and holds a serpent in each hand, he
must have possessed the powers of several of the great
solar gods. Ptah-Seker-Asar is, then, like Osiris, the type
and symbol of the resurrection from the dead, and he has
been fittingly described as 'the triune god of the
resurrection.'" (Budge, G. E. i:507-508.) To us, however,
this pigmy form, which is also supposed to represent an
embryo, signifies not only the Logos as the first creative
conatus, but also the same Logos as "the Only-begotten,"
who was born an infant on the earth and who by the might
of His Innocence conquered the powers of hell. As the
Word incarnate He was born, and as the Word fulfilled
He arose from the dead, the triune God of the
Resurrection, -- Ptah-Sek'er-Osiris, -- to whom in the
book of the dead is ascribed the double function of
113
"opening the mouth of the dead," and of "fashioning the
new bodies in which the souls of the dead were to live in
the underworld." (G. E. i:5O1.) For it is the Lord as the
Word that opens heaven and bestows eternal life.
p. 93 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT - BAST, THE

AFFECTION OF GOOD
Chapter X.
BAST, THE AFFECTION OF GOOD.
Among the Egyptian goddesses none except Isis and
Hathor is of greater mythological importance than Bast,
the lioness-headed counterpart of Ptah. It is under the
name of Bast, (Basit, or Pasht), that she was worshipped
as the goddess of peace in her special sanctuary at
Bubastis, while in Memphis her name was Sekhet, and
she there appears as a lioness-headed goddess of
vengeance and war. It is generally admitted, however, that
Bast and Sekhet are essentially one and the same divinity,
though with apparently opposite attributes. According to
Wiedemann, (religion of the ancient egyptians, p. 138),
Sekhet "is one in nature with other feline-headed
goddesses: the lioness-headed Tefnut, Mut of Thebes,
Pakht of Speos, and Bast of Bubastis, -- all of whom
represent the variable power of the Sun, from genial
warmth to scorching heat." And Budge, though minutely
differentiating between Sekhet and Bast, admits that "it is
probable that Bast was a female counterpart of Ptah-
Seker-Asar." (G. E. i:158.)
According to the wearisome monotone of the naturalistic
school of interpretation, which never can raise its eyes
above the natural sun, Sekhet with her knives personifies
the fierce and violent heat of the natural sun because she
114
is said to destroy the souls of the wicked in the spiritual
world (!); while Bast, with her more ladylike emblems,
personifies the more gentle heat with encourages the
growth of vegetation and "makes the human germ to grow
in the mother's womb." The trouble with these brilliant
interpretations: is that they make both Sekhet and Bast to
be solar divinities, while Ptah, their male counterpart, is
decidedly and admittedly -- not a sun-god. But the
difficulty vanishes when it is seen that Ptah represents the
Word and that both Sekhet and Bast personify -- not mere
natural temperature -- but spiritual heat of the most
sublime degree, the celestial love of the Word which on
the one hand bestows all growth in the internal life of re-

AFFECTION OF GOOD
115
AFFECTION OF GOOD
generation, and on the other hand wages relentless
warfare against all the powers of hell that oppose
heavenly life.
According to the same stupid school of materialistic
interpretation Bast was entitled "the lady of the East,"
because her principal shrine was situated in the Delta, on
the eastern branch of the Nile, in the city of Pa-Bast,
("the city of Bast," known to the Hebrews as Pibeseth and
to the Greeks as Bubastis.) But Bast was not called "lady
of the East" from any such geographical limitations, -- for
she was honored with an equal worship on the western
bank of the Nile as on the eastern, -- but because the
Egyptians knew that the East represented the celestial
love of the Lord, just as they knew that the goddess Neith
was called "lady of the West," because she represented
the intellectual faith of the Church.
Bubastis, on the eastern branch of the Nile, was
undoubtedly chosen as the principal shrine of the goddess
in order to correspond to her general representation. Here
she had a magnificent temple, (recently excavated by M.
Naville), which in ancient times was visited by
Herodotus, who describes the splendid annual festivals
held in honor of Bast, when wealthy Egyptians gaily
repaired to Bubastis in richly decorated boats to offer
their gifts to the goddess, -- and also to bury there the
carefully embalmed and bandaged corpses of their
favorite cats, thousands of which have been found among
the ruins of "Tel-Basta."
The earlier Egyptologists insisted that Bast herself was
cat-headed, but this contention now appears to have been
116
abandoned, for even a cursory glance at her various
images shows that her head is indeed that of a lioness. As
we have shown before in treating of the sacred animals,
the cats became sacred to Bast not only because of their
resemblance to a miniature lioness, but more especially
because this goddess was identical with the Greek Hestia
or Vesta, patroness of the sacred fire on the domestic
hearth, to which, in ancient times as in modern, all tabbies
were irresistibly attracted. The very name "Vesta," may
have been derived from "Bast."
The name of Bast, as seems to have been definitely
established, is derived from the word bes, meaning "fire."
Her image, like that of Ptah, never wears a crown or head-
dress of any sort, but

AFFECTION OF GOOD
above her lioness' head there rises a royal serpent, while
in her right hand she carries a musical instrument known
as a sistrum, and on her left arm a basket.
All the emblems, attributes and characteristics of Bast, as
well as the meaning of her name, point clearly to the
conclusion that she represents something distinctly
celestial, something of the will, of good, of affection,
charity and love. We need no argument in proof of the
assertion that the lion is the chief animal representative of
the Lord in His Divine Omnipotence, and that the lioness
consequently represents the celestial love of the Lord.
This love is the inmost life of every heavenly affection,
and hence we need not be surprised that Bast has been
"identified" with a great number of other goddesses. As
the special companion of Ptah -- the Word -- she clearly
represents that inmost, and, therefore, celestial love of the
117
Word which is the real love of the Lord. Bast, moreover,
is said to be "the personification of the soul of Isis," (G. E.
i: 447), and by Isis, as will be shown, is represented the
Internal Church. It is the celestial love of the Word, the
inmost and purest affection of the Divine Truth, that
makes the very soul of the Internal Church.
The royal serpent on the head of Bast is the emblem of
that simple and unadorned wisdom which is the crown of
this celestial love of the Word. The sistrum, as a stringed
instrument, is the Egyptian symbol for harmony, beauty,
and delight, and corresponds to the affection of truth. And
the basket on her arm, bringing good gifts to men,
corresponds to the affection of good, the good will which
contains and carries the goods of celestial love. (A. C.
5144, 9996.) Such was the ancient conception of that love
which the Egyptians termed "lady of the East," and to
whom they prayed: "May she grant all life and power, all
health and joy of heart!"
Chapter XL
THOTH, THE ANCIENT WORD.
"The character of Thoth," says Dr. Budge, "is a lofty and
beautiful conception, and is, perhaps, the highest idea of
deity ever fashioned in the Egyptian mind, which, as we
have already seen, was somewhat prone to dwell on the
material side of divine matters. Thoth, however, as the
personification of the mind of God, and as the all-
pervading and governing and directing power of heaven
and earth, forms a feature of the Egyptian religion which
is as sublime as the belief in the resurrection of the dead
118
in a spiritual body, and as the doctrine of everlasting life."
(G.E. i: 415.)
And Wilkinson, with a similar spiritual discernment,
points out that "the very fact of a god being figured with a
human body and the head of an ibis, might sufficiently
prove the allegorical character of Thoth, or Mercury, the
emblems of the communicating medium of the Divine
Intellect, and suggest the impossibility of any other than
an emblematic existence." (manners and customs, vol. 4,
p. 171.) Thoth, "the god of letters and the patron of
learning, was the medium of communication between the
gods and mankind. It was through him that all mental
gifts were imparted to man. He was, in short, a deification
of the abstract idea of the intellect, or a personification of
the intellect of the Deity." (Ibid. vol. 5, p. 9.) Plato,
Plutarch and Lamblichus describe him as a ministering
spirit, "carrying the prayers of mortals to heaven, and
bringing down in return oracles and all other blessings of
life." (Ibid. vol. 5, p. 10.)
Armed with the supporting opinions of authorities such as
these, we do not fear the accusation of "wild allegorizing"
when concluding that Thoth stands as the universal
representative of the word as to its internal sense, or, what
is the same, the
INTERIOR UNDERSTANDING OF THE WORD. The
god Ptah, as we have shown, represents Divine Revelation
in general, and Thoth is described as the son of Ptah, -- in
other words, Doctrine drawn from the Word, or, as Dr.
Budge states it: "Thoth was in reality
p. 98 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT - THOTH,

THE ANCIENT WORD
119
THE ANCIENT WORD
only a personification of the intelligence of Ptah," (G. E.
i: 516), i. e., the understanding of the Word. That this is
the correct interpretation of the ibis-headed god, is proved
further by all the emblems and attributes of Thoth.
The Egyptian name of this deity is Tehuti or Dhuti and we
are assured that it is derived from the oldest known name
of the ibis, tehu, with the termination ti, i. e., "belonging
to the ibis." This etymology, however, is considered
doubtful by other authorities, and it does not seem likely
that any deity would be named after one of his emblems.
The ibis head is, par excellence, the characteristic emblem
of Thoth and seems to signify "the scientific intellectual,"
(A. C. 1186), that is to say, the intellectual faculty of the
Egyptian scientific mind. Sometimes the head is bare, but
more often it is surmounted by the crescent moon and the
sun-disk, or by the moon and a standing feather, or by the
twisted horns of a ram with the Atef crown of Upper
Egypt and the two suns; at times he is adorned with a
120
triple crown, -- three Atefs standing side by side, which
Dr. Brugsch tells us was known as the "Thoth crown,"
probably in reference to his title of "thrice great," --
trismegistos. The sun and the moon refer, of course, to the
doctrine of charity and faith; the moon and the feather
refer to faith and its understanding of truth; and the ram's
horn with the Atef crown symbolize the good of Divine
Love predominating in the internal sense of the Word.
In his hands the ibis-headed god sometimes holds the
anch and the staff which signify spiritual life and power
in ultimates, while other representations show him as
"scribe of the gods," holding the writing-tablet and the
reed pen, or a long staff with little pegs all along one side,
used for purposes of counting. In front of him there is
always the "symbolic eye," sometimes two or four eyes,
in various positions. Occasionally he is holding the Eye
between his two hands, or he is seen facing a large mirror
with the Eye in the midst of it, -- a very evident
representation of the Word with its internal sense as
reflecting the face of God; or he is holding a bowl in
which is seen an anch enclosed on each side by a small
staff, to signify the Word in the letter enclosing the spirit
and life within. Finally there is, as his in-

THE ANCIENT WORD
variable companion, the dog-headed ape standing before
the god in an attitude of adoration, often holding the Eye
in his hands, a symbol of the humble acknowledgment
that a single-hearted person derives all genuine
understanding from the Word in its internal sense.
Not the emblems alone confirm our interpretation of
Thoth, but also all the attributes ascribed to him in ancient
121
Egyptian literature. "Thoth, according to innumerable
statements on the monuments, is 'the lord of the holy
speech,' 'the one who is wise in the holy speech,' 'the
speaker in the upper hemisphere,' 'the powerful speaker,'
'the one of a sweet tongue,' etc. He is the one who has
bestowed speech and writing, for he is 'the lord of
scripture, the lord of the papyrus, the king of books,' and
his instruments are the ink-pot and the writing-tablet."
(Brugsch, rel. und myth., p. 446.) All scribes regarded
him as their patron and tutelary deity and invoked his aid
in their labors. He himself is "the Scribe of the gods,"
"lord of writing," "master of the papyrus," "maker of the
palette and the ink-jar," "the great god of words," "the
lord of Divine words," "the lord of the words of God."
(Budge, egyptian magic, p. 128.)
But he was not the lord of words alone, but of that which
words stand for, or originally stood for, -- Truth, Divine
Truth. "All the actions of Thoth 'rest upon the Truth;' he
'propitiates the gods by means of the Truth,' and 'he lives
on (or in) the Truth.' As 'king of the Truth' and 'lord of the
Truth,' he writes down the laws of the land and performs
his office as judge of men and gods. In all his works and
deeds the object of his efforts is the Truth, the same as the
goddess maat, who on this account is his beloved sister
and consort." (Brugsch, rel. und myth., p. 447.)
The "Johannine" doctrine of the creative Logos, by which
were made all things that were made, stands forth most
distinctly in the Egyptian doctrine concerning Thoth. "At
the creation of the world it was Thoth who reduced to
words the will of the unseen and unknown creative
Power, and who uttered them in such wise that the
universe came into being." (Budge, eg. magic, p. 128.)
"Lord of the voice, master of words and of books,
possessor or inventor of those magic writings which noth-
122
THE ANCIENT WORD
ing in heaven, or earth, or in Hades can withstand, . . .
Thoth had accomplished the creation, not by muscular
effort, but by means of formulas, or even of the voice
alone, 'the first time' when he awoke in the Nu, for
primeval chaos]. In fact, the articulate word and the voice
were believed to be the most potent of creative forces, not
remaining immaterial or issuing from the lips, but
condensing, so to speak, into tangible substance, into
bodies which were themselves animated by creative life
and energy; into gods and goddesses who lived or who
created in their turn." (Maspero, hist. of eg., vol. i, p. 208,
209.)
The power of Thoth as the creative Word, and as the
"guide, philosopher and friend" of gods and man, is thus
described by Dr. Budge in his gods of the egyptians, (vol.
i:407-408). "Thoth was held to be both the heart and the
tongue of Ra, that is to say, he was the reason and the
mental power of the gods, and also the means by which
their will was translated into speech; from one aspect he
was speech itself, and in later times he may well have
represented, as Dr. Birch said, the Logos of Plato. In
every legend in which Thoth takes a prominent part, we
see that it is he who speaks the word that results in the
wishes of Ra being carried into effect, and it is evident
that when once he had given the word of command, that
command could not fail to be carried out by one means or
the other. He spoke the words which resulted in the
creation of the heavens and the earth; and he taught Isis
the words which enabled her to revivify the dead body of
Orisis in such wise that Orisis could beget a child by her;
123
and he gave her the formulae which brought back her son
Horus to life after he had been stung by a scorpion."
The great popularity of Thoth throughout the history of
Egypt is easily understood from the fact that he was
preeminently the god of Science and of all sciences, both
human and Divine. Plato, in his phaedrus, relates that this
god "according to tradition, first discovered numbers and
the art of reckoning, geometry and astronomy, the games
of chess and hazard, and likewise letters." And Brugsch
states that Thoth "taught a knowledge of the heavens; he
taught astronomy in connection with astrology, taught
arithmetic and mathematics, the science of measuring the
earth and the fields, chorography,

THE ANCIENT WORD
botany, etc., and was regarded also as the inventor of the
laws of musical harmony." (rel. und myth., p. 498.) In the
inscriptions he is called "he who reckons in the heavens,
the counter of the stars, the enumerator of the earth and
what is therein." He "measured time, counted days,
numbered the months and recorded the years," and in the
Egyptian calendar the first month of the year, and the first
day of each month, were named after Thoth. It was Thoth
who had taught men arithmetic; Thoth had revealed to
them the mysteries of geometry and mensuration; Thoth
had constructed instruments and promulgated the laws of
music; Thoth had instituted the art of drawing, and had
codified its unchanging rules. He had been the inventor
and patron of all that was useful and beautiful in the Nile
valley, and the climax of his beneficence was reached by
his invention of the principles of writing, without which
124
humanity would have been liable to forget his teaching,
and to lose the advantage of his discoveries." (Maspero,
hist. of eg., vol. i, p. 314.) "His knowledge and powers of
calculation measured out the heavens and planned the
earth and everything which is in them; his will and power
kept the forces in heaven and on earth in equilibrium ; it
was his great skill in celestial mathematics which made
proper use of the laws upon which the foundation and
maintenance of the universe rested; it was he who
directed the motions of the heavenly bodies and their
times and seasons; and without his words the gods, whose
existence depended upon them, could not have kept their
place among the followers of Ra." (G. E. i:407-408.) And,
finally, "his pre-eminence in magic naturally led to his
becoming the god of medicine, for magic was fully as
important to the medical practitioners of the Nile valley as
knowledge of remedies." (Wiedemann, rel. of the anc. eg.
p. 227.)
But more important than the invention of all these natural
sciences were the services of Thoth as the first teacher or
reveal-er of all knowledge concerning God and the
worship of him. According to Diodorus, Thoth was "the
first who taught man the proper mode of approaching the
Deity with prayer and sacrifice." "He was the first to
found a system of theology, and to organize a settled
government in the country. He estab-

THE ANCIENT WORD
lished the worship of the gods, and made rules concerning
the times and nature of their sacrifices; he composed the
hymns and prayers which men addressed to them, and
drew up liturgical works." (G. E. i:414.) Thoth is "the
author of the Memorabilia of the gods, the composer of
125
the hymns to the gods and of the curses against Set and
his crew, and he is also the inventor of the magic formulas
and talismans which give protection against the influence
of evil. . . . All these attributes of the inscriptions are in
thorough accord with the unanimous testimony of the
classical writers, who describe the god Thoth as the
founder of theology, of states-craft, and of all the sciences
and the fine arts. According to these writers, Thoth was
the first to teach everything that had relation to the nature
and essence of the Divine; he instituted the State and its
order, wrote the first laws, invented the letters,
differentiated the vowels from the consonants, was the
first grammarian, author of poetry, and at the same time
was the first philosopher." (Brugsch, rel. und myth., pp.
447, 448.)
Closer and closer we approach to a faint recollection of
Thoth as the Ancient Word, as handed down in the
traditions concerning "Hermes Trismegistus," described
in new church life, 1905, pp. 655-657. We will add here
only that the researches among the ruins on the Nile have
abundantly established the title of Thoth, the Egyptian
Hermes, as "three times great" or "thrice greatest," and
that Thoth himself was considered the original author of
the book of the dead, "certain chapters of which he wrote
with his own fingers, as he also wrote the book of
respiration." (G. E. i:409.) "His teachings, which were
engraved on tablets of stone and on the walls of secret
temple-chambers, were afterwards written down on rolls
of skin and of papyrus, and formed a special library
known as 'the Books of Thoth,' or the Hermetic Writings,
the number and titles of which have been enumerated in a
remarkable passage by Clement of Alexandria," (Brugsch,
rel. und myth., p. 448)
The services of Thoth to man were not confined to this
world alone but followed him beyond the grave, even as
126
the Word, and the true understanding thereof is the only
safe guide in the journey of the soul through the varying
states of the world of

THE ANCIENT WORD
spirits. Not only was Thoth "the author of the funeral
books by which the deseased gained everlasting life," but
he, with Anubis, raised up the spirit of man after death
and possessed the power to utter the name of the deceased
in such a way that his new, spiritual body would
straightway come into being in the realm of Osiris." (G.
E. i:401, 402.) "It was after death that man most needed
the help of Thoth; it was Thoth who would restore to him
his speech, teach him to recite the true formulas, and with
Anubis conduct him to the Judgment Hall." (Wiedemann,
rel. of the anc. eg., p. 228.) "As 'king' or 'lord of the
Truth,' Thoth gives to the inhabitants of the deep the rules
for their wanderings in the underworld from the West to
the East. . . . It is he who, as the advocate of Osiris and the
Osiris-man, is helping them to victory over their enemies
in the other world; or, as the inscription states, 'he makes
their voice true;' he 'opens up the Truth, sets lose her
voice,' and lets it ascend to the god of light.'" (Brugsch,
rel. und myth., pp. 447, 448.) It was the formulae of
Thoth that "opened the secret pylons," [gates], to the
resurrected spirit and "provided him with the necessary
meat and drink and apparel; they repelled baleful friends
and evil spirits, and gave him the power to know the
secret or hidden names of the monsters in the underworld,
and to utter them in such a way that they became his
friends and helped him on his journey." (G. E. i:409.)
On the arrival of the resurrected spirit in the dreaded
Judgment Hall of Osiris, his heart is placed in a jar on one
127
of the scales of the Great Balance, and the feather of
Maat, the emblem of truth and justice, is placed on the
other, while Thoth, with his tablet and pen, stands by as
recording angel, to note down the result of the weighing.
It is not called "the weighing of the heart," however, nor
the weighing of the deeds of the man, but "the weighing
of words," utcha metet, (G. E. i:403), for the Egyptians
believed that in the other life the true character of the
spirit would reveal itself in his words. The Lord Himself
also taught this doctrine: "I say unto you, that every idle
word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof
in the day of

THE ANCIENT WORD
Judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by
thy words thou shalt be condemned.". (Matth. 12:36, 37.)
The weighing completed, Thoth with his opened book
finally presents the whole record before Osiris on his
judgment seat, and then "the dead are judged out of those
things which were written in the books, according to their
works."

Chapter XII.
MAAT, THE AFFECTION OF
TRUTH.
Though maat, the goddess of the single feather, is
sometimes described as the female counterpart of Ptah,
she is at the same time the constant associate of Thoth,
128
and this to such a degree that she may be said to be
simply a female Thoth. This, of course, involves no
contradiction in her correspondence, for as Ptah includes
Thoth as the letter of the Word includes the internal sense,
so Maat, the affection of the interior truth of the Word,
includes in her love the letter as well as the spirit of the
Word.
Maat is represented as a woman wearing upon her head a
single ostrich feather, the simple but universal symbol of
truth. Sometimes she is figured with the body of a
woman, but with a feather instead of a head, and she is
also, at times, provided with a pair of wings attached to
her arms. As the goddess of truth and justice she is
occasionally seen with bandaged eyes, like the Greek
Themis, to represent impartial judgment, uninfluenced by
personal considerations.
Like Ptah and Osiris she is always standing or sitting on
the peculiar kind of pedestal which is called maat, after
the name of the goddess, and which has been variously
interpreted as a "flute," a "cubit," or a sculptor's "chisel;"
there seems to be no reason for regarding it as the figure
of a flute, and it would be ridiculous to base the images of
the gods on so insecure a foundation. The idea of a
"cubit" agrees with the conception of maat as a standard
of true measurement, and the idea of a sculptor's "chisel"
connects with the idea of the written Word as the basis of
all internal truth.
"About the meaning of the word maat," says Dr. Budge,
"there is, fortunately, no difficulty, for from many
passages in texts of all periods we learn that it indicated
primarily 'that which is straight', ... a rule, or law, or
canon, by which the lives of men and their actions were
kept straight and governed. . . .
129
p. 107 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT - MAAT,
THE AFFECTION OF TRUTH
The Egyptians used the word in a physical and a moral
sense, and thus it came to mean 'right, true, truth, real,
genuine, upright, just, steadfast, unalterable," etc. (G. E.
i:417.)
The hieroglyphics composing her name include the maat
pedestal, a sickle, an arm, a feather, and a carpenter's
level, as if to signify that the power (arm) of the affection
of truth lies in equitable (level) judgment (sickle)
according to truth (feather), based upon the letter of the
Word, (the pedestal). Her name is often written in the dual
form, Maati, and she is then supposed to represent the
goddess of the South and the North, i. e., charity and faith,
or the celestial and the spiritual. In her dual form she is
always present in the Judgment Hall of Osiris, and the
Hall itself is called "the Two Truths."

Chapter XIII.
OSIRIS, THE GOD-MAN.
Our studies in the Theology of the Ancient Egyptians
have taken us through a course quite similar to the
sequence of subjects in the first chapter of the true
christian religion : "Egyptian Monotheism" corresponding
to "The Unity of God;" Khnemu representing "The Divine
Esse, which is Jehovah;" Amen, "the Divine Existere;"
and Ra, "the Divine Essence:" We then took up Ptah and
Thoth, corresponding to the "Doctrine of the Word or the
Sacred Scriptures" of the Ancient Church, and we shall
130
now present the story of Osiris as prefiguring the Doctrine
of "the Lord the Redeemer."
From the first dynasty to the last Osiris was worshipped
as the national god of Egypt, and it is generally admitted
that the whole Osirian theology was based upon systems
of religious thought and life, long preceding the dynastic
period, and therefore dating from the Ancient Church
itself. To Osiris were ascribed all the attributes of the One
Supreme God who had created all things, and he was
moreover regarded as the only God who was able to
bestow life everlasting, because he alone had the power of
making "men and women to be born again." (Budge, the
gods of the egyptians, vol. i. p. 152.) "These things were
declared of no other god, and no other god united in his
person the attributes of an ethical god, and an almighty
creative god, and a god who was the vivifier of the dead.
The conception of Osiris included the conceptions of
every other god, but the conception of no other god
included that of Osiris." (Ib.) "From hundreds of funeral
and other texts we learn that Osiris was held to be partly
divine and partly human," [or, to speak more correctly,
Divinely Human]. "Unlike any other Egyptian god he
possessed two natures and two bodies, the one divine and
the other human, and two souls, the one divine and the
other human, and two spirits, the one divine and the other
human." (Ib. p. 150.) He alone of all the gods had been
born a man on the earth; here he had redeemed
p. 109 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT - OSIRIS,

THE GOD-MAN
131
mankind from ignorance and evil, but had been
treacherously slain by the powers of darkness. After
death, however, he arose again in a complete and glorified
human body, a body Divine and at the same time human.
As such he "passed into the region of the Underworld,
where he became the judge and god of the dead, and, as
we have seen, was made the possessor of all the attributes
of the sun-god Ra and of the great One God." (Ib.) In
132
other words, to him was given all power in heaven and on
earth and the right to judge the quick and the dead.
The figure and story of Osiris is nothing less than the
Egyptian representation of the original Messianic
prophecy, derived from the Ancient Word, the story of the
Incarnation of the Word

THE GOD-MAN
which was in the beginning with God, the story of the
Lord in His human, the one Divine Person in whom
dwelleth the fulness of the Godhead bodily. "From first to
last Osiris was to the Egyptians the god-man who
suffered, and died, and rose again, and reigned eternally
in heaven." (G. E. ii:126.) He was, par excellence, "the
Lord," and throughout the history of Egypt his name was
used almost as the term "the Lord" is being used by the
members of the New Church.
Numerous attempts have been made to explain the
meaning of the name "Osiris," (in Egyptian As-ar), but
without success, and, says Dr. Budge, "the truth of the
matter seems to be that the ancient Egyptians knew just as
little about the original meaning of the name As-ar as we
do, and that they had no better means of obtaining
information about it than we have." (G. E. ii:114.) The
Egyptologists can derive no etymological light from the
hieroglyphics composing his name -- a throne and an eye
-- a very simple yet baffling combination. As to the
spiritual significance of these signs they are equally in the
dark, for it does not seem to have occurred to them that a
throne always represents Heaven, and the eye is the Eye
of the Heavenly Father, the God-Man who alone sees and
133
reigns in Heaven, the Visible God who is seen in the
heavenly sun.
The figure of Osiris is invariably represented as a human
form in the white shroud of a mummy; his face and hands
are always bare and generally colored a light green; on his
head he wears the white crown of Upper Egypt, bordered
with ostrich plumes; in the hands of his crossed arms he
holds the curved shepherd's crook and the flagellum.
The crown of Osiris is of a form peculiar to himself
exclusively, and is worn by no other divinity unless to
signify a merging with the idea of Osiris. It is an
especially rounded crown of Upper Egypt to represent the
predominating character of the Divine Good, for Osiris
was most especially the good god, the god of Divine
Goodness; sometimes the curved ram's horns of Khnemu
are seen beneath the crown, for Khnemu was said to be
"the soul of Osiris," (G. E. i:1O3; ii:131), even as we
might say that the Divine Esse is the soul of the Divine
Human.
134
THE GOD-MAN
The mummied form on the maat pedestal clearly

represents the glorified Human as the Word fulfilled, the
face and hands bare and green to represent the Divine life
shining through the shroud of the literal sense. The
shepherd's crook or staff is the symbol of heavenly
rewards for the faithful of the flock; and the flagellum or
whip the symbol of everlasting punishment for the
unfaithful. In this connection we must quote the statement
135
of Dr. Budge in his most recent work, osiris and the
egyptian resurrection, vol. i. p. 79: "Osiris was 'the great
Word,' and he was 'the Word of what cometh into being
and what is not.' In other words, Osiris the Word spake
the words through which all things in heaven came into
being from non-existence." In a very ancient version of
the book of the dead, dating from the first dynasty, we
find this eternal "Osiris-Word" uttering the

THE GOD-MAN
following sentence: "I am Yesterday, and I am To-day,
and I have the power to be born a second time," (G. E.
ii:116), -- in substance meaning "I am He who was, and
who is, and who is to come."
The chief title or attribute of Osiris was "Un-nefer," a
word which Dr. Brusch derives from un, "to open, to
make manifest," and neferu, "good things," (rel. und
myth. p. 81), and Osiris was above all the other deities
"the Good Being," the one supremely good, the Divine
Good itself. "We see in him the goodness of the Deity,
which was supposed to have been manifested upon earth
for the benefit of mankind." (Wilkinson, M. C. 4:325.)
THE STORY OF OSIRIS.
Before Osiris came into the world, the Egyptians were
savages and did not know how to cultivate the fruits of
the earth. But "Osiris taught them the art of making
agricultural implements, field labor, the rotation of crops,
the harvesting of wheat and barley, and vine culture. . . .
As he had been the model of a just and pacific king, so
did he desire to be that of a victorious conqueror of
nations; and, placing the regency in the hands of Isis, he
136
went forth to war against Asia, accompanied by Thoth
and Anubis. [Compare the journey of Jupiter and
Mercury]. He made little or no use of force and arms, but
he attacked men by gentleness and persuasion, softened
them with song in which voices were accompanied by
instruments, and taught them also the arts which he had
made known to the Egyptians. No country escaped his
beneficent action, and he did not return to the banks of the
Nile until he had traversed and civilized the world from
one horizon to the other." (Maspero, history of egypt,
i:249.)
No connected account of the earthly life and death of
Osiris has been found among the Egyptian papyri and
monuments. According to Plutarch, in his book de iside et
osiride, Osiris was the son of Kronos and Rhea, who
correspond to the Egyptian gods Seb and Nut. On his
return to Egypt from the foreign expedition of peaceful
conquest, as described above, he resumed his beneficent
reign but was betrayed by his red-headed and evil-minded
brother, Typhon, whom the Egyptians knew under the
137
THE GOD-MAN
name of Set. The latter, who had long coveted the crown
of Egypt and the possession of Isis, now formed a
conspiracy with seventy-two officers of the court and
invited Osiris to a banquet, in the midst of which he
brought in a wooden chest of great beauty and cunning
workmanship, -- probably a highly ornamented mummy
case. This was offered as a present to anyone of the guests
whom it should exactly fit; one after another tried it, but
without winning the prize, but when finally Osiris lay
down within it the conspirators quickly put on the lid,
nailed it firmly down, soldered it together with melted
lead, and then threw it into the Nile, whence it was carried
to the sea. Isis, on learning of her husband's fate, put on
mourning apparel and wandered about the world in search
of the coffin, which she finally found cast up by the sea at
Byblos* in Phoenicia.
Opening the box she found her husband's body which she
tenderly embraced and conveyed to Egypt in a boat. The
body, however, was discovered by Typhon, who on a
138
moon-lit night, cut it up into fourteen pieces which he
scattered in various parts of the Nile valley, but which Isis
subsequently recovered after a long and mournful search.
Later on Osiris returned from the other world, united with
Isis, and became the posthumous begetter of his son,
Horus, who after long battles vanquished Typhon and
avenged his father. Such, when eliminating many
*Byblos means "book," -- an evident allusion to the

Ancient Word. 8

THE GOD-MAN
tedious and fabulous details, is an outline of the story of
Osiris as recounted by Plutarch; other details, relating to
the resurrection of Osiris, are supplied by original
documents in the papyri, of which Dr. Budge presents the
following summaries:
"It is clear from the above passages that the head of Osiris
was cut off, that his body was broken up and its internal
organs separated, and that his bones were scattered. It is
equally clear that his head, bones and organs were re-
united, that his body was reconstituted and restored to
life, and that he had the power to speak, and to command
his followers as he had done when on earth. And by
whom was the reconstitution of the body of Osiris
effected? The texts answer this question, and tell us that it
was by Horus, the son of Osiris, who was assisted by his
four sons." (osiris and the egyptian resurrection, vol. i. p.
70.)
And again we read in the same work, p. 74: "From the
above passage it is clear that Horus did not only collect
139
and reunite the flesh and bones of Osiris, but that he made
him once more a complete man, endowed with all his
members. Having done this, it was necessary to restore to
Osiris the power to breathe, to speak, to see, to walk, and
to employ his body in any way he saw fit." The manner in
which this was accomplished involves another story. The
Eye of Horus had been carried away by the arch-fiend,
Set, and it was only after a serious conflict and by the aid
of Thoth that Horus succeeded in wresting it away from
the enemy. "Now the Eye of Horus contained his soul,
that is to say, his life, and during the period when his Eye
was in the hands of Set he was a dead god." Nevertheless
"Horus restored life to himself by bringing back his Eye
to his body, and he made Osiris to live again by
transferring the Eye to him." (Ib. p. 32.) "When the body
of Osiris was ready to leave this earth for heaven, some
difficulty, it seems, arose in raising him up to the sky, and
a ladder was found to be necessary." (Ib. p. 75.) But
"when Osiris stepped from the ladder into heaven, he
entered in among the company of the gods as a 'living
being,' not merely as one about to begin a second state of
existence with the limited powers and faculties which he
possessed on earth, but as one who felt that he had the
right to rule heaven and the denizens thereof. He
possessed a com-
140
THE GOD-MAN
plete body, the nature of which had been changed by

ceremonies which Horus and his sons had performed for
him; the number of his bones was complete, and every
internal organ and limb were in their place and in a
perfect state." (Ib. p. 77.)
141
The Divine perfection of the Resurrection-body of Osiris
is thus described in a prayer of King Thothmes III:
"Homage to thee, O my divine father Osiris; thou hast thy
being with thy members. Thou didst not decay, thou didst
not turn into worms, thou didst not rot away, thou didst
not become corruption, thou didst not putrefy. [And
therefore] I shall not decay, I shall not rot, I shall not
putrefy, I shall have my being, I shall live, [ shall
germinate, I shall wake up in peace." On this Dr. Budge
comments: "Because the human body of Osiris rose from
the dead, the body of every man could rise from the dead

THE GOD-MAN
also, but man lacked what Osiris possessed, i. e., the
divine body, soul, spirit and nature, which had brought
about the resurrection of his human body, soul, spirit, and
nature." (G. E. i:151.)
The question will arise as to the time and circumstances
under which Horus was begotten and brought forth. All
the Osiris legends agree in representing Isis as being
childless when her husband died, and yet it is Horus, --
her son by Osiris, -- that assists in the Resurrection of his
father. We puzzled long over this problem, until, in Dr.
Budge's most recent work, we found quoted a remarkable
passage in the Pyramid Texts, explaining how Isis
succeeded in obtaining a child by her dead husband: "Thy
sister Isis cometh unto thee rejoicing in her love for thee.
Thou settest her upon thee, thy issue entereth into her, and
she becometh great with child like the star Sept. (O. E. R.
i:93-) Or, as described in a hymn to Osiris of a somewhat
later period:
142
"Thy sister Isis acted as a protectoress to thee. . . . Isis
avenged her brother. She went about seeking untiringly.
She flew, [as a swallow], round and round over the earth
uttering wailing cries of grief, and she did not alight on
the ground until she had found him. She made light to
appear from her feathers, she made air to come into being
by means of her two wings, and she cried out the death
cries for her brother. She made to rise up the helpless
members of him whose heart was at rest; she drew from
him his essence, and she made therefrom an heir. She
suckled the child in solitariness, and none knew where his
place was, and he grew in strength, and his arm increased
in strength in the house of Keb." (Ib. p. 94.)
the interpretation of the myth.
Many attempts have been made to interpret the story of
Osiris, but mostly by the inverted method of trying to
explain a distinctly religious and spiritual myth as hiding
a purely historical and material inner meaning. Some have
regarded this story as a "solar myth," describing the daily
journey of the sun which, as it were, dies each night and
arises glorified in a new day, but the Egyptologists
generally reject this interpretation on account of the
overwhelmingly human and non-solar character of Osiris.

THE GOD-MAN
Others, including Plutarch himself, believed that Osiris
typified "the inundations of the Nile," Isis "the irrigated
portion of the land of Egypt," Horus, their offspring, "the
vapors and exhalations reproducing rain," Typhon, or Set,
"the sea, which swallowed up the Nile water," and so on,
and so on, in endless and muddy profusion.
143
The early Christian Fathers, such as Clement and Origen,
dimly recognized the Messianic import of the legend, and
its prophetic nature is, indeed, self-evident. But it has an
historical sense, as well, not of a personal character, but
one related to the internal historical sense of the Word.
I. its historical meaning. As we have shown before, the
god Ra stands, historically, for a recollection of the
Golden Age, like the Greek Ouranos. Seb, his grandson,
represents the last posterity of the Most Ancient Church,
like the Greek Kronos or Saturn. Osiris and Isis, (like
Jupiter and Juno), are in general the Ancient Church
during and after the Flood; and Set, their malignant
brother, is the profane spirit of the Antediluvians who,
like Typhon and the Titans, tried to destroy the new
religion.
More particularly, Osiris, the beneficent king, teacher,
and civilizing missionary, is the New Divine Revelation,
the Ancient Word, which was given to Noah. It is of
interest to note in this connection that the monuments as
well as the classical writers speak of Osiris as "the first to
drink wine, and he taught men to plant the vine and how
to make and preserve wine," (O. E. R. 1:10), and Dr.
Budge, (in the same work), reproduces vignettes from the
papyri showing a pool of water, near which is growing a
luxuriant vine, extending its branches and fruit to the
figure of Osiris, (Ib. p. 19), -- signs pointing to a tradition
concerning Noah. Osiris, moreover, held Hermes in high
honor and invariably accepted his advice upon all matters.
(Ib. p. 10.) Now ' Hermes, or Thoth, as we have shown,
clearly represents the Ancient Word, and in the first
instance the Book of Enoch, which was the first of that
Word.
The new Revelation given to Noah was the object of
intense hatred on the part of the Nephilim, and their
144
efforts to pervert , and destroy it were the cause of the
temptations of the Noahtic

THE GOD-MAN
Church. At first they sealed up Osiris in a mummy case, i.
e., covered up the living internal truth by the dogmas of a
dead literalism; and afterwards they cut the body of Osiris
into pieces and threw them into the Nile, i. e., perverted
the truth by scientific falsities of doctrine. But Isis, the
interior affection of truth in the new spiritual Church, had
already conceived the essence of the new Revelation, and
in the solitude of the papyrus swamp she brought forth
Horus, i. e., the real spirit of the Divine Word. It was this
Spirit that vanquished the powers of darkness, and when
the understanding of this Spirit, (the Eye of Horus), was
applied to the dead letter of the Word, it rose again,
glorified and Divine in every part, to reign supreme in the
Ancient Church and in the Ancient Heaven.
II. the osiris myth as the supreme messianic prophecy in
the church of egypt. As all the historicals of the Old
Testament are at the same time prophetical, -- all of them
pointing to the Coming of the Messiah, -- so also were the
historicals of the Ancient Word. Osiris, among the
Egyptians, figured not only as a tradition of the past, but
also as the prophecy of the Hope of the Ages. The
Doctrine of the Lord, -- His incarnation, temptations,
works and victories; His death and His resurrection in a
complete and glorified Human body and nature, -- was the
very corner-stone of the Theology of the Ancient Church
in a prophetical sense, even as it is the corner-stone of the
Theology of the New Church in a sense fulfilled. That
Osiris was the Egyptian form of the prophecied Messiah,
was suggested by Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson in his manners
145
and customs of the ancient egyptians, as where he says: "I
cannot attempt to account for the belief of the Egyptians
in the manifestations of the Deity upon earth: similar
ideas have been handed down from a very early period,
and having been imparted to the immediate descendants
of Noah, and the patriarchs, may have reached the
Egyptians through that channel, and have been preserved
and embodied in their religious system." (Vol. 4, p. 185.)
"The dis-closer of truth and goodness on earth was Osiris;
and it is remarkable that, in this character of the
manifestation of the Deity, he was said to be 'full of
goodness, (grace), and truth,' and after having performed
his duties on earth, and fallen a

THE GOD-MAN
sacrifice to the machinations of Typho, the evil one, to
have assumed the office in a future state of judge of
mankind." (Ib. p. 189.) "The existence of Osiris on earth
was, of course, a speculative theory, -- an allegory, not
altogether unlike the 'avatars' of the Indian Vishnoo; and
some may be disposed to think that the Egyptians, being
aware of the promises of the real Savior, had anticipated
that event, recording it as though it had already happened,
and introducing that mystery into their religious system."
(Ib. p. 326.) Dr. Budge, also, recognizes the remarkable
parallelisms between the story of Osiris and the story of
the Christ, and regards the former as having prepared the
way for the reception of Christianity in Egypt. (G. E.
ii:22O.) In conclusion we need but point to all that we
have adduced above concerning the Divinely Human
character of Osiris, and his resurrection in a complete and
glorified body.
146
THE OFFICE OF OSIRIS IN THE OTHER WORLD.
Being himself "Eternity and Everlastingness," it was
Osiris who "made men and women to be born again," the
new birth

THE GOD-MAN
being "the birth into the new life of the world which is
beyond the grave and is everlasting. Osiris could give life
because he was life, -- he could make men to rise from the
dead because he was the resurrection." (G. E. ii:141.) And
the Egyptians believed that the name of Osiris would be
given after death to all virtuous men and women, without
distinction of sex. They would then be "Osiris-men" and
"Osiris-women," because having become regenerated,
147
even as he was glorified, they would in a finite measure
partake of his infinite quality. To represent this Osirian
quality of future angelic companions, the Egyptians
placed in the coffins of the deceased great numbers of
little figures, -- all in the form of Osiris, -- which are
known as Ushabtiu or "Respondents," because they were
to respond for the deceased in the Judgment Hall of Osiris
and afterwards work for him and with him in the Elysian
fields.
As for Osiris himself, he sits enthroned for ever in the
great Judgment Hall which is situated in Tuat, the world
which is intermediate between Heaven and Hell. Here he
is the final arbiter of the eternal lot of men and women,
for all are finally judged according to their reception or
rejection of the Lord.

Chapter XIV.
ISIS, HEAVEN AND THE CHURCH.

Isis, the sister and royal consort of Osiris was the national
goddess of Egypt even as Osiris was the national god, and
this from the earliest dynastic times even to the end of the
ancient religion. The centre of her worship was the
beautiful temple-covered island of Philae, where her cult
maintained itself until the fifth century* of our era, -- the
last dying embers of the Ancient Church.
As the attributes of all the other gods of the Egyptians
were absorbed by Osiris, -- the Divine Man in whom
dwelleth the fulness of the Godhead bodily, -- so his
consort, Isis, absorbed in herself the attributes of all the
other goddesses. "It is manifestly impossible," says Dr.
148
Budge, "to limit the attributes of Isis, for we have seen
that she possesses the powers of a water goddess, an earth
goddess, a corn goddess, a star goddess, a queen of the
Underworld, and a woman, and that she united in herself
one or more of the attributes of all the goddesses of Egypt
known to us. (GODS of the egyptians, 2:216.) For each
goddess represented some specific affection or quality of
Heaven and the Church, and Isis, the "myrionymus," the
goddess of ten thousand names, represents all these
affections or heavenly qualities in one complex, thus
Heaven itself, and the Church itself, as one whole.
Nevertheless, and because of this universal representation,
Isis occupies in the Egyptian Pantheon a position that is
entirely different from any other goddess, for she was
specifically the personification of heavenly goodness
itself, even as Osiris personified the Divine Goodness. Isis
was the great and beneficent goddess and mother, whose
influence and love pervaded all heaven and earth and the
abode of the dead, and she was the personifica-
*From an inscription on the temple of Isis, at Philae, it is

known that her worship continued here until 453 A. D., --
seventy years after Theodosius, by a decree, had
prohibited the old pagan worship in Egypt. (Wiedemann,
religion of the ancient egyptians, p. 219.)
p. 122 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT - ISIS,

HEAVEN AND THE CHURCH
tion of the great feminine creative power which conceived
and brought forth every living creature and thing, from
the gods in heaven to man on the earth and to the insect
on the ground; what she brought forth she protected and
cared for, fed and nourished, and she employed her life in
149
using her power graciously and successfully, not only in
creating new beings but in restoring those that were dead.
She was, besides these things, the highest type of a
faithful and loving wife and mother, and it was in this
capacity that the Egyptians honored and worshipped her
most. (G. E. 2:203.)
The monuments mention, among her innumerable acts of
beneficence, that Isis weaned the primitive people from
their barbarism: she healed their diseases by means of
medicine and words of Divine magic; she united women
to men in legitimate marriages; she taught them to grind
the grain between flat stones, and how to prepare the
bread for the household; she invented the loom by the
help of her sister, Nephthys, and was the first to weave
and bleach linen. (Maspero, history of egypt,1 :249.)
The name of Isis, ("Ast"), has, like the name of Osiris, "up
to the present defied all explanation, and it is clear from
the punning derivations to which the Egyptians
themselves had recourse, that they knew no more about
the meaning of her name than we do." (G. E. 2:202.) "The
symbol of the name, Isis, is a seat or throne, but we have
no means of connecting it with the attributes of the
goddess in such a way as to give a rational explanation of
her name, and all the derivations hitherto proposed must
be regarded as mere guesses." (Ibid.) And the learned and
"authoritative" Prof. Wiedemann observes that "this
throne or chair denotes nothing peculiar to the nature of
the goddess, but is merely the ideagram used in writing
her Egyptian name, the meaning of which is unknown."
(R. A. E. p. 219.)
This professed ignorance as to the meaning of "a throne"
betrays either a woeful lack of imagination or a wilful
ignoring of the simplest evidences of religious
symbolism. The common perception of mankind in all
150
ages has known that a throne signifies Heaven, and the
Bible, the Old Testament as well as the New, is replete
with distinct statements to this effect. "Thus saith
Jehovah, The Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my

foot-stool." (Is. 66:1.) "Swear neither by Heaven, for it is
God's throne." (Matth. 5:34.) We need quote no more, nor
worry as to the philological meaning of the name Isis.
The most common representations of Isis show her as a
woman wearing the queenly head-dress of a vulture,
signifying the protecting care of heavenly love, and in her
hand she carries the papyrus scepter, symbol of the power
of the affection of truth. Above the head-dress she wears
either a throne, or a pair of cow's horns enclosing the solar
disk, or the double crown, or two plumes. Sometimes she
is seen with the head of a cow, and occasionally with a
pair of ram's horns beneath the double crowns. Very often
she is seen standing behind the enthroned Osiris, and as it
were enfolding her husband between her winged arms.
One of the most common representations of Isis- shows
her seated, with the suckling Horus at her breast; this
form, on the introduction of Christianity into Egypt, was
at once identified with the Madonna and the Child, nay,
became the foundation of the innumerable representations
of the "mother of God," with the Child at her breast,
which spread from Egypt into all parts of the Christian
Church. Hence also spread the worship of Mary, whom
the Monophysites termed theotokos, -- "the one who gave
birth to God," -- and so deeply rooted was the worship of
Mary-Isis among the Christians in Egypt that the Coptic
Church there split off from the Catholic Church on
151
account of this heresy, and remains Monophysite to the
present day.
But the Christians in Egypt were totally mistaken in
identifying Isis with the Virgin Mary, as is evident from
the whole myth of Osiris, Isis and Horus. As has been
shown above, Osiris was a prophetic representation of the
Lord in His human, and Isis represents, -- not His mother,
but Heaven and the Church conjoined with Him as His
wife. Isis, it seems, was childless before the resurrection
of Osiris, because there could not be a complete
conjunction between the Church and the Lord until after
the Glorification. Then, after her dead husband had been
restored to life, she was united to Him, and as the result of
their union she conceived her son, Horus, (see G. E.
2:204), who represents the Holy Spirit proceeding from
the Glorified Human.
Osiris having ascended to Heaven, the pregnant Isis was
per-

sistently persecuted by Set, the power of evil and
darkness, and to escape his malignity Isis now fled to the
wilderness, where in a lonesome papyrus swamp she gave
birth to her son. "I, Isis, conceived a man child, and I was
heavy with Horus. I, the goddess, bare Horus, the son of
Isis, within a nest of papyrus plants. I

152
rejoiced over him with exceeding great joy, for I saw in
him one who would make answer for his father. I hid him,
and I concealed him, for I was afraid lest he should be
bitten." (G. E. 2:2O9,) Who cannot see here a prophetic
representation of the Woman in the wilderness, described
in the Apocalypse ?
153
Chapter XV.
HORUS, THE DIVINE
PROCEEDING.
Heru, the Egyptian name of Horus, is said to mean "he
who is above," or "that which is above," but it is also
connected with Hre, the word for "face" or
"countenance," involving the idea that Horus "represented
the Face of heaven, i. e., the Face of an otherwise
unknown and invisible god." (G. E. 1:466.) The
hieroglyphics composing his name are: 1) the sign for the
wind-pipe = h, which also stands for breath or spirit; 2) a
human face; 3) an open mouth = r; 4) a chick = u; and 5)
the head of a hawk, which always stands for a spirit,
whether human or divine. It is possible that the Greeks
hence derived the name of their war god, Ares, (Mars),
who stands for the same idea as Horus, that is, the Divine
Truth proceeding and fighting against evil and falsity.
There are a great many different Horus-gods, or varying
forms of the god Horus, but we will here consider only
the two most important forms: Horus the Elder and Horus
the Younger. Some of the Egyptologists declare these two
to be absolutely identical, while others make them so
distinct from each other as to have nothing in common.
The fact is that both forms represent the Divine
Proceeding, but Horus the Elder stands for the idea of the
Divine Spirit before the Incarnation, while the Younger
Horus was a prophetic representation of the Holy Spirit
proceeding from the Glorified Human of the Lord. Of this
distinction, however, the learned in the Old Church can
have no idea; they do not even suspect that Horus in
either form represents the Spirit of God. But the
theologians of the Ancient Church in Egypt possessed the
154
true Doctrine of the Holy Spirit in definite outline and
with a wealth of details that is to us a source of constantly
growing astonishment.
I. horus the elder, (Heru-ur), whom the Greeks called
Aroeris, is described in the monuments as the son of Ra,
but according to Plutarch, in de iside, he was the grandson
of Ra (Ouranos), and son of Kronos and Rhea, i. e., of
Seb and Nut,
p. 126 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT - HORUS,

THE DIVINE PROCEEDING
and thus a brother of Osiris. In either case, he was of a
generation anterior to that of the Younger Horus, the son
of Osiris and Isis, and seems to be identical with the
Greek Phoebus, the Titan sun-god, whose place was
afterwards usurped by Apollo, just as Neptune came to
occupy the place of his Titan grand-uncle Oceanos.
The Egyptologists have great difficulty in distinguishing
Horus the Elder from the god Ra, from whom he is said to
have "proceeded." According to Maspero, (H. E. 1 :I34),
"Horus and Ra have so permeated each other, that none
could say where the one began and the other ended. One
by one, all the functions of Ra were usurped by Horus,
and all the designations of Horus were appropriated by
Ra." To a Newchurchman this does not present any
unsurmountable difficulties, for Ra stands for the Sun of
the spiritual world, and Horus the Elder is the spiritual
Light thence proceeding; and that which proceeds is and
possesses all the attributes of that from which it proceeds.
The light from the sun is the sun, as far as the human eye
is concerned.
155
The Elder Horus is represented as a human figure with the
head of a hawk, or as a lion with a human head, or the
hawk's head, or simply as a hawk. Above the head there is
a pair of ram's horns and the crown of Upper Egypt with
the two suns, or sometimes the sun-disk with encircling
serpent. The body of the lion represents the omnipotence
of the Divine Truth, and it

was to Horus, in this aspect, that the famous lion-bodied
and human-headed Sphinx of Ghizeh was dedicated. But
the distinguishing and characteristic symbol of Horus is
the Hawk. The Hawk, to the earliest Egyptians, was a
most impressive emblem of that which is high, that which
is above our human earth-bound life, that which is Divine
in the heavens. They knew that all the atmospheres, in
their four-fold degrees, are the Divine spheres proceeding
from the spiritual sun, and constitute the substantial
breath from the mouth of God. And the golden-mottled
156
sparrow hawk, -- sailing swiftly in highest air without a
tremor of his wings, keen of sight, and putting all other
birds to flight, -- naturally became the visible
representation of "the Divine in the heavens," which is the
Divine Truth, the Divine Light, which is ever proceeding
from the heavenly Sun, and which is ever operating to
enlighten the human mind. That the Egyptians had a very
clear conception of Horus as the Divine Proceeding is
evident beyond doubt from the hieroglyphic inscription
which we reproduced on p. 54 of this volume,
representing Horus as "the true and living god,
journeying, journeying, travelling." His being called "the
Face of Heaven," "the Face of an otherwise unknown and
invisible god," is in distinct harmony with the idea of
Horus the Elder representing the Spirit of God before the
Incarnation, for from most ancient times the invisible God
rendered Himself visible by means of representative
angels who were completely filled with the Spirit of God.
II. horus the younger, who was not until Osiris had been
glorified, represents that Holy Spirit "which was not yet,
because Jesus was not yet glorified." In order to
understand the difference between the two forms of
Horus, we must here introduce some teachings from the
Heavenly Doctrine of the New Jerusalem:
"The Spirit of God and the Holy Spirit are two distinct
things ; the Spirit of God did not operate, and could not
operate upon man, except imperceptibly; but the Holy
Spirit, which proceeds only from the Lord, operates upon
man perceptibly, and makes man able to comprehend
spiritual verities in a natural manner, for the Lord united
the Divine Natural to His Divine Celestial and Divine
Spiritual, and He operates through it from them.
157
. . . Hence it is said that 'the Holy Spirit was not yet,
because Jesus was not yet glorified.' John 7:39." (NINE
questions, v.)
"There is no mention of the Holy Spirit in the Old
Testament, but only 'the Spirit of Holiness,' in three
places, . . . but frequently in the New Testament. The
reason is that the Holy Spirit was first when the Lord
came into the world, for it proceeded out of Him from the
Father. . . . Hence it is that in the Word of the Old
Testament it is nowhere stated that the Prophets spoke
from the Holy Spirit, but from Jehovah." (T. C. R. 158.)
"Afterwards, when glorified, the Lord became Divine
Good, even as to His Human; and then, from this,
proceeded the Divine Truth, which is 'the Spirit of Truth,'
or 'the Holy Spirit.'" (A. C. 8127.)
"The reason why it is said that 'the Holy Spirit was not
yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified,' is that while the
Lord was in the world, He Himself taught Divine Truth;
but when He was glorified, which was after the
resurrection, He taught it through angels and spirits. This
Holy which proceeds from the Lord and flows into man
through angels and spirits, whether manifestly or not
manifestly, is 'the Holy Spirit' mentioned in this
statement; for it is the Divine Truth proceeding from the
Lord that is called 'holy' in the Word." (A. C. 9818.)
"Horus the Younger" is a literal translation of the
Egyptian name "heru-p-khart,' which the Greeks turned to
"Harpo-krates," and he is represented in many different
forms, among which we distinguish three predominant
158
types: 1. Horus, the Child; 2. Horus, the Avenger of his
Father; and, 3, Horus as a funerary god.
We have referred to Horus the Child in the story of Osiris
and Isis: how he was begotten of Osiris and conceived of
Isis after the death of her husband; how he was born in a
wilderness of papyrus plants and, like Moses, laid in an
ark made of the papyrus reed; how he was stung to death
by scorpions sent forth by Set, but restored to life by the
magic words of Thoth, or by the power of his own "eye;"
how he afterwards was removed

from his persecutors and grew up to become the
victorious avenger of his father, -- in all of which we
cannot but discern a remarkable likeness to the
Apocalyptic story of the Man-child born by the woman in
the wilderness.
I. Among the numerous representations of Horus the
Child we see him first as a newborn infant on the knees of
Isis; again as an infant springing into existence out of a
lotus-flower which blossomed in the heavenly abyss of
"Nu" at dawn in the be-
159
ginning of the new year; this latter representation is
almost identical with the Hindu pictures of the birth of
Buddha. Another form shows Horus as a child of larger
growth, wearing the triple crown of Upper Egypt; here, as
in all the figures of Horus the Child, he is seen sucking
his forefinger, in the manner of infants, and wears the
conventional braided lock of hair which was the special
mark of infancy. And finally we see him as an infant,
trampling upon crocodiles and strangling serpents and
scorpions in his chubby hands, -- a favorite way of
representing the final victory of Divine Truth over all the
powers of hell.
2. As "Horus the Avenger" the hawk-headed god appears
in
160
a series of significant representations, of which we may
note the following:
a) As the great god of war, in full action; on his head the
double crown, in his right hand a war-club, and in his left
a bow and three arrows, -- a most "striking" picture! (G.
E. 1:474.) b) With ram's horns supporting a five-fold
crown of Upper Egypt; in his right hand an "anch," and in
his left a sickle, -- clearly representing the Divine Truth
executing the final judgment, but judging nevertheless
from Divine love and mercy (G. E. 1:470.) c) Standing
upon an hippopotamus that is bound with iron chains
around its legs and mouth, while the god is driving a long
spear into its head, -- representing the power of evil
conquered and bound by the Divine Truth. d) Horus
without crowns or weapons, but with his right hand
outstretched, in an attitude of teaching and explaining. (G.
E. 1:476.) e) Horus seated, holding in his right hand a
long staff and in his left a bowl containing the simple
crown of Upper Egypt, -- representing the Divine Truth
teaching the good of life out of the Word. (G. E. 1:488.)
3. As the son of Osiris, the great king of all those who had
died, Horus was intimately associated with the idea of
death, burial, and resurrection, -- meaning here the death
of the life of self, and the awakening into the life of
regeneration by means of the Holy Spirit of Divine Truth
proceeding from the Glorified Human of the Lord. Thus
Horus became a funerary god, in many respects identical
with his jackal-headed cousin or brother, Anubis. The
monuments describe him as having taken charge of the
mummification and funeral of his father with such loving
attention that "his filial affection became the pattern
161
which was followed by every pious Egyptian from time
immemorial." We find, however, that Horus was believed
to help the dead generally, even as he helped Osiris, and
all men hoped that he would come to their assistance after
death, and act as a mediator between the judge of the
Underworld and themselves. In the Judgment Scene in the
book of the dead, (Papyrus of Ani, plates 3 and 4), Horus,
the son of Isis, "leads the deceased, after the heart has
been weighed, into the presence of Osiris, and he says to
his

father, 'I have come to thee, O Un-nefer, and I have
brought unto thee Osiris Ani,' and then goes on to say that
Thoth has weighed Ani's heart in the Balance according to
the decree of the gods, and has found it right and true. He
also asks Osiris that Ani may be allowed to appear in his
presence, and that cakes and ale may be given him, and
that he may be among the followers of Horus forever."
(G. E. 1:49O.)
"More than this, however, was done for the deceased by
Horus, for he took the bodies of the dead under his care as
he took the body of his father Osiris into his own hands,
and superintended the performance of his funeral rites and
ceremonies." (Ibid.) In this work he was assisted by four
gods or spirits known as "the Followers of Horus" or "the
Four Children of Horus," which are to us of great
symbolic interest. They are supposed to represent "the
four pillars of heaven," "the four quarters," etc., but to us
they are of far deeper significance. "In the book of the
dead these four children of Horus play very prominent
parts, and the deceased endeavored to gain their help and
protection at all costs, both by offerings and prayers. In
162
the pictures of the funeral procession four men draw along
the coffin containing the mummied intestines of the
deceased, four animals are taken for sacrifice, and all the
instruments used in the ceremony of 'opening the mouth,'
as well as the vases and boxes of unguents, etc., are in
quadruplicate. Even prayers and formulae are said four
times over." (G. E. 1:491.) Each one of these four
"Children of Horus" had his own name and was supposed
to preside over a certain quarter of heaven and to be the
protector of certain viscera, i. e., interiors of man. We
would suggest, however, that they represent something
more than this, viz., the four heavens and the four interior
senses of the Word. The body of each of them is that of a
mummy, (the letter of the Word), but one of them has the
head of a man, another the head of a hawk; the third has
the head of a jackal, and the fourth the head of a
cynocephalus, (or dog-headed ape). The man represents
the celestial heaven and the celestial sense of the Word.
The hawk stands for the spiritual heaven and the spiritual
sense accommodated to the angels there. The jackal, as
we have endeavored to prove, represents the celestial-
natural

heaven, the heaven of obedience, and the interior-moral
sense of the Word. And the dog-headed ape stands, as we
believe, for the spiritual-natural heaven, (p. 48), and the
interior historical sense of the Word, which is the lowest
degree of the internal sense. This interpretation will no
doubt seem fanciful to many, but the key seems to fit in a
remarkable manner.
In the accompanying cut (from G. E. 1:490), the four
"Children of Horus" are seen standing about a funeral
163
chest, from which a resurrected spirit is rising, with the
sign of eternal life in each hand. It will be noticed that the
man and the jackal stand nearest to the awakened spirit,
for these two represent the angels of the celestial
kingdom, who actually assist in the process of
resuscitation, (H. H. 449, 450); while the hawk and the
ape, representing the angels of the spiritual kingdom,
stand further off. In the Judgment Hall the four children
of Horus are seen standing upon a great lotus-flower
immediately in front of Osiris upon his throne, and they
undoubtedly signify the four heavens united in prayers of
intercession for the spirit about to be judged. The whole
scene reminds us forcibly of the "four living creatures," in
Ezekiel 1:10, and of the "four beasts" in Revelation 4:7,
of whom we read, "And in the midst of the throne and
round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes
164
before and behind. And the first beast was like a lion, and
the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face
as of a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle."
Instead of the lion and the calf, two of the "beasts" in the
Egyptian judgment scene are a jackal and an ape, but the
man is the same in both scenes, and the hawk is closely
related to the eagle. The four beasts in the Apocalypse
represent "the Word of the Lord from first principles in
ultimates and its guards." (A. R. 239.) They also represent
"the Lord's guard and providence," (A. E. 277), and
"Heaven as to the Word, for the heavens are heavens from
the reception of Divine Truth through the Word from the
Lord." (A. R. 275.) And "the reason they were four
animals or cherubs was that 'four' signifies conjunction
into one, and they who are in Heaven enjoy such
conjunction." (A. E. 362.) The remaining gods of the
Egyptians are so largely mere variants of the divinities
already described, that their interpretation becomes a
matter of easy solution in the light of the principles here
presented.
165
GENERAL INDEX
Amen-Ra, 69, 74, 76, 77.
Anch, symbol, 11, 13, 15.
Ancient Word, the, 55, 87, 97, 103, 113, 117.
Animals, the Symbolic, 28.
fabulous or composite, 58.
Anqet, or Anukit, 70, 84, 86.
Anubis, 50, 69.
see "Jackal." Ape, 46, 47, 48, 100, 132.
Apis bull, 42, 43, 46.
Arianism, 35.
Ashtoreth, 42.
Aten, II, 69.
Axe symbol, 26.
Baal, 42.
Basket symbol, 96.
Bast, or Pasht, 53, 70, 93.
Beetle, scarabaeus, 37, 91.
Benade, Rev. W. H.. 8.
Bennu bird, 59.
Bes, 69.
Boat, symbol, 25.
Bubastis, 93, 95.
Budge, Dr. Wallis, 26.
Bull, 42, 46.
Calf, 44, 45.
Cat, 51, 53, 95.
Cherubim, 52.
Cleopatra, 34.
Cow, 41.
Crocodile, 58.
Crowns and head-dresses, 16, 17, 18, 19.
Crown of Lower Egypt, 18.
of Upper Egypt, 19.
Cucupha animal, 15.
Cyclops, 82.
Cynocephalus, see Ape.
166
Dagon, 31.
Divine Esse, 71.
Divine Existere, 74.
Dog, 47.
Dog-headed Ape, see Ape.
Eagle, 50.
Education, in Egypt, 37.
Egypt, 34, 38, 67.
origin of name, 87.
Egyptian Pantheon, 69.
Eye symbol, 24, 25, 48, 99, 110, 114.
Feather symbol, 15, 16, 47, 75, 104.
Flagellum, 61, 111.
Foreign gods, 67.
Four children of Horus, 47, 131.
Gnostics, 34.
Harpocrates, 91, 128.
Hathor, 26, 42, 70.
Hawk, 54, 91, 131, 127.
Hephaistos, 90.
Hermes Trismegistus, 103.
Hell-dog, 59, 60.
Hippopotamus, 56, 57, 130.
Horus, 54, 113, 114, 118, 125.
the Elder, 69, 125.
the Younger, 69, 92, 127, 129.
Ibis, 55, 99.
Isis, 70, 86, 121.
and the Madonna, 123.
and Amen-Ra, 75.
and Osiris, 113, 116.
and Ra, 82.
Jackal, 48, 131.
Jackal, in Egypt, 62.
Judgment scene, 47, 104.
Key of Interpretation, 19.
Khem, 69. Khensu, 46, 69.
Khnemu, 40, 69, 71, 110.
Labyrinth, 44.
Lion and Lioness, 51, 93.
167
Maat, 16, 18, 70, 87, 90, 100, 106.
Magic, 102.
Mars, 125.
Menat symbol, 26, 89.
Mendes, ram of, 41.
Mercury, 97.
Messianic prophecy, 109, 118.
Mnevis, bull of, 44.
Monotheism, 62.
Moses, 16.
Mut, 35, 70, 86.
Natural good, 41.
Nebo, 89.
Neith, 70.
Nephthys, 70, 75, 84, 86.
Nut (Rhea), 83.
Obedience, 51.
Origen, 34.
Osiris, 16, 69, 82, 108.
and Apis, 45.
and Noah, 117.
and Seb, 82.
and Tet-pillar, 22.
Papyrus staff, 16, 55.
Phoenix, 59, 79.
Pigmy, 91, 92.
Plumes of Amen, 19, 75.
Polytheism, 66.
Ptah, 69, 87.
and the Eye, 24.
and Khnemu, 73.
and Thoth, 90, 106.
Ptah-Seker-Asar, 91.
Ptah-Tanen, 91.
Ra, 51, 78, 82, 117.
Ram, 40, 41.
Sati, or Satet, 19, 69, 70, 84.
Scarabasus, see Beetle.
Scorpion, 57.
Seb, 82, 117.
168
Seker, 91.
Sekhet, 93.
Serapis, 45.
Serpent, 31.
Set, or Typhon, 56, 57, 59, 69, 103, 112, 117.
Shen symbol, 13.
Shepherd's crook, 16, 111.
Shu and Tefnut, 83.
Sistrum, 96. Sphinx, 52.
Spiritual boly, 59.
Staffs and Scepters, 14.
Sun of Heaven, 79, 80, 81.
Swedenborg, on the hieroglyphics, 7,8.
Tail symbol, 27.
Ta-urt, 57, 70,
Tet-pillar, or tree of degrees, 20, 39.
Toth, 15, 24, 46, 47, 55, 69, 73, 97, 117.
Throne, 110, 122.
Tritheism, 35.
Tuat, the world of spirits, 120.
Uraeus, 31.
Ushabtiu, 120.
Vesta, 95.
Vulture, 35.
169

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The

Published in this LIMITED EDITION SERIES

Printed in the United States of America.

The Bible Speech

THE LION OF JUDAH SOCIETY,

2 According to the best and most accurate interpretation, to date, proposed by

Published in this LIMITED EDITION SERIES

p. 9 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, INTRODUCTION,

P. 10 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, INTRODUCTION,

E. H. H. = Wallis Budge, Egyptian Heaven and Hell.

p. 13 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, THE

*Wilkinson, manners and customs of the ancient

p. 14 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, THE

p. 15 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, THE

p. 16 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, THE

p. 17 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, THE

p. 19 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, THE

p. 20 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, THE

p. 22 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, THE

p. 24 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, THE

p. 26 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, THE

p. 27 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, THE

p. 29 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, THE

p. 30 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, THE

p. 31 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, THE

p. 32 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, THE

p. 35 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, THE

p. 36 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, THE

p. 38 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, THE

p. 39 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, THE

p. 40 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, THE

p. 42 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, THE

p. 43 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, THE

p. 46 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, THE

p. 47 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, THE

p. 48 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, THE

p. 49 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, THE

p. 52 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, THE

p. 53 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, THE

p. 54 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, THE

p. 55 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, THE

p. 57 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, THE

p. 58 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, THE

p. 59 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, THE

p. 60 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, THE

p. 63 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, EGYPTIAN

p. 64 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, EGYPTIAN

p. 65 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, EGYPTIAN

p. 66 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, EGYPTIAN

p. 67 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, EGYPTIAN

p. 68 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, EGYPTIAN

p. 70 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, THE

*religion und mythologie der alten egypter, part II, pp.

p. 72 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, KHNEMU,

creative power. Porphyry states that this god "is

p. 73 CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT, KHNEMU,