We are all living in the light. All life came forth from the activity of light on the elements of this planet, creating the conditions for the emergence of life in the smallest organisms. As subsequent advanced and highly complex creatures in the evolutionary stream, we humans continue to be maintained by this light.The Ancient Egyptians had a profound understanding of the nature of light and how one could live in the light, and furthermore, how one can become light. This article will explain their concept of light in both physical and metaphysical terms, and note its significance in their understanding of human life in our universe. To align ourselves with the Ancient Egyptian philosophical mindset we shall review some of its basic tenets.
The first tenet pertains to their view of life and death. We moderns regard the afterlife, following the death of the body, as a spiritual state that has a separate existence and final point. However, the Egyptians saw each individual life as a continuation of three states- the earthly existence, which was the start of the journey into the Duat, and which included experiences in the second stage of one's life, and the third stage which followed the final transformation of the individual into a 'Light Being' in the Cosmos. Thus an individual life was seen as a continuity over three dimensions, and furthermore, as a necessary agent in the continuity of the creation.
The second basic tenet relates to their concept of reality. The Egyptians lived with an awareness of a reality that is best described by the term imaginal reality. This reality is what is 'imaged' in your consciousness; it may be derived from the subconscious or from images obtained by contact with entities or events of another, non-physical world. It is not imaginative, for imagination is what you consciously or unconsciously create following the desire of your mind. 'For the Egyptians, the agencies and powers that can be reached through contact with the imaginal world are more potent than anything merely physical, because through them physical reality can be transformed', states Jeremy Naydler(2007,p.31).
Robert Clake gives this realm further definition; 'The Egyptians knew this other reality was not basically physical... So, despite not being solid like the Earth, it nevertheless definitely existed and was just not a matter of belief or postulation with them. In fact, it was the way of life eternal and is the way was even more real than earthly existence'(2005,p.72).
Stated in terms of the Theban cosmogony, the Creator was described as a Being (Amun) who was an unmanifest aspect of all existence, specifically a nameless, formless Being of Light that was the source of all that is manifest. So here we find light used to describe the nature of the Creator. Light describe the act of union between the spirit and matter in the act of manifestation. This Light pervaded two worlds, the spiritual, divine or heavenly world and that of the world of matter. At the human level this is what gives us self illumination or consciousness.
Thus there existed a reverent feeling for the Cosmos as sheltering a spiritual world, a different kind of reality from the mundane world that we see with our physical sense. Geographically the Egyptians saw their life's journey as one life extending over three periods; life on Earth(Ta), life in the netherworld (Duat), and life beyond that in Heaven(Pet). The transition proceeded from one phase to another. In the first phase , having served its time on Earth, a person's physical body ceased to function and its soul elements were released. This immaterial part then continued its life's experience in the Duat, which was the second phase. In the third phase the soul elements(soul personality), after being reborn as Akhs (shining lights or spirits),were then assigned to hold a place as gods among the imperishable stars, or to become servants of Ra in his daily journey through the upper and lower worlds, or to live as if they were living on Earth, but more pleasantly in the Field of Aaru. Each person's destiny, after life in this world of Daut, was to become a Light Being, a container and a giver of inner spiritual illumination. The experience were all of the same reality, but were at different level of consciousness. The Light was strongest in Pet, for Heaven was where they had come from and where the must return.
Into this model we have to fit another concept, the Akhet, which, to Egyptians, was a transitional and transformational place or point in their destined journey. The root word Akh means one who is 'light' or 'shining'. The term Akhet, usually translate as 'horizon' because this was where the sun's light frist shone, was also a 'place' of spiritual transfiguration after one traveled from sunset to sunrise in the darkness of the Duat. Reaching this point at dawn indicated that one was ready, having survived the ordeals and joys of the Duat, to live in anew, spiritual world. It was the place where, or the moment when, the Light Being' was created.
We can understand why the Pharaoh Khufu named his pyramid Akhet to represent his place of transformation. it may also tell us why Pharaoh Amenhotep IV changed his name to Akhenaten( Brilliant light of Aten) and why he called his city Akhetanten (Place of Light or Place of Transformation). Akhenaten's new solar manifestation of the original God Aten was made into Ra's most sentient aspect , the sun god's visible body or light energy. The cult of Aten centered on the worship of the life force and energy emanating from the sun. In time, the power of the god Aten and the pharaoh had himself become the source of celestial light.
On a mystical level, and by his example, was he not trying to point out that he visible sun was the most obvious sign of the presence of his Light 'in potential' within everyone? We see the sun disc most of the day, and lose sight of it at night. However, it is our destiny to be in the eternal Light, to become an Akh-Being, combining all other spiritual components of the person to make real the potential Akh-Being. This would be the ultimate mystical experience unity with the divine.
The Duat is normally invisible to us; when the body is dead, the immaterial elements continue life's journey through the Duat. It is a predominantly watery world, boggy, and topsy-turvy , a world inhabited by spirits. The human spirit must negotiate its way, and try to gain power over this world, with its own effort, and with some help from other spirits. The Duat is a spiritual dimension full of Beings- the dead, helping spirits, various gods, as well as formidable opponents who obstruct one's way. It present many challenges, for it is a dangerous world, and to negotiate it requires knowledge and skills, and some magical power.It is a place of purification, a necessary condition for the transformation to occur in Akhet.
Mystics past and present have repeated that shifts of consciousness can transport us across different dimensions of reality. Such shifts were know and experienced by initiates of the mystery school in Ancient Egypt. In fact, priest-initiators were able to induce state of consciousness in neophytes to help them face the realities of the Duat and reach the Akhet stage and bring about their transformation into Akhs or Being of Light.
To take one example, in the pyramid text of unas, utterance no 260, it is stated that after the pharaoh had participated in 'secret rite' in which his limbs underwent the Osirian dismemberment, rememberment and eventual rebirth, the pharaoh, with his limb reunited, went forth as an Akh or Living spirit'. Unas, presumably, knew that he was going to be one of the luminous, celestial Being after his initiation in his present life.
In the New Kingdom Texts, the deceased, or a living candidate seeking initiation into the Egyptian Mysteries, proceeded through the Duat and absorbed the experience of the sun god, Ra, the source of Light,as he passed through the Netherworld. Every day Ra's Light diminished in the west, but illumined the darkness sufficiently to reach the breakthrough point at Akhet in the East, where he was reborn in all his glory as the god Khepri, recharged to resume his cyclic journey through the world above and below.
Another example of bestowing the initiatory experience is found in the coronation inscription at Karnak where the living Pharaoh Thutmose III is depicted as 'transforming himself into a falcon and then being taken up into the Akhet, where he communes with the Sun God Ra, becoming infused with Ra's akh power. ' The connotation of the word Akh in the inner illumination as well as the primordial creative power. Used in the initiatory sense, the Akh might best be translated as 'an enlightened being". one whose consciousness has become open to the reality of the spirit world'(ibid.p.254)
Akhs can meet each other in the other world, and even in the one at heightened levels of consciousness. Perhaps this is similar to a belief that enlightened mystics, easily bridging the various dimension of reality, can recognize one another wherever they meet.
The journey through the Duat, as narrated in the New Kingdom is the Amduat and the introduces a further refinement of this transitional phase. The sun god, Ra, passes successfully through the twelve chambers of the Duat and on the completion of the twelfth chamber he is lifted up from the waters of Nun,reborn in the resplendent, shining state of Khepri. He is boldly to bring light upon a world that has been plunged into darkness through the night. There were the processes of Akhet. Every Pharaoh or initiate was expected to join and assist him on his night journey and eventually earn his right to take his place with the gods or serve in Ra's boat, as a co-worker in the maintenance of the creation.
We may find thios Egyptian understanding of life in this universe of great value to us. To be Light Being means you are generator of Light. You cannot keep the Light to yourself. To the Egyptian, the stars spread across Nut's body were manifestation of the unseen inner Light beyond. Your main value in your earthly sojourn as a Light Being is to bring this starlight to shine on others and, in cooperation with the main source of Light, spread the Light all over the universe. After all, as a human, you have the responsibility to assist in the Creation, for the creation us an ongoing process, a process that begin when Light first broke through a dark, amorphous watery mass.
If you were an Ancient Egyptian, you would not be happy to be just the receiver of Light. You would be living in the light and you would be yearning to be the light. Your entire journey on the three planes would reflect this purpose and your destiny.
And that is the Egyptian way of living in the Light. that is how we can become the Light, even as we try to survive, semi-blind, in our present secular, materialistic culture that relentlessly detaches us from our true nature and leaves us in darkness,
The first tenet pertains to their view of life and death. We moderns regard the afterlife, following the death of the body, as a spiritual state that has a separate existence and final point. However, the Egyptians saw each individual life as a continuation of three states- the earthly existence, which was the start of the journey into the Duat, and which included experiences in the second stage of one's life, and the third stage which followed the final transformation of the individual into a 'Light Being' in the Cosmos. Thus an individual life was seen as a continuity over three dimensions, and furthermore, as a necessary agent in the continuity of the creation.
The second basic tenet relates to their concept of reality. The Egyptians lived with an awareness of a reality that is best described by the term imaginal reality. This reality is what is 'imaged' in your consciousness; it may be derived from the subconscious or from images obtained by contact with entities or events of another, non-physical world. It is not imaginative, for imagination is what you consciously or unconsciously create following the desire of your mind. 'For the Egyptians, the agencies and powers that can be reached through contact with the imaginal world are more potent than anything merely physical, because through them physical reality can be transformed', states Jeremy Naydler(2007,p.31).
Robert Clake gives this realm further definition; 'The Egyptians knew this other reality was not basically physical... So, despite not being solid like the Earth, it nevertheless definitely existed and was just not a matter of belief or postulation with them. In fact, it was the way of life eternal and is the way was even more real than earthly existence'(2005,p.72).
Stated in terms of the Theban cosmogony, the Creator was described as a Being (Amun) who was an unmanifest aspect of all existence, specifically a nameless, formless Being of Light that was the source of all that is manifest. So here we find light used to describe the nature of the Creator. Light describe the act of union between the spirit and matter in the act of manifestation. This Light pervaded two worlds, the spiritual, divine or heavenly world and that of the world of matter. At the human level this is what gives us self illumination or consciousness.
Thus there existed a reverent feeling for the Cosmos as sheltering a spiritual world, a different kind of reality from the mundane world that we see with our physical sense. Geographically the Egyptians saw their life's journey as one life extending over three periods; life on Earth(Ta), life in the netherworld (Duat), and life beyond that in Heaven(Pet). The transition proceeded from one phase to another. In the first phase , having served its time on Earth, a person's physical body ceased to function and its soul elements were released. This immaterial part then continued its life's experience in the Duat, which was the second phase. In the third phase the soul elements(soul personality), after being reborn as Akhs (shining lights or spirits),were then assigned to hold a place as gods among the imperishable stars, or to become servants of Ra in his daily journey through the upper and lower worlds, or to live as if they were living on Earth, but more pleasantly in the Field of Aaru. Each person's destiny, after life in this world of Daut, was to become a Light Being, a container and a giver of inner spiritual illumination. The experience were all of the same reality, but were at different level of consciousness. The Light was strongest in Pet, for Heaven was where they had come from and where the must return.
Into this model we have to fit another concept, the Akhet, which, to Egyptians, was a transitional and transformational place or point in their destined journey. The root word Akh means one who is 'light' or 'shining'. The term Akhet, usually translate as 'horizon' because this was where the sun's light frist shone, was also a 'place' of spiritual transfiguration after one traveled from sunset to sunrise in the darkness of the Duat. Reaching this point at dawn indicated that one was ready, having survived the ordeals and joys of the Duat, to live in anew, spiritual world. It was the place where, or the moment when, the Light Being' was created.
We can understand why the Pharaoh Khufu named his pyramid Akhet to represent his place of transformation. it may also tell us why Pharaoh Amenhotep IV changed his name to Akhenaten( Brilliant light of Aten) and why he called his city Akhetanten (Place of Light or Place of Transformation). Akhenaten's new solar manifestation of the original God Aten was made into Ra's most sentient aspect , the sun god's visible body or light energy. The cult of Aten centered on the worship of the life force and energy emanating from the sun. In time, the power of the god Aten and the pharaoh had himself become the source of celestial light.
On a mystical level, and by his example, was he not trying to point out that he visible sun was the most obvious sign of the presence of his Light 'in potential' within everyone? We see the sun disc most of the day, and lose sight of it at night. However, it is our destiny to be in the eternal Light, to become an Akh-Being, combining all other spiritual components of the person to make real the potential Akh-Being. This would be the ultimate mystical experience unity with the divine.
The Duat is normally invisible to us; when the body is dead, the immaterial elements continue life's journey through the Duat. It is a predominantly watery world, boggy, and topsy-turvy , a world inhabited by spirits. The human spirit must negotiate its way, and try to gain power over this world, with its own effort, and with some help from other spirits. The Duat is a spiritual dimension full of Beings- the dead, helping spirits, various gods, as well as formidable opponents who obstruct one's way. It present many challenges, for it is a dangerous world, and to negotiate it requires knowledge and skills, and some magical power.It is a place of purification, a necessary condition for the transformation to occur in Akhet.
Mystics past and present have repeated that shifts of consciousness can transport us across different dimensions of reality. Such shifts were know and experienced by initiates of the mystery school in Ancient Egypt. In fact, priest-initiators were able to induce state of consciousness in neophytes to help them face the realities of the Duat and reach the Akhet stage and bring about their transformation into Akhs or Being of Light.
To take one example, in the pyramid text of unas, utterance no 260, it is stated that after the pharaoh had participated in 'secret rite' in which his limbs underwent the Osirian dismemberment, rememberment and eventual rebirth, the pharaoh, with his limb reunited, went forth as an Akh or Living spirit'. Unas, presumably, knew that he was going to be one of the luminous, celestial Being after his initiation in his present life.
In the New Kingdom Texts, the deceased, or a living candidate seeking initiation into the Egyptian Mysteries, proceeded through the Duat and absorbed the experience of the sun god, Ra, the source of Light,as he passed through the Netherworld. Every day Ra's Light diminished in the west, but illumined the darkness sufficiently to reach the breakthrough point at Akhet in the East, where he was reborn in all his glory as the god Khepri, recharged to resume his cyclic journey through the world above and below.
Another example of bestowing the initiatory experience is found in the coronation inscription at Karnak where the living Pharaoh Thutmose III is depicted as 'transforming himself into a falcon and then being taken up into the Akhet, where he communes with the Sun God Ra, becoming infused with Ra's akh power. ' The connotation of the word Akh in the inner illumination as well as the primordial creative power. Used in the initiatory sense, the Akh might best be translated as 'an enlightened being". one whose consciousness has become open to the reality of the spirit world'(ibid.p.254)
Akhs can meet each other in the other world, and even in the one at heightened levels of consciousness. Perhaps this is similar to a belief that enlightened mystics, easily bridging the various dimension of reality, can recognize one another wherever they meet.
The journey through the Duat, as narrated in the New Kingdom is the Amduat and the introduces a further refinement of this transitional phase. The sun god, Ra, passes successfully through the twelve chambers of the Duat and on the completion of the twelfth chamber he is lifted up from the waters of Nun,reborn in the resplendent, shining state of Khepri. He is boldly to bring light upon a world that has been plunged into darkness through the night. There were the processes of Akhet. Every Pharaoh or initiate was expected to join and assist him on his night journey and eventually earn his right to take his place with the gods or serve in Ra's boat, as a co-worker in the maintenance of the creation.
We may find thios Egyptian understanding of life in this universe of great value to us. To be Light Being means you are generator of Light. You cannot keep the Light to yourself. To the Egyptian, the stars spread across Nut's body were manifestation of the unseen inner Light beyond. Your main value in your earthly sojourn as a Light Being is to bring this starlight to shine on others and, in cooperation with the main source of Light, spread the Light all over the universe. After all, as a human, you have the responsibility to assist in the Creation, for the creation us an ongoing process, a process that begin when Light first broke through a dark, amorphous watery mass.
If you were an Ancient Egyptian, you would not be happy to be just the receiver of Light. You would be living in the light and you would be yearning to be the light. Your entire journey on the three planes would reflect this purpose and your destiny.
And that is the Egyptian way of living in the Light. that is how we can become the Light, even as we try to survive, semi-blind, in our present secular, materialistic culture that relentlessly detaches us from our true nature and leaves us in darkness,
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