The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt
by Richard H. Wilkinson
from Thames & Hudson
Worshiped for over three-fifths of recorded history, ancient Egypt's gods and goddesses are among the most fascinating of human civilization. The lives of pharaohs and commoners alike were dominated by the need to honor, worship, and pacify the huge pantheon of deities. From lavish tomb paintings and imposing temple reliefs to humble household shrines, countless tributes throughout Egypt reflect the richness and complexity of their mythology.
This book examines the evolution, worship, and eventual decline of the numerous gods and goddesses—from minor household figures such as Bes and Taweret to the all-powerful deities Amun and Re—that made Egypt the most completely theocratic society of the ancient world, and made Egyptians, according to Herodotus, "more religious than any other people."
• "Rise and Fall of the Gods" considers the origins of Egypt's deities, their struggles to control cosmic forces, and their eventual decline.
• "Nature of the Gods" examines the forms, appearances, and manifestations of the deities, as well as the transcendence of preeminent deities such as Amun.
• "Worship of the Gods" introduces the rituals and mysteries of formal Egyptian worship, including the importance of temples and festivals.
• "Kingship and the Gods" discusses the all-important position of the king, who served as a bridge between the gods and humanity.
• "The Many Faces of the Divine" is a unique catalogue of Egypt's gods and goddesses grouped according to their primary forms, discussing their iconography, mythology, and worship, and their influence over time.
With hundreds of illustrations and specially commissioned drawings, this is a comprehensive and authoritative guide to the deities that lay at the heart of Egyptian religion and society. 400 illustrations, 170 in color.
Haunting, The (Sisters of Isis)
The Masks of God, Vol. 2: Oriental Mythology
by Joseph Campbell
from Penguin (Non-Classics)
The Pagan Christ: Recovering the Lost Light
by Tom Harpur
from Walker & Company
A provocative argument for a mystical, rather than historical, understanding of Jesus, leading to a radical rebirth of Christianity in our time.
For forty years, scholar and religious commentator Tom Harpur has challenged church orthodoxy and guided thousands of readers on subjects as controversial as the true nature of Christ and life after death. Now, in his most radical and groundbreaking work, Harpur digs deep into the origins of Christianity.
Long before the advent of Jesus Christ, the Egyptians and other peoples believed in the coming of a messiah, a virgin birth, a madonna and her child, and the incarnation of the spirit in flesh. While the early Christian church accepted these ancient truths as the very basis of Christianity, it disavowed their origins. What had begun as a universal belief system built on myth and allegory was transformed, by the third and fourth centuries A.D., into a ritualistic institution based on a literal interpretation of myths and symbols. But, as Tom Harpur argues in The Pagan Christ, "to take the Gospels literally as history or biography is to utterly miss their inner spiritual meaning."
At a time of religious extremism, Tom Harpur reveals the virtue of a cosmic faith based on ancient truths that the modern church has renounced. His message is clear: Our blind faith in literalism is killing Christianity. Only with a return to an inclusive religion where Christ lives within each of us will we gain a true understanding of who we are and who we are intended to become. The Pagan Christ is a book of rare insight and power that will reilluminate the Bible and change the way we think about religion.
Egyptian gods & goddesses (All Aboard Reading)
by Henry Barker
from Grosset & Dunlap
The Science of the Dogon: Decoding the African Mystery Tradition
by Laird Scranton
from Inner Traditions
A look at the close resemblance between the creation and structure of matter in both Dogon mythology and modern science
• Reveals striking similarities between Dogon symbols and those used in both the Egyptian and Hebrew religions
• Demonstrates the parallels between Dogon mythical narratives and scientific concepts from atomic theory to quantum theory and string theory
The Dogon people of Mali, West Africa, are famous for their unique art and advanced cosmology. The Dogon’s creation story describes how the one true god, Amma, created all the matter of the universe. Interestingly, the myths that depict his creative efforts bear a striking resemblance to the modern scientific definitions of matter, beginning with the atom and continuing all the way to the vibrating threads of string theory. Furthermore, many of the Dogon words, symbols, and rituals used to describe the structure of matter are quite similar to those found in the myths of ancient Egypt and in the daily rituals of Judaism. For example, the modern scientific depiction of the informed universe as a black hole is identical to Amma’s Egg of the Dogon and the Egyptian Benben Stone.
The Science of the Dogon offers a case-by-case comparison of Dogon descriptions and drawings to corresponding scientific definitions and diagrams from authors like Stephen Hawking and Brian Greene, then extends this analysis to the counterparts of these symbols in both the ancient Egyptian and Hebrew religions. What is ultimately revealed is the scientific basis for the language of the Egyptian hieroglyphs, which was deliberately encoded to prevent the knowledge of these concepts from falling into the hands of all but the highest members of the Egyptian priesthood. The Science of the Dogon also offers compelling new interpretations for many of the most familiar Egyptian symbols, such as the pyramid and the scarab, and presents new explanations for the origins of religiously charged words such as Jehovah and Satan.
Hidden History: Lost Civilizations, Secret Knowledge, and Ancient Mysteries
by Brian Haughton
from New Page Books
Despite being enmeshed in a culture steeped in technology and science, the magic and mysteries of the ancient world can still haunt our imagination. Through their architecture, artefacts and deeds, ancient cultures speak to us across thousands of dusty years—from the labyrinthine palace of Knossos on Crete and the lofty pyramids of Egypt to the remotest jungle temples of Peru and the megalithic mystery of Stonehenge.
Hidden History brings together a fascinating selection of these ancient enigmas, arranging them into three sections: Mysterious Places, Unexplained Artefacts, and Enigmatic People. You'll discover fascinating facts about: • The Great Sphinx—Mysticism and archaeology collide in the ongoing debate over this enigmatic monument. • Mystery Hill—Who built the intriguing megalithic complex lying 40 miles north of Boston? • The Antikythera Mechanism—An ancient Greek computer found beneath the Aegean Sea. • The Giant Hill-Figures of England—The Uffington White Horse and other huge chalk figures cut into the English countryside thousands of years ago. • The Queen of Sheba—Clues to the real identity of this mighty ruler famous for her Biblical visit to King Solomon • Newgrange—Hundreds of years older than the Giza Pyramid and Stonehenge. Who were the builders of this Irish megalithic monument?
Hidden History fills the gap between archaeology and alternative history using the latest available data and a common sense, open-minded approach. The book discusses not only ancient history's major mysteries, but also some of the puzzles of alternative history—like the "Coso Artefact," the possibility of ancient flight, and the mysterious "Voynich Manuscript"—as well as mysterious peoples from the Magi and the Druids to the Knights Templar and the Green Children.
With more than 50 photographs and illustrations, this is the ideal reference work for those interested in the archaeology of these great enigmas.
Egyptian Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Goddesses, and Traditions of Ancient Egypt
by Geraldine Pinch
from Oxford University Press, USA
From stories of resurrected mummies and thousand-year-old curses to powerful pharaohs and the coveted treasures of the Great Pyramids, ancient Egypt has had an unfaltering grip on the modern imagination. Now, in Egyptian Mythology, Geraldine Pinch offers a comprehensive introduction that
untangles the mystery of Egyptian Myth.
Spanning Ancient Egyptian culture--from 3200 BC to AD 400--Pinch opens a door to this hidden world and casts light on its often misunderstood belief system. She discusses the nature of myths and the history of Egypt, from the predynastic to the postpharaonic period. She explains how Egyptian culture
developed around the flooding of the Nile, or the "inundation," a phenomenon on which the whole welfare of the country depended, and how aspects of the inundation were personified as deities. She explains that the usually cloudless skies made for a preoccupation with the stars and planets. Indeed,
much early Egyptian mythology may have developed to explain the movement of these celestial bodies. She provides a timeline covering the seven stages in the mythical history of Egypt and outlining the major events of each stage, such as the reign of the sun God. A substantial A to Z section covers
the principal themes and concepts of Egyptian mythology as well as the most important deities, demons, and other characters. For anyone who wants to know about Anubis, the terrifying canine god who presided over the mummification of bodies and guarded burials, or Hathor, the golden goddess who
helped women to give birth and the dead to be reborn, or an explanation of the nun, the primeval ocean from which all life came, Egyptian Mythology is the place to look.
Sacred Symbols of the Dogon: The Key to Advanced Science in the Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs
by Laird Scranton
from Inner Traditions
Dogon cosmology provides a new Rosetta stone for reinterpreting Egyptian hieroglyphs
• Provides a new understanding of Egyptian hieroglyphs as scientific symbols based on Dogon cosmological drawings
• Use parallels between Dogon and Egyptian word meanings to identify relationships between Dogon myths and modern science
In The Science of the Dogon, Laird Scranton demonstrated that the cosmological structure described in the myths and drawings of the Dogon runs parallel to modern science--atomic theory, quantum theory, and string theory--their drawings often taking the same form as accurate scientific diagrams that relate to the formation of matter. Scranton also pointed to the close resemblance between the keywords and component elements of Dogon cosmology and those of ancient Egypt, and the implication that ancient cosmology may also be about actual science.
Sacred Symbols of the Dogon uses these parallels as the starting point for a new interpretation of the Egyptian hieroglyphic language. By substituting Dogon cosmological drawings for equivalent glyph-shapes in Egyptian words, a new way of reading and interpreting the Egyptian hieroglyphs emerges. Scranton shows how each hieroglyph constitutes an entire concept, and that their meanings are scientific in nature. Using the Dogon symbols as a “Rosetta stone,” he reveals references within the ancient Egyptian language that define the full range of scientific components of matter: from massless waves to the completed atom, even suggesting direct correlations to a fully realized unified field theory.
Awakening Osiris: The Egyptian Book of the Dead
from Phanes Press
Osiris, the god of the dead, is an image of renewal, a seed waiting to erupt into life. His death at the hands of his brother, Set, the god of destruction---who hacked him into 14 pieces---and his regeneration through the hands of his wife, the goddess Isis, illuminates the spiritual path from unconsciousness to enlightenment. In psychological terms, Osiris represents the recollection of the diverse aspects of oneself into a unified whole. These issues are as pertinent today as they were when these texts were compiled millennia ago from pyramid walls and coffin inscriptions. The "Book of Coming Forth by Day," as it was called in ancient Egypt, is lovingly rerendered here by Normandi Ellis in her celebrated 1988 translation of a work that took over 4,000 years to evolve. This is a beautifully poetic tome extrapolated from hieroglyphics--the translator attempts to revive the sense of literature and song lost in literal translations and through devolution to phonetic hieratics (simplified hieroglyphs that represent sound units). Words such as these melt time, "Mine is a heart of carnelian, crimson as murder on a holy day--I am I. I will what I will. Mine is a heart of carnelian, blood red as the crest of a phoenix." --P. Randall Cohan
is one of the oldest and greatest classics of Western spirituality. Until now the available translations have treated these writings as historical curiosities with little relevance to our contemporary situation. This new translation made from the hieroglyphs approaches this text as a profound spiritual document capable of speaking to us today.
