La historia de la llegada al poder de Giges el Lidio según el relato de Heródoto

Daily life in ancient Egypt encompassed far more than attendance to personal need or social duty. It was an existence intertwined with the perception of and a deep regard for divine life, and a desire to communicate with its powers. We know this from a vast body of writings and illustrated texts that the Egyptians left the world to study through the centuries. The gods, nature, and the con­

science of human beings were viewed as equally decisive in shaping the future, and the conscious participation with these forces was viewed as the supreme ac­

complishment. This was possible not only because of their proximity to nature and the powers it brought, but also because they recognized certain forces within human life that emanate directly from the worlds of creation.

The rhythms of the primeval genesis, where water, light, the patterns of life, and land came into being, established the foundations for the world of life in Egyptian cosmology. As these elements were born, certain forces or powers of

The Legacy ^of Ancient Egypt ¹⁵

consciousness also became manifest, each of them occurring from the creator's articulation of its nature. Besides embodying the powers of the creator, these forces also assumed the identities of divine beings, and came to represent impor­

tant religious concepts in the symbolism and art of ancient Egypt. Of these, some take precedence in the spiritual endeavors that the Egyptians employed to further their imperative to consciously participate in the creative process of the universe.

In the world of Manu, the appearance of the four divine pairs coalesced in an elemental balance called Maat (also the name of the goddess in the ogdoad who represents the culmination of this creative phase). This force permeates all the worlds of creation and dictates the processes found in the natural world. Ab­

stractly, Maat represents divine order, and in the phenomenal world it is the force that ensures the harmonious balance of life despite the conflicts brought by com­

peting powers. In the life of human beings, Maat represents the source of truth and righteousness, and the action of adhering to natural law.

The ancient Egyptians regarded Maat as the supreme guide to harmony with nature and the gods. Depictions in temples of royal persons offering icons of the goddess Maat symbolize a restatement by the monarch to manage the burden of power according to the canon established by the gods. And in the tombs, individ­

uals offer Maat in the form of the deity as evidence of a truthful life and proof of admission into the region of the gods. In these instances, Maat is seen not only as a universal force, but as an individual power that can be dedicated to the har­

mony of the whole.

When the Solar Triad came into being in the world of Manu, a set of sec­

ondary forces emanated from this creative outpouring. Five senses, or cognitive powers, appeared when Ra, the Sun god, assumed consciousness upon proceed­

ing with his creative impulse. The first of these powers is Heka ("magic"), which essentially represents the generative force in the universe when it initially formu­

lated into the elemental substances that constituted the gods. Heka was the first manifestation of Ra, regarded as his Ba ("soul") or visible appearance. But this power is not restricted to him-all of his creations possess some degree of Heka, and it moved into other creative realms as a Neter, the offspring of Khnum and Neit in the triad of Esna.

Heka was regarded as an innate sense in human beings and operates in the human sphere through magical acts. It was viewed by the Egyptians as a natural

Figure 7-The Maati Goddesses: Maat, the Neter of cosmic harmony; manifests in forty-two aspects, each embodying the ideals of Egyptian morality and balance with nature and the gods.

function, like eating and breathing. Heka may be concentrated, transmitted, and depleted in living forms, but it emanates unceasingly from the highest cosmic re­

gions. The concept of Heka in action is embedded in Egypt's tradition of high magic. It is expressed continuously in funerary literature, where the living must employ Heka to avoid the dangers of the unseen worlds, and the dead must use it to journey through the unfamiliar regions of the afterlife in order to meet the gods.

In the temples, copious inscriptions detail every aspect of sacred work-from the physical purifications, the preparation of offerings, the singing of hymns, and the performance of powerful rituals-all done for the benefit of the Neteru. In these instances, Heka is viewed as a natural expression for human beings, one that must be exercised to maintain the bonds between the living worlds and used to extend one's senses into those worlds.

In addition to the liturgical texts, certain types of knowledge were also used to exercise Heka appropriately and commune with the gods. Scent, sound (chant and music), ritual gesture (including dance), and the observation of celestial phenom­

ena were choreographed with the use of sacred literature to evoke the divine pres­

ence into the human sphere. This was seen as an emulation of the cosmogenesis, and could invite the forces of creation to enter the temple. In an Old Kingdom royal text, the monarch is informed of some of the innate powers that the creator­

god endowed to the human race in order to deal with supernatural events:

one used

The Legacy of Ancient Egypt

He made heka for them,

To use as a weapon for warding off occurrences.

And he made them dreams for the night, To see the things of the day.

-Instruction for King Merikara, Dynasty 10

17

Four universal functions or senses followed the genesis of Heka-Sia (innate in­

telligence), Hu (utterance), Maa (sight), and Sedjem (hearing). They are in some instances depicted as passengers or "members of the crew of Ra" in the Solar barque over the sky, symbolizing the appearance of divine faculties that are re­

born with the Sun each day. In other instances, they are a depicted as the genii, or helping spirits of Djehuti and Seshat, the divine chronocrator and measurer, re­

spectively, in the world of Manu.

Sia embodies the qualities of conscious intelligence-understanding, percep­

tion, recognition, and foresight. The Egyptians believed that this function is in­

nate in the living, and endows human beings with the knowledge of their origins and destiny. Sia appears as a bearded man in the Solar barque of Ra, and in some instances with Djehuti and Seshat as one of the "souls of Hermopolis."

Hu is another personification of the Sun god's conscious emanations-he is the authoritative utterance that gives life to the creative urge. In human life, Hu provides the sense of taste, and in the temple he provides one of the divine offer­

ings that feed the gods, djefau. Maa (sometimes referred to as Iri, "seeing") repre­

sents the function of sight, which in the Sun god was fulfilled with one all-seeing eye. Here he emphasizes the significance of attention and observation in the cre­

ative process. Lastly, Sedjem personifies the power of hearing, appearing in the Solar barque at times to serve as the "hearer." The powers of the Egyptian gods were often invoked through a chamber in the temple called "the chapel of the ear," where specific requests were made for healing or relief from suffering. This faculty was especially regarded for approaching the deity through hymns, prayers, and the recitation of its mystic names and being heard.

In the world of Ament, the legend relates that A tum, the creative head of the realm, brought forth the first divine pair, Shu and Tefnut, functions of cosmic wind and moisture, respectively. In doing so, he emanated the initial force that bonded his creations to himself and all that followed-Sa, a cohesive energy that

<](:>� �

Maa

Sight, intuition, clairvoyance

I

Sedjem

Hearing, to harken

II).� _Hu

Taste, authoritative utterance

r �§DB�� _Sia

Perception, understanding

I U � _Heka

Magic, creative impulse

r ���

Maat

Order, harmony, balance

Sa

Universal force, spiritual substance Figure 8-The Names of the Seven Cosmic Powers

The Legacy of Ancient Egypt 19

encompasses the living universe. Known to the ancient Greeks as the aether,' Sa binds creator and the created together, ensuring unity and affinity throughout the phenomenal worlds. But Sa is not only the creative emanation, it also represents the process itself, the outpouring (the same word has the meaning of "son" and

"daughter").

In hieroglyphic representation, Sa represents divine protection, and its image is derived from the floating device used on Nile vessels to protect boatmen from drowning. It is used in the context of "constituting" or "establishing" an action or a place, and in representations of the sky, the Sa is often shown at the center of the pole, to represent the "mooring post" or place of stability in the heavens.

To the ancients, the landscape that these powers embodied requires the par­

ticipation of human beings for its maintenance and continuity. The seven cosmic powers emanated by the worlds of creation were understood to be powers resi­

dent in human life; the awakening and use of these forces constituted the essen­

tial spiritual goals of both temple and tomb.

Maat, the principle of order and harmony, provides pattern and definition to all acts, religious and secular. Heka, the creative force, is imbued in all living be­

ings and was viewed as the means to maintaining and enhancing the divine order.

Furthermore, the Egyptians knew that one dimension of human consciousness is descended from and eternally· connected to the cosmic dimension of the cre­

ation, and this power is transmitted through Sia, the innate intelligence possessed by all sentient life.

Through the power of authoritative utterance, Hu allows the will of the soul to communicate with universal principles. With this, Maa provides the power of observation and knowledge of the unseen worlds, while Sedjem furnishes cog­

nizance of these realms through sound. And ultimately, Sa enables thought to constitute both the will of the individual soul and the will of the creative source, binding them together with what is and will be created.

In all, these powers were recognized as components of the human psyche as well as the created worlds. They convey to the living the same creative impulses as the demiurge and the gods that followed, providing the means to recapitulate the moment of genesis and perpetuate the forces that came into being with it.

3. In Western metaphysics, aether is the psychic substance (etheric force) that constitutes all physical life.

Figure 9-The Neter Taurt Anchors the Polestar with the Sa Marker