The Cygnus Mystery - Unlocking the Ancient Secret of Life's Origins in the Cosmos by Andrew Collins

Author:Andrew Collins
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9781780282237
Publisher: Watkins Media Limited
Published: 2011-05-01T12:00:00+00:00

Fig. 32. Graeco-Egyptian magical gem of unknown date showing the Phoenix as the Benu bird, standing on a crocodile, probably representing Set, the Greek Typhon.

The Festival of Sokar

The connection between Sokar and both meteoric iron and the sun-egg not only demonstrates his stellar attributes, but also his relationship to the northern group of constellations, the ‘Great Ones’ as they were known. In fact, we find that during the festival of Sokar, the king would enter the ‘Halls of Sokar’ and identify with the god, equated already with Osiris, after which he would undergo symbolic funerary rites including the ‘Opening of the Mouth’, through which he was renewed and made ‘triumphant’.19 This celestial aspect of the falcon-headed deity is expressed also in a New Kingdom inscription from the temple of Medinet Habu in southern Egypt, which proclaims, ‘Opened are the doors of heaven, that the god [Sokar] may come forth’,20 which exactly echoes the understanding of Cygnus as the Bird’s Foot constellation by the native peoples of North America.

During this event the pharaoh, symbolized by a statue of Sokar, would be taken aboard the henu-barque, the falcon-god’s personal vessel, which sported a conical roof on which was mounted a falcon head, as well as an antelope head prow that gazed backwards at a ceremonial ‘chapel’ or cabinet. The statue would remain in its own ‘room’ as the barque was paraded on a sled around the boundary walls of the city or temple complex in question. After ten days of ceremonies and processions, the festival would climax with the symbolic resurrection of Sokar, reflected in the inevitable transition from death into new life that the king would ultimately make.

Gatekeeper in the Darkness

Unquestionably, the henu-barque was the role model for the later solar barques that enabled the deceased to reach the afterlife. Both at Giza and at Abydos (the great cult centre of Osiris and necropolis in southern Egypt), large numbers of boat burials have been unearthed in specially dug out pits, positioned next to tombs or pyramids. Entire seagoing vessels were placed in the ground, either whole or dismantled. It was a practice that went back to the very foundations of Dynastic Egypt, and clearly it was believed that those interred in the accompanying tombs could use the astral doubles of the boats to reach the sky-world.

However, before this great voyage could be undertaken the soul of the deceased in ancient Egypt had first to go underground in order to navigate the mythical realm known as the Duat, or underworld, which resembled a labyrinthine cave system. Personified as the sun-god, or as the mummified Osiris, he or she was required to traverse twelve divisions expressed in terms of the twelve ‘hours’ that the sun takes to journey from dusk till dawn. Clearly, these were not real-time hours, merely symbolic periods lengthened or shortened depending on the duration of the night.

In the Duat’s chthonic realm – which was thought to exist both underneath the earth, where the sun was seen to go during

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