Chasing Ancient Pentagrams Part II: The Quintessence - The Egyptian Duat

An Egyptian limestone panel, 400-200 BC / Metropolitan Museum, New York

"The Star which guided them is that same Blazing Star, the image whereof we find in all initiations. To the Alchemists it is the sign of the Quintessence; to the Magists, the Grand Arcanum; to the Kabalists, the Sacred Pentagram."

- A reposting of a quote (see Halloween post) via Albert Pike, a 19th century American Freemason.

While Pike doesn't specifically mention the ancient Egyptians in the quote above, and, while the Egyptian's 5-fold star wasn't technically a pentagram, the five-fold star inscribed within a circle (essentially a pentacle) was a crucial symbol in their world. It symbolized the Afterlife or Underworld; that is, the Duat, the medium in which a departed soul was judged, and a dimension in which there was no day or night. The Duat was the home of some of its most important gods: Osiris, Anubis, Thoth, Horus, Hathor, and Maat. The sun-god, Ra, also passed through its regions every night in his solar barge.

In the large image (carved in relief) above, two baboons are worshiping the Duat, which hovers above the scarab - a sun symbol often used as a talisman for protection and placed inside a mummy's shroud - which, in turn, is set above the sun, placed here beneath the Duat.

(Note: Compare this design with the Kabbalistic tree-of-life inset right. Although not an actual match, there is a certain likeness in the way the elements are placed.)

This relief has a number of Underworld motifs... the most prominent being the pair of baboons facing each other. Baboons were said to be sacred animals in the Egyptian pantheon, and when depicted singly represented the great ibis-headed god, Thoth, a lunar god, who, in a sense, was Ra's (or Re's) counterpart.

In some tales, Thoth (inset left) was self-created at the beginning of time and, as an ibis, lay the cosmic egg that holds all of creation.  In others, he was thought to have created the art of writing and the calendar. He was also the god of both mathematics and magic and served as a scribe in the Duat.  Moreover, he had the ability to control space and time!

Above is a beautiful artifact which also features a set of baboons facing each other across a large scarab. Each wears the lunar crown of Thoth, however, so, we might assume that symmetrical pairs of baboons also portray Thoth. Note the small star (Seba) symbols embellished on the bar above them; it is likely they represent the night sky.

Returning to the larger image, there are what appear to be (Greek) Omega symbols over the primates' heads, but, these are likely to be shen rings - associated with Horus and his mother, Isis - which symbolized power, protection and, (eventually) eternity. This shen ring (at the Metropolitan museum in New York) inset right was found as a talisman alongside the mummy of a prosperous Egyptian, circa 1800 BC.

Note also the two Wedjats encircled by the baboons' arms. These are the twin (lunar) Eye(s) of Horus - one of which often accompanies images of Thoth - and used singly or dually represent healing and regeneration. They were also frequently used as talismans of protection for both the living and the dead.

Oddly enough, the Wedjat (also later referred to as the solar Eye of Ra) is also the name of the ancient goddess of Lower Egypt, the cobra goddess, Wadjet (or Wedjat)...

The vulture goddess, Nekhbet (left), the Wadjet or Wedjat), and the cobra goddess (right) of the same name.

Above we see the cobra goddess (right) with her sister, the vulture goddess, Nekhbet, goddess of upper Egypt (left). From Crystalinks:

"Eventually, Wadjet was claimed as the patron goddess and protector of the whole of Lower Egypt and became associated with Nekhbet, depicted as a white vulture, who held the same title in Upper Egypt. When the two parts of Egypt were joined together, there was no merger of the deities as often occurred, both beliefs were retained and became known, euphemistically, as the two ladies, who were the protectors of unified Egypt. After the unification the image of Nekhbet joined Wadjet on the crown, thereafter shown as part of the uraeus.

The ancient Egyptian word Wedjat signifies blue and green. It is also the name for the well known Eye of the Moon, which later became the Eye of Horus and the Eye of Ra as additional sun deities arose. Indeed, in later times, she was often depicted simply as a woman with a snake's head, or as a woman wearing the uraeus. The uraeus originally had been her body alone, which wrapped around or was coiled upon the head of the pharaoh or another deity."

Source-links: The Wedjet photo inset upper left. The Eye of Horus  photo inset right. Both were possibly used as amulets for protection.

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"The Egyptians had extended knowledge of the night sky and the stars above. The circumpolar stars (the set of stars that seemed to "orbit" the North Star through the course of the night and thus never dipped below the horizon) were called the "Imperishable Ones"... The Egyptian symbol for the stars was a five-pointed line drawing, resembling the sea stars (aka "starfish") that inhabited the Red Sea. In older examples, the drawing has rounder ends and the center is marked by two concentric rings...

The infinite and unchanging nature of the stars overhead influenced the development of the Egyptian calendar and their beliefs regarding life after death. Every Egyptian temple was a complex model of the cosmos and thus many images of the stars, constellations and stellar deities grace temple ceilings. In instances where the night sky was charted on the ceiling, brighter stars were sometimes designated by circles - like the sun disks. In decorative uses, the sky hieroglyph and the body of the sky-goddess Nut was decorated with five-pointed stars.

It was believed that the stars did not just inhabit this world, but in the Duat (land of the afterlife) as well. The Egyptians believed that the ba might ascend to the sky to live as a star in heaven. Many tombs also featured deep blue ceilings dotted with bright yellow stars in the exact image of the hieroglyph in hopes to make the ba feel at home in its new dwelling place. The stars were called the "Followers of Osiris" and represented the souls in the underworld. The five-pointed star within a circle was the Egyptian symbol of the Duat."

- Taken from an online Egyptian mythology page, this quote addresses a somewhat controversial issue among archaeologists regarding the Egyptian interpretation of a pentagram. Was it derived from a similarly shaped sea creature? The certain species of starfish sited is one possibility, but the first thing that came to my mind when I took a good look at it, is the enigmatic 5-fold pattern decorating  a sand-dollar. (Inset left, above.)

But, then again, I've seen certain knots in wood that bring to mind the Eye of Horus (inset left). Maybe it's more of a pattern recognition thing or an artistic argument. In which case, the Egyptian artists may have taken their inspiration from nature. This is not an unheard of thing for an artist to do. One of my most deeply inspired encounters with nature was with another marine animal, the comb jelly... But, does this mean anything?

Dustin Jon Scott puts in a few interesting words, referring to the Duat star as the Nefer Seba:

"Possible meanings of the Nefer Seba include: star, door, portal, (sacred) opening, instruction, to teach or to instruct, school, pupil, and, in the transcription of foreign words, the letter S. The five points of the pentagram are said to have represented the five elements: earth, air, fire, water, and ether (or spirit).

While it is claimed that the Nefer Seba was actually a stylized starfish, the association of this symbol with the deceased and the association of deceased pharaohs with the stars makes this claim extraordinarily dubious; the hieroglyphic usage strongly indicates that it was intended to be a star, albeit of a wholly disparate design from those of the Chaldean variety. This is further supported by the fact that Pythagoras, the presumed father of the modern pentagram, claimed to have been inspired by both Egyptian and Babylonian pentagrams in creating his Pentalpha. The comparison to the starfish should not lightly be disregarded, however, as the Egyptians believed that all life sprang from the sea; the starfish-pentagram, if that is truly what this pentagram is, can therefore be concluded to represent the Earth-womb and therefore the Underworld as a whole, bringing us back to its association with the deceased in a cosmological model so deftly illustrated by the Ankh; "As Above, So Below, as the first line of The Emerald Tablet by Hermes Tresmagistus is so often paraphrased. Such multi-layered symbolism is common in occultism as well as ancient mythology."

Above is a of a pair of stars with what appear to be portions of the Duat circle positioned above them. The arc on the left has been cut precisely in half and would represent 36 degrees; the other, 72. Is this a mathematical symbol for a fraction or a ratio, or some other form of measurement?

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"The number of 'love', the number sacred to Pythagoras, the number symbolized by pentagon and pentagram, which commanded the proportions of the Gothic cathedrals, played a crucial but subtler role in Egypt. Apart from the hieroglyph of the five-pointed star, we find no overt instances of five-sided figures. Instead, Schwaller de Lubicz found the square root of Five commanding the proportions of the 'Holy of Holies', the inner sanctuary of the Temple of Luxor.

Egypt also made extensive use of the Golden Section which... commands the flow of numbers up to Five. The pentagram, made up of Golden Section segments, is the symbol of unremitting activity; Five is the key to the vitality of the universe, its creative nature. In mundane terms, Four accounts for the fact of the sculptor's statue, but does not account for the 'doing' of it. Five terms are required to account for the principle of 'creation'; Five is accordingly the number of 'potentiality'. Potentiality exists outside time. Five is therefore the number of eternity and of the principle of eternal creation, union of male and female — and it is for this reason, and along these lines of thought, that the ancients came to hold Five in what looks to us like a peculiar reverence..."

"In Egypt, art, science, philosophy and religion were aspects or facets of a complete understanding, and were employed simultaneously: there was no Egyptian art without science, no philosophy that was not religious. Central to this complete understanding was the knowledge that man, through his faculties and physique, represented the created image of all creation. And Egyptian symbolism and all measures were therefore simultaneously scaled to man, to the earth, and ultimately to the solar system."

-  Two separate quotes from The Serpent in the Sky by John West (1993).  The figure (inset right) above - also found in the book - was one element of a golden shrine in the Tomb of Tutankhamen. West interprets this image and the "complex and particularly enigmatic funerary text" accompanying it as astrologically related. However, the presence of the ba in the image might indicate the ba-soul's return to the celestial firmament as a shining star.

Also, Schwaller de Lubicz - mentioned (and highlighted) in the quote was quite an interesting character, and his story just happens to dovetail with another enigmatic character dealt with in a previous post mentioned recently: alchemist and artist, Julien Champagne.

"Between 1913 and 1916, Schwaller frequented the French branch of the Theosophical Society and, in a much more clandestine manner, participated in the then-flourishing Parisian alchemical revival. In 1913, an artist, alchemist and inventor by the name of Jean-Julien Champagne (1877–1932) approached the young Alsatian in the Café Closerie des Lilas in Montparnasse. After Champagne made initial contact with Schwaller, a more covert meeting was arranged during which Champagne revealed that he was in fact ‘Fulcanelli’, insisting that this double identity (and Schwaller’s subsequent contact with him) remain an absolute secret. The two agreed to begin collaborating on alchemical matters, and before long, they formed a working relationship that would span almost twenty years. The exclusive focus of this alliance was the secret technique behind the blues and reds of Chartres and the earliest Gothic cathedrals—the creation of alchemically stained glass. In Parisian alchemical circles, this endeavour was regarded as an experimentum crucis of the alchemical opus itself, tantamount to the realization of the philosopher’s stone." (Found here.)

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Fragment of a panel with the (partial) image of the Egyptian goddess Sopdet.

"It is likely that New Year’s Day (30.8.214) originally was associated with the heliacal rising of the brightest star in the night sky, Sopdet (also known by its Greek name of Sothis or Latin name of Sirius). In Egypt, this star reemerged after a seventy-day sojourn beneath the horizon at about the same time as the first signs of the annual Nile flood that brought the life-giving waters down from the highlands of Ethiopia. The correlation between Sopdet and the New Year is based in part on an ancient text (from ca. 2500 B.C.) that reads: 'It is Sopdet, your daughter whom you love, in this her name as Year”; an inscription from the New Kingdom that mentions the rising of Isis-Sopdet on the morning of New Year’s Day (ca. 1250 B.C.); and a reference to Isis-Sopdet from the much later temple at Dendera (late first millennium B.C.), which says specifically that the years are 'reckoned from her shining forth.''

-  A quote via this Met  Museum page regarding what seems to be, simultaneously, both the goddess Sopdet (Greek: Sothis) and the star Sirius.

Above, inset right, is one of a number of possible hieroglyphic interpretations of the name; this one may be representing Sirius singly, while others - featuring a seated goddess figure - specifically represent Sopdet (inset left, with the Duat star above her head).

When I first laid eyes on the three symbols, had the triangle been a golden one - similar to the triangle in this interpretation - I would have immediately identified it as a cartouche for the pentagonal golden spiral! As it is, the three most important geometrical elements just happen to be there.

Meanwhile, I found a page online which states that the cartouche represents Sirius in the form of the Egyptian trinity, namely, Osiris/Isis/Horus... and was "embedded in some of the most important structures of the world" (presumably, by Freemasons).

While I don't buy the Egyptian trinity connection, I did wonder about the Masonic connection. Lo and behold, I found some confirmation within a quote by the afore-mentioned Albert Pike from his (previously mentioned) Masonic tome (see: the last footnote found here). The quote below can be found on the Gutenburg site (hidden in this page) and reads:

"To find in the BLAZING STAR of five points an allusion to the Divine Providence, is also fanciful; and to make it commemorative of the Star that is said to have guided the Magi, is to give it a meaning comparatively modern. Originally it represented SIRIUS, or the Dog-star, the forerunner of the inundation of the Nile..."

Translation: Originally, the Masonic "Blazing Star" was Sirius.

Go figure.

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Sirius is the largest star at the bottom of the photo. It is also at the apex of the Winter Triangle.

(11/18/22)  And, so, we come to the end of the Egyptian leg of our pentagonal journey... one I didn't originally anticipate! No, not at all. But, that's a rabbit hole for you. Take a little detour and - bingo! - a tad more "pay dirt"... and a couple of eye-openers to be sure...

... and, more mystery.

That being said, I offer no real analysis of this material... it's just additional information to what has become a rather immense, weird inquiry regarding the pentagram and Phi. Sadly, uploading information on the web has become as harrowing an experience as finding information on the web. I might be repeating myself here, but, the 21st century "information highway" is no more than a strip-mall for frenzied consumers with a lot of flashing $-signs but little-to-no valuable content. More to the point, this blog has become, yet, another 20th century relic.

Time to move on!

However, rest assured, this obsolete blogger (moi) will diligently continue to the very end of this series... and Part III of Chasing Ancient Pentagrams... is on the horizon. 

A different triangle.

For David Bowie fans (and freaks) only, a related story: Osiris is a Black Star.

Next up: 

Chasing Ancient Pentagrams Part III: The Quintessence -The Fellowship of Pentalpha