The Franklin Files

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RE: The Curse II

Omega · Guru

Those who sought to control elemental spirits through ceremonial magic did so largely with the hope of securing from the invisible worlds either rare knowledge or supernatural power. The little red demon of Napoleon Bonaparte and the infamous oracular heads of de Medici are examples of the disastrous results of permitting elemental beings to dictate the course of human procedure. While the learned and godlike dæmon of Socrates seems to have been an exception, this really proves that the intellectual and moral status of the magician has much to do with the type of elemental he is capable of invoking. But even the dæmon of Socrates deserted the philosopher when the sentence of death was passed.

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THE PAPYRUS OF ANI

The Papyrus of Ani, which was acquired by the Trustees of the British Museum in the year 1888, is the largest, the most perfect, the best preserved, and the best illuminated of all the papyri which date from the second half of the XVIIIth dynasty (about B.C. 1500 to 1400). Its rare vignettes, and hymns, and chapters, and its descriptive and introductory rubrics render it of unique importance for the study of the Book of the Dead, and it takes a high place among the authoritative texts of the Theban version of that remarkable work. Although it contains less than one-half of the chapters which are commonly assigned to that version, we may conclude that Ani's exalted official position as Chancellor of the ecclesiastical revenues and endowments of Abydos and Thebes would have ensured a selection of such chapters as would suffice for his spiritual welfare in the future life. We may therefore regard the Papyrus of Ani as typical of the funeral book in vogue among the Theban nobles of his time.

It contains the hieroglyphic text of the Papyrus with interlinear transliteration and word for word translation, a full description of the vignettes, and a running translation; and in the Introduction an attempt has been made to illustrate from native Egyptian sources the religious views of the wonderful people who more than five thousand years ago proclaimed the resurrection of a spiritual body and the immortality of the soul.

General Description

The papyrus of Ani, was found at Thebes, and was purchased by the Trustees of the British Museum in 1888. It measures 78 feet by 1 foot 3 inches, and is the longest known papyrus of the Theban period.[1] It is made up of six distinct lengths of papyrus, which vary in length from 26 feet 9 inches to 5 feet 7 inches. The material is composed of three layers of papyrus supplied by plants which measured in the stalks about 41 inches in diameter. The several lengths have been joined together with great neatness, and the repairs and insertion of new pieces (see plates 25, 26) have been dexterously made. When first found, the papyrus was of a light colour, similar to that of the papyrus of Hunefer (B. M. No. 9901), but it became darker after it had been unrolled, and certain sections of it have shrunk somewhat.

It contains a number of chapters of the Book of the Dead, nearly all of which are accompanied by vignettes; and at top and bottom is a border of two colours-red and yellow.[2] At the beginning and end of the papyrus spaces of six and eleven inches respectively have been left blank. The inscribed portion is complete, and the loss of the few characters which were damaged in unrolling[3] does not interrupt the text. It was written by three or more scribes; but the uniformity of the execution of the vignettes suggests that fewer artists were employed on the illustrations. The titles of the chapters, rubrics, catchwords, etc., are in red. In some instances the artist has occupied so much space that the

[1 The papyrus of Nebseni, of the XVIIIth dynasty (B.M., No. 9900), measures 76 feet 81 inches by 13 inches; and the papyrus of Hunefer, of the XIXth dynasty (B.M., No. 9601), 18 feet 10 inches by 1 foot 3 5/8 inches; the Leyden papyrus of Qenna, of the XVIIIth dynasty, measures about 50 feet; and the Dublin papyrus (Da of M. Naville's edition), XVIIIth dynasty, 24 feet 9 inches.

All the different sections of the papyrus were not originally written for Ani, for his name has been added in several places' by a later hand. As however such additions do not occur in the first section, which measures 16 feet 4 inches in length, it must be concluded that that section was written expressly for him, and that the others were some of those ready-written copies in which blank spaces were left for the insertion of the names of the deceased persons for whom they were purchased.

The papyrus of Ani is undated, and no facts are given in it concerning the life of Ani, whereby it would be possible to fix its exact place in the series of the illustrated papyri of the Theban period to which it belongs. His full titles are:--

suten in maa an hesb hetep neter en neteru nebu

Royal scribe veritable, scribe and accountant of the divine offerings (i.e., revenues) of all the gods.

mer tenti en nebu Abtu an hetep neter en

The governor of the granary of the lords of Abydos, scribe of the divine offerings (i.e., revenues) of

nebu Uast.

the lords of Thebes;

and he is said to be "beloved of the lord of the North and South" and to "love him". The name of the king thus referred to cannot be stated. That Ani's rank of "royal scribe" [2] was not titular only is shown by the addition of the word "veritable," and his office of scribe and accountant of all the gods was probably one of the highest which a scribe could hold.[3] His other offices of "governor of the granary of the lords of Abydos," and "scribe of the sacred property of the lords of Thebes," further prove his rank and importance, for Abydos and Thebes were the most ancient and sacred cities of Egypt.

Ani's wife.

Ani's wife Thuthu is described as "the lady of the house, the qematet of Amen".[4] What the title "lady of the house

means has not yet been decided, but qemat is the title applied to the noble ladies who sang or played on an instrument in the temple of a god.[1] The lady Thuthu belonged to the number of the priestesses of the god Amen-Ra at Thebes, and she always carries in her hands the sistrum. and the instrument menat, the emblems of her office. Thus Ani and his wife were high ecclesiastical dignitaries connected with the famous confraternity of the priests of Amen.

Copies of the Book of the Dead in the Theban period.

Age of the papyrus.

An examination of the papyri of the Theban period preserved in the British Museum shows that two distinct classes of Book of the Dead papyri existed in the XVIIIth dynasty. In the first both text and vignettes are traced in black outline,[2] the rubrics, catchwords, etc., alone being in red colour; in the second the text only is black, the rubrics, etc., being red, and the vignettes beautifully painted in a number of bright colours. To the latter class the papyrus of Ani belongs, but, if the text and vignettes be compared with those found in any other early Theban papyri, it will be seen that it occupies an independent position in all respects. Though agreeing in the main with the papyri of the XVIIIth dynasty in respect of textual readings, the papyrus of Ani has peculiarities in spelling, etc., which are not found in any of them. The handwriting of the first section at least suggests the best period of the XVIIIth dynasty; but as the scribe forms some of the characters in a way peculiarly his own, the palæographic evidence on this point is not decisive. That the papyrus belongs to the period which produced such documents as the papyrus of Neb-qet,[3] and the papyrus of Qenna,[4] i.e., to some period of the XVIIIth dynasty, is tolerably certain; and we may assume that it is older than the papyrus of Hunefer, which was written during the reign of Seti I.; for, though belonging to the same class of highly decorated papyri, the execution of the vignettes is finer and more careful, and the free, bold forms of the hieroglyphics in the better written sections more closely resemble those of the texts inscribed in stone under the greatest kings of the XVIIIth dynasty. The "lord of the two lands," i.e., of Upper and Lower Egypt, or the North and South, mentioned in pl. 4, is probably one of the Thothmes or Amenhetep kings, and accordingly we may place the period of our papyrus between 1500 and 1400 years B.C.

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Pyramid Text

So that the myths and legends, the history and philosophy, the hopes and fears of people (subjects as well as monarchs) of many hundreds of years were finally inscribed in enduring stone, which over four thousand years removed from our time, may now be read with comparative ease and certainty, thanks to the modern discipline of archaeological research and philology. The extent of this written material may be appreciated in saying that it takes well over a thousand pages of two quarto volumes to contain it. In the standard modern edition of the original text, together with parallels and additions from the pyramids of Pepi II, Neit, and others, there are about 7000 lines, most of which are parallels, of more or less completeness of the estimated 2500 lines, which occur in one or other of the pyramids; for most of the utterances occur in more than one pyramid, but very few are repeated in all these pyramids. Thus, the pyramid of Unis has only two hundred and eight utterances out of a total of over seven hundred and thirty; and they with those of the pyramid of Teti are among the oldest in the collection.

A general idea of the contents of this mass of literary material may be seen in the detailed list of Contents preceding this Introduction; but that does not mean that these texts present a coherent whole, for they do not; and while there are clearly three outstanding elements in them, namely, Solar Theology, Religion and Myths of Osiris, and the Political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt, yet the following seven points may be taken to represent the whole collection with fair general accuracy: 1) A funerary ritual of mortuary offerings, connected with the corporeal reconstitution and resurrection of the deceased king, 2) Magical formulae to ward against harm and evil, 3) A ritual of worship, 4) Religious hymns, 5) Mythical formulae, identifying the deceased king with certain deities, 6) Prayers and petitions on behalf of the deceased king, and 7) The greatness and power of the deceased king in heaven.

These pyramid texts were royal texts, and during the Old Kingdom there is no evidence that the people ever took them to themselves and used them in their own tombs. However, at the end of the Sixth Dynasty, Neit, one of the queens of Pepi II, had them applied to herself, though the second person and third person masculine singular were often used and applied to her; but during the Middle Kingdom the use of them spread to the nobles, and in the New Kingdom parts of them were incorporated in the popular Theban Book of the Dead.

[paragraph continues] And doubtless because of their sanctity little attempt was made to put them in accord with changed circumstances.

When these small pyramids were built and inscribed the age of the great pyramids, like those at Giza, had passed, and with it the sense of royal security after this life. The great pyramids had been entered in spite of their thousands of tons of masonry, and kings came to look elsewhere for the assurance of a happy and glorious hereafter. They turned to religion and magic. By mortuary offerings and funerary rites the deceased king was armed for his future life; and by magic he was endowed with physical and spiritual power, becoming a great god and associating with the gods, to avoid whatever in the world to come might otherwise compromise his destiny. The purpose of these royal texts then was to guarantee the deceased king's resurrection and new-birth, his transfiguration and divinity, his successful journey to heaven, and his immortality there with the other gods. There in heaven as a great god, sometimes as the greatest of all the, gods, the deceased king was believed to be able to overcome all difficulties by his own might, or by identifying himself with other gods.

In the earliest of these texts two very ancient doctrines may be discerned: that of the old heaven-god, perhaps Horus the elder, in which the deceased king as a star was prominent, and that of the sun-god where the deceased as the sun-god was contemplated. But the two were harmonized doubtless at a very early period, when the celestial abode of the heaven- and star-gods became identified with that of the solar deities. But what we do see more clearly in the Pyramid Texts are the two opposing systems of theological thought, that of Rē‘ of Heliopolis and that of Osiris. The Pyramid Texts were largely solar, but long before the texts were inscribed in the pyramids of Sâareh, there existed Osirian texts as well as Solar ones, though there is reason to believe that the learned men and scribes of Heliopolis were the first to make collections of their texts. And gradually as such collections were being made, there was a tendency to include Osirian texts, as well as, an effort on the part of Osirians to facilitate the entrance of their texts into the great Solar collections (cf. Excursus XXVII), with the result that there was a redaction continually going on, in which not only was the name of Osiris introduced into the collections, especially as an epithet of the king, such as Osiris Teti, but also the name of the solar king was introduced into original Osirian texts. However, the great bulk of the texts remained solar and celestial with comparatively little trace of the underworld character of the Osirian faith. There are also traces in these texts of other systems of theological thought than the Heliopolitan and Osirian, namely, those of Memphis and Hermopolis.

As one reads these ancient texts, there is a primitiveness about them which is not unexpected, though they are never naive. There is much repetition, not much order, contradictions, errors, and sometimes what appear to be ridiculous statements, but in spite of all that, real poetic passages and consistent reasoning are not lacking. There is the art to create images, figures of speech, and metaphores in beautiful and choice language. There are paronomasiae, parallelisms, litanies, and hymns. There are poetic expressions, such as 567a-c; real lyrics, like Ut. 362; symbolical expressions, such as 681d; and really fine bits, like 307a-c. There are proverbs, such as 396d; and adages, such as 444e. The most symmetrically and mechanically arranged utterance in the whole collection is Ut. 575, which reminds one of Ps. 119. But the overall characteristic of these texts is their religious and funerary, their magical, mythological, and astronomic expressions, interpretations, and predispositions.

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ANCIENT EGYPTIAN METAPHYSICS

Many requests for me to do some teaching (largely from a book
that I am now writing on ancient Egyptian Metaphysics and Personal
Worship) about metaphysics, worship and the ancient Egyptian trad-
itions. To start off, I want to briefly quote some ancient Egyptian
philosophers to give you the gist of ancient Egyptian philosophy and
Metaphysics. The next note I enter will be on general comments on
ancient Egyptian metaphysics. The material I will use is NOT from
Masonic or Rosecrucian but from authentic Egyptian sources. In many cases I can quote the exact sources, most are translations of papyrus, temples, tombs, etc. Having studied the subject for 33 years, gotten a degree on the subject, and working on the book for 10 years, I will pass on some of what I have learned. All of the translations are from
Egyptologists and Archaeologists. To quote an old Egyptian philosopher (found written on his tomb), Ptah hotep :

"To give a few words of Truth,
And what you make of Them will be your Test."

From the College of Priests House of the Temple of Horus at Edfu:

"The Lamp of Wisdom burns steadily,
If the soil that feeds it be reality.
If the oil that feeds the lamp be Love,
The beloved will meet the Lord or Lady
and be blessed.
(Lord or Lady means personal God or Goddess, ed.)

If the air that feeds the Flame be Truth,
The Breath of He who breathes will inhale Wisdom.

If the Spirit enters the Flame,
The Fire will be as bright as a Star."

Next little lesson; what is a hymn when I mention one or quote
one (which I will from time to time)?

The hymns of Egypt tell of the nature and workings of the God/-
dess they glorify. They mention his /her name and his/her ties to a
locality, allude to the myths and describe his/her appearance and
powers and attributes.

A occult tradition is like a journey. Before one ventures onto
any unknown journey it is best to have an idea of the dangers and
preventive protection. Ancient Egypt had 14 traditions. I will, in
these notes, outline them all.

To share another "wisdom texts" as the ancient Egyptian philos-
ophy is called: This one is from Kagemni, whose tomb can be visited at Sakkara, as is known as one of the wisest men around.
This text is for a student in order for him to select the right
metaphysical teacher.