Interview #1 - Interview with Cliff Dunning on-line
My chat with @cliffdunning is on-line at:
It may take a minute to load and I start in at the 16:15 mark.
We chat about the new book and other things of interest.
Winners of signed copy of the book.
The winners of the Goodreads book giveaway are 1) Aqleema, Ontario; 2) Natasha, Nova Scotia; 3) Laura, Texas; 4) Theresa, Alberta and 5) Alexis, Ohio. They will be receiving signed copies of the book in the next week or two. Thanks to everyone who entered to win: https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/enter_choose_address/134200-awakening-higher-consciousness-guidance-from-ancient-egypt-and-sumer
Endorsement #3: Dr. Jeremy Naydler
“A deep exploration of the psychological and spiritual meaning of ancient Near Eastern myths, with the aim of highlighting their relevance to the inner work of ‘self-development’.”
Dr. Naydler is author of books on new interpretations of Egyptian writing.
Books by Dr. Naydler:
1) Shamanic Wisdom in the Pyramid Texts - The Mystical Tradition of Ancient Egypt
2) Temple of the Cosmos - The Ancient Egyptian Experience of the Sacred
Getting started interview video
Who are we and why did we write the book? In this short interview we explain some of our background and motivation: https://youtu.be/y2GXOyRzfcM.
Endorsement #2: Jerry Needleman
"This remarkable study of myth is a jewel of dynamic scholarship involving both the profound mystical roots as well as the all-too-human dramas of ancient civilization."
—Jacob Needleman, professor at San Francisco State University and author of An Unknown World
Awakening Higher Consciousness: Guidance from Ancient Egypt and Sumer
Blog #7: Egyptian symbolism in the Milky Way?
1. We are interested in the spiritual aspects of ancient wisdom in our book. In this blog we explore the possible symbolism found in the stars by the Ancient Egyptians that relates to our personal development and awakening of higher consciousness.
2. In our last blog, “The Constellation Geb, the Egyptian Cygnus”, we considered that the layout of the Ancient Egyptian constructions on the Giza Plateau are laid out to possibly reflect both the constellations Orion, representing Osiris, and the constellation Cygnus, representing the neter of the earth Geb.
Figure 1A. Map of the pyramids with an overlay of the stars of the constellation Cygnus/Geb.
Figure 1B. Star chart of the constellation Cygnus/Geb.
Figure 1C. Image of the neter Geb.
Figure 2. Modern day image of the Milky Way with the constellation Cygnus/Geb on the right just above the horizon (http://www.dailygalaxy.com/.a/6a00d8341bf7f753ef01a3fd401485970b-pi).
4. Nut and Geb are often shown in images with Nut filled with stars stretched above a reclining Geb.
Figure 3A. Typical representation of the reclining neter Geb under the neter Nut full of stars stretched above.
Figure 3B. A star chart showing the co-location of the constellation and the Milky Way which runs from the top left to the bottom right of the image.
5. In our last blog we recognized the findings of Schwaller de Lubicz, Naydler and Sullivan that symbology often explores relationships through the juxtaposition of multiple images. In this case we look at the possible symobology where Cygnus, The Milky Way and Orion can represent Geb, Nut and Osiris.
6. In this case, on one side of the night sky we see Cygnus representing Geb the original creation of the world. Geb is sometimes represented as the goose that lays the World egg. Geb is shown in Figure 3A as lying under Nut, represented by the Milky Way. On the opposite side of sky we have represented for us Osiris as the constellation Orion slightly separated from the Milky Way in his re-membered and risen form following his journey through the Duat/Milky Way.
Figure 4. The Milky Way represented as a straight-line feature through the middle of a sky map showing constellations of interest to a journey through the Duat starting with Geb on the left and exiting as a resurrected Osiris on the right just below the Milky Way (http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/galchart.html).
7. The Milky Way can also be represented as a curved region through the sky as in Figure 5. In the figure we overlay a picture of Nut over a star chart of the Milky Way.
Figure 5. The sky-goddess Nut covered in stars as the Milky Way. Cygnus/Geb is aligned below her head on the left and Orion at the birth point on the right. We include a number of other symbols associated with the Egyptian myths including the important vulture neter of mother earth, Mut, Scorpio as the snake neter Apep involved in challenging the soul in the Duat. In this orientation Orion lies just above the Milky Way on the right. Nut image from http://www.egyptartsite.com/photo/nut.gif, Milky Way image is modified from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caldwell_catalogue.
8. The symbolism of these images is made explicitly active and representing a process is seen in the Egyptian image of the sun being swallowed by Nut at sunset and being regenerated as it is passed through her body before being re-born at dawn the next morning.
Figure 6. Nut swallowing the sun on the left and delivering a rejuvenated sun on the right (http://ancientegyptonline.co.uk/nut.html).
9. In this representation it is particularly interesting to note that the sun can’t be interpreted literally because it does not “travel the Milky Way” when it sets. It follows a different path called the ecliptic. The process represented in the picture must be seen symbolically.
10. While we are in no way experts in archeoastronomy, it is intriguing to consider the symbolism in the sky as it connects to our inner search for our higher Self. Finding this pattern in the sky captures the general theme of our internal development and connects with our experience of an inner creation. On one side of the night sky we see the original creation of the world represented by the laying of the World egg by the constellation Geb on the Milky Way. On the opposite side of sky we have represented for us Osiris as the constellation Orion slightly separated from the Milky Way in his re-membered and risen form following his journey through the Duat/Milky Way. Little and Collins (2014) explore similar passage through the Milky Way in North American myths. Earlier Sullivan (1996, page 341) wondered ‘It may be coincidence that in Andean cosmology (and archaic cosmologies world-wide), the dead “return” through the bridge at Scorpius, the center of the galaxy, while the immortals, like Buddhists escaping the “wheel of karma” “leave” this mortal “coil” via the shortest route – beyond Gemini – to the highest heaven, beyond our galaxy.’
11. These views of the sky, as we interpret them, provide a potential symbolism of Geb, the Milky Way and Osiris as a symbol for the way of awakening consciousness as we live our lives today. With proper understanding, these ideas could be a most useful map of our own personal development: beginning with the original creation of consciousness followed by a challenging passageway that potentially leads to our resurrected re-enlivened Self.
13. The search is not in the stars or on the face of the earth, but in ourselves.
BUY NOW: https://www.amazon.com/Awakening-Higher-Consciousness-Guidance-Ancient/dp/1620553945/
References:
Gregory, L., A. Collins. 2014. Path of Souls: The Native American Death Journey: Cygnus, Orion, the Milky Way, Giant Skeletons in Mounds, & the Smithsonian. ATA-Archetype Books.
Schwaller de Lubicz, R.A. 1998. Temple of Man. Inner Traditions.
Blog #6: Constellation “Geb” – The Egyptian Cygnus?
1. While we are primarily interested in the spiritual aspects of ancient wisdom in our book, it must be recognized that there are other aspects of the Ancient Egyptian’s knowledge that are of interest to the modern World. The Giza Plateau is of particular importance. It is the location of the largest structures built by humans using incredibly large stones with great precision using building methods that are totally incongruent with our understanding of the tools of the time.
2. We accept that the Pyramids of Ancient Egypt most likely served multiple purposes. As we discuss in Awakening Higher Consciousness, we see the earliest of human literature found in the Texts of the Saqqara Pyramids a few miles south of the Giza Plateau as offering guidance for awakening our higher Self though initiation (see Blog #1: The Greeks We Love, E.G. Plato & Pythagoras, Gained Wisdom From Egypt. They Weren't Interested In Dead People). But there is practically no writing in the three Great Pyramids of Giza.
3. We have personally tested the proportions of the King’s Chamber of the Great Pyramid of Giza for its perfection in support of the production of musical tones that can be produced within it. In addition, some authors have suggested that the Great Pyramid was a power plant and/or that it generated a ionizing field in support of agriculture production. There is good evidence that the understructure included a ram water pump. And of course there are those who connect the whole structure of the pyramids to aliens and UFOs.
4. Another aspect of the studies of the Ancient Egyptian constructions on the Giza Plateau involves a search for the logic behind the layout of these great structures. They were constructed with incredible accuracy and attention to detail, especially recognizing the immense stone blocks that were used in their construction. It follows that the builders paid equal attention to their spatial arrangement and the overall layout on the plateau.
5. Robert Bauval developed the Orion Correlation Theory (OCT) in the early 1990’s. It proposed that the layout of the three largest pyramids was fashioned to mirror the three bright stars in the belt of the constellation Orion. In the OCT, the Milky Way is said to be represented by the Nile River.
Figure 1A. Star chart of Orion with the Milky Way in the bottom right hand corner.
Figure 1B. Google Map image of the three great pyramids on the Giza Plateau. The Ancient Nile River occupied the right of the figure roughly where the present desert ends with the encroachment of Cairo city.
6. An alternative interpretation of the Giza Plateau layout has been proposed by Andrew Collins (1999) who looked at the whole arrangement from the opposite side of the heavens as the constellation Cygnus. He proposed that the three great pyramids line up as the cross of the constellation Cygnus, (the Latinized word for “swan” - http://www.andrewcollins.com/page/articles/cygnus_blueprint.htm).
Figure 2A. Map of the pyramids with an overlay of the stars of the constellation Cygnus.
Figure 2B. Star chart of the constellation Cygnus.
7. Although there is no swan in Ancient Egypt astrology, there is a bird in the Dendera zodiac - more goose than swan. The goose is the hieroglyph for the sound “gb” and is commonly found in the hieroglyphic writings and images of the culture.
Figure 3. Dendera zodiac showing a bird in the star chart.
8. The goose is a prominent feature in the earliest writings of humans by the Ancient Egyptians in the Pyramid Texts. The goose hieroglyph represents the neter or “god” named, Geb, the neter of the primeval earth, who is also referred to as the Great Cackler. He was the “mythological divine creator goose who had laid a world egg from which the sun and/or the world had sprung” (Wikipedia.) When writing about this creation neter, might they have been drawing our attention to the symbol of the bird-like constellation that we now call Cygnus - the Great Cackler – Geb?
Figure 4. Geb as cosmic goose. Papyrus of Userbet. Eighteenth Dynasty. (Naydler 1996)
9. Geb is often represented as an awkwardly reclining male figure stretched out on the earth beneath Nut. It is easy to see the top bright star of Cygnus representing the head of Geb and the side stars representing his outstretched arms..
Figure 5A. An Egyptian image of Geb stretched out beneath Nut.
Figure 5B. Milky Way - https://500px.com/photo/209884269/earth-day-aurora-by-rob-dickinson
10. If the great pyramids are arranged on the Giza Plateau to represent Geb, then the Great Sphinx is in the location of the constellation Lyra. This constellation is often represented as a vulture. To the Ancient Egyptians, the vulture represented the neter Mut as the creator mother principle. The constellation also includes the bright star Vega that was the pole star in 14,000 BCE.
Figure 6A. Star chart of the constellations Cygnus and Lyra.
Figure 6B. An outline of the Giza Plateau showing the relative position of the Great Pyramids and the Great Sphinx.
11. Mut was also represented as a lioness and we see that the body and hind end of the Great Sphinx is definitely of lioness form.
Figure 7. The hind end of the Great Sphinx with its lioness form showing the right leg, paw and tail.
12. So a lioness structure on the Giza Plateau representing the vulture constellation, Mut, in relation to the three Great Pyramids, representing Geb, would well represent that specific area of the sky. It places the creator mother principle, Mut, in close proximity to the male earth creation principle, Geb.
13. As for the question of whether the great pyramids themselves are representing Orion/Osiris or Cygnus/Geb, this may be regarded as a frivolous analytical attempt to shoehorn a complex symbology into a simple black or white dichotomous distinction. Schwaller de Lubicz in his book The Temple of Man finds on the temple walls many incidents where the builders of the Temple of Karnak carved a unified symbology on opposite sides of the same stone or on opposing walls of the same room (The Temple of Man, vol. 2 page 1000). He referred to these techniques as “transparency” and “transposition”. Naydler (2004) found similar spatial relationships in the arrangement and layout of the Pyramid Texts upon the various surfaces within the Pyramid of Unas.
14. For a culture with such a high sensitivity to spatial arrangement and complexity of relationships in their symbols, it is very easy to see that they may have used the Giza Plateau structures to capture the both constellations and a relationship between them – especially when we also note that the two are about 180 degrees from one another along the Milky Way. Similar opposition of sky features is strongly highlighted by Sullivan in his exploration of the Incas culture. He found an important juxtaposition of the bright star Vega on one side of the sky to the important non-helical rising of the Milky Way on the other side of the visible sky on June Solstice 650 CE in Cuzco, Peru.
15. While we are in no way experts in archeoastronomy, it is intriguing to consider the multiple interpretations of the layout of the Giza Plateau in search of phenomena that connects to our inner search for our higher Self. Finding a pattern in the sky that captures the theme of our internal development and connects with our experience of an inner creation. Such phenomena may have motivated the builders of the Pyramids to capture this most important information in their constructions. On one side of the night sky we see the original creation of the world represented by the laying of the World egg by the constellation Geb on the Milky Way. On the opposite side of sky we have represented for us Osiris as the constellation Orion slightly separated from the Milky Way in his re-membered and risen form following his journey through the Duat/Milky Way. We explore the potential symbolism of Geb, Osiris and the Milky Way in our next Blog entitled: “Egyptian Symbolism in the Milky Way.”
16. The search is not in the stars or on the face of the earth, but in ourselves.
16a. In 2023 new discoveries at Karahan Tepe in southeastern Turkey find unmistakable connections with Cygnus: Andrew Collins announces new find in Turkey
Blog #5 - Consciousness – to be or not to be
A blog post can’t be expected to explain consciousness. For that matter, neither can a book. Maybe even a lifetime of work is insufficient to fully explore this most important of life’s experiences. For now, maybe we can rephrase the question from the very removed and abstract toward the more immediate and personal. From “What is consciousness” or even “Am I conscious?” to “What is my consciousness?” This less direct form of the question allows us to find balance between the analytical and the individual, leading usefully to something that is intimately personal.
Let us start at the beginning: Although the seeds of consciousness must have been present in me when I was born, I certainly cannot claim to remember its existence either then or shortly after birth. So when did it arrive? How do we first encounter consciousness in our lives? How do we remember that moment of the creation of “my consciousness”?
My own personal memory of the moment is associated with a Christmas at the young age of around 4 or 5. I was shocked “awake” at the sight of Santa Claus– before I was “snug in my bed.” The visions of Santa passing me by awoke something in me that stays to this day – “I was there!” The memory is locked in my mind - frozen in time. But what language do we have to refer to such personal awakenings of ourselves? It is difficult.
We easily use language to share our interactions with our physical world. Our common language is built primarily on such interactions. By drawing on past experiences, such as the taste of a great wine, a bite into a freshly picked apple, or the poignant smell of cinnamon at any time, we come to an agreement that we are talking about similar states and experiences. Even for some higher human emotions such as love, we can agree on what is meant by the phrase “They are in love” without quibbling too much about how their love relates to anything that I’ve felt in my life. From the phrase alone one can make reasonable predictions about how two people in love will act in situations. Yet it is not so clear why we should use the phrase “head over heels in love” as a means of communicating love? This second phrase highlights the difficulties in communicating the more than physical aspects of life.
But when it comes to the most important thing that makes us human, that of consciousness, we do not seem to have the language required. We mistrust our fleeting sensations and experiences of it. Descriptors such as “shocked”, “calm”, “satisfied”, “connected”, etc., are pulled from our other more daily experiences to try and capture some of the special nature of our experiences of consciousness. In communicating the experience to others, we rely on metaphor and analogue. We rely on phrases such as, “It was like being aware of everything” or “Time seemed to stand still.”
We seem no better prepared to discuss consciousness with today’s language than we are to understand what ancient cultures of Sumer and Egypt might have used to capture and communicate their experiences and understandings from at least 5,000 years ago. The ancients drew on images that they understood. They spoke of journeys through the netherworld, talking with the gods and interacting with snakes. The stars and the sky play a large role in these communications of the Ancients. Many of their images have been carried forward through the ages and can be found in modern religious and philosophical concepts. With the right approach, they can be seen to capture useful images that contribute to my search for “my consciousness?”
In our book (Dickie and Boudreau 2015) we explore a number of creation myths that we see as relating to the awakening of consciousness; the creation of ourselves not the creation of the physical world. We work in the book to make best use of the languages of Sumer, Ancient Egypt and Hebrew to explore what they may have tried to record and pass on in regards to this awakening of our awareness of ourselves? It is not easy.
Skipping forward to modern times we see that the efforts to address human consciousness continues today. Needleman (2012) summarizes consciousness as humans’ birthright. Edinger (1984) states, “The purpose of human life is the creation of consciousness.” Needleman notes that although it might be our birthright, it doesn’t come easily. It involves suffering and yearning. Such thoughts of internal work and struggle are not easy to find in the mainstream daily activities of the Western World where one’s purpose is more often measured in terms of financial wealth and external security.
Needleman (2012) continues his development of thoughts on consciousness into a very personal sphere. He distances the concept of God from that of the distant grouchy old man on a cloud to present the God concept as a more natural all surrounding motivation of our world. Kauffman (2010) arrives at a concept of God that is tied to the amazing creativity that we experience in the World, in Nature and in ourselves. In both cases they talk of a very personal, intimate relationship.
The ancient methods of meditation are clearly directed at exploring one’s personal consciousness. The new concept of “mindfulness” that is finding some current mainstream acceptance may be a useful way forward in the general education and exposure of humans to their more sensitive internal experiences and movements.
In some kind of very brief summary, we can say that the characteristics of consciousness that help me to answer the question “What is my consciousness?” include:
- Calming
- Connecting
- Remembering from moments of grace in early life
- Requiring “conscious labor and intentional suffering” (Gurdjief)
- Fleeting (Plotinus)
- Centering
- Experiencing life at a higher level that helps us distinguish conflicting lower energies.
But nothing fully captures what it is that makes me a human being - different from a rock or a bird. The challenge is to express that quality to myself as much as to others. And so I continue my work to experience Self.
References:
Edinger, E.F. 1984. The Creation of Consciousness - Jung's Myth for Modern Man. Inner City Books.
Needleman, J. 2012. An Unknown World: Notes on the Meaning of the Earth. Penguin.
MacKenna, S. 1992. Plotinus The Enneads. Larson Publications.