This is the blog of Paul R. Boudreau and Lloyd M. Dickie on the use of myths in support of personal development and self-study.
Looking forward to getting into Jeremy Naydler’s recent work : “In the Shadow of the Machine: The Prehistory of the Computer and the Evolution of Consciousness”. I love how in the early pages he ties the world views of Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt with the challenges of present day society. He is truely a great thinker.
https://books.google.ca/books/about/In_the_Shadow_of_the_Machine.html
This summer Peter Kingsley is coming out with a followup to his incredible book "Reality" (https://peterkingsley.org/books/):
The "A Book of Life" will not be advertised in the general media but should be an incredible read: https://peterkingsley.org/product/a-book-of-life-2021/.
Over three thousand copies sold! It has been out for six years and continues to sell: Awakening Higher Consciousness: Guidance from Ancient Egypt and Sumer - https://www.innertraditions.com/.../awakening-higher...
To check in on our latest work, check out our website: http://www.awhico.com
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-04-creative-genes-gave-homo-sapiens.html
"Belief is the most prominent, promising, and dangerous capacity that humanity has evolved.
Belief is the ability to draw on our range of cognitive and social resources, our histories and experiences, and combine them with our imagination. It is the power to think beyond what is here and now and develop mental representations in order to see and feel and know something - an idea, a vision, a necessity, a possibility, a truth - that is not immediately present to the senses, and then to invest, wholly and authentically, in that "something" so that it becomes one's reality.
Beliefs and belief systems permeate human neurobiology's, bodies, and ecologies, acting as dynamic agents in evolutionary processes. The human capacity for belief, the specifics of belief and our diverse belief systems structure and shape our daily lives, our societies, and the world around us. we are human, therefore we believe."
in
Why we Believe: Evolution and the Human Way of Being
by Agustin Fuentes
Is it possible to visualise the evolution of the human appreciation for the night sky? From the setting sun to the precession of the equinox, can we imagine when and how humans developed their appreciation for the passage of time tracked in the sky – and its significance to our world view and higher spiritual natures.
At what point in history might humans first appreciated that the bright life-giving sun was an identifiable external object – one that could be predicted and expected from day to day. Having evolved near the equator the year’s seasonality would not have been much to notice but as humans moved north and south from their place of origin near the equator, changes in the sun’s strength and height would become more and more noticeable – longer summer days and shorter winter ones. Tracking these changes over twelve months would have them notice that their world was resetting back to its starting position. Spring equinox would signal the return of warm and plenty. Fall equinox would be good time to prepare for the coming winter.
Would early humans have noticed the phases of the moon before or after they noticed the changes in the sun. Although its shape and location changes drastically from night to night, the changing light is less important than the changing warmth of the sun. Nevertheless, the moon’s growth and shrinking would be easily observed in only 28 days rather than the months required for noticing seasonal changes in the sun.
The planets, aptly called the "wandering stars" by the Greeks, must have been a significant observation of early humans. The movement of just these five heavenly bodies was not like the other stars. These small dots of light zoomed around more or less independent of the sun, moon and stars. Two never wandered far from the sun, these are the two inner planets Mercury and Venus. The others wandered further, but never strayed too far up or down from the path of the sun.
Early humans in their developing appreciation of the stary world would have noted the paths of the sun, moon and planets travelling through a backdrop of the “fixed stars”. While these heavenly bodies would never wander too far north or south of the center, they could be found in any of the different zodiac constellations. As the months go by, the sun rises sequentially in Pisces, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn and Aquarius (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Artistic impression of the zodiac constellations. Note the opposition between Taurus and Scorpio (https://www.amazon.ca/Hippolya-Tablecloth-Constellations-Astrology-Divination/dp/B082RVLNXC/ref=asc_df_B082RVLNXC/ ).
While the sun, moon and planets, seemed to restrict their movements to within the band of the zodiac constellations, the bright collection of the stars of the Milky Way was on its own at a noticeably different angle. Our Milky Way Galaxy, although invisible to the modern city-dweller, would have shone brightly as a across the sky separate from the zodiac. It would have been unmistakable to the hunter gathers spending their nights outside. In one night, it could go from straight up and down (Figure 2) to lying flat along the horizon several hours later (Figure 3 - corkscrewing across the night sky.
Figure 2. Sky chart of the Milky Way '“standing upright” near sunset on the Spring Equinox 2021 (https://starwalk.space/en).
Figure 3. Sky chart of the Milky Way “laying down” near midnight on the Spring Equinox 2021 (https://starwalk.space/en).
Like the band of the Zodiac, the Milky Way is always accompanied by its own constellations. For instance, Cygnus the Swan seems to be fly down the Milky Way near the Great Rift (Figure 4).
Figure 4. The constellation Cygnus the Swan and the Milky Way with the Great Rift opening up towards the upper right corner. (https://astrobackyard.com/cygnus-constellation/).
Also of great significance to a human view of the skies is that the Milky Way is varies greatly in width and brightest. Figure 5 displays the night sky of constellations with the Milky Way aligned across the centre of the view. The middle of the figure is the thickest, brightest section while the left and right edges of the ellipse are thinner and less distinct.
Figure 5. A sky chart with the Milky Way aligned horizontally through the centre of the chart. The widest, brighest section is in the middle of the figure with the constellation Scorpius. The thin, dimmer outer section is at extreme right of the figure just below the constellation Gemini (http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/galchart.html). Cygnus is halfway between centre and the left edge of the figure.
The widest area of the Milky Way occurs in the area where it intersects the zodiac at the edge of the constellations Scorpio (Figure 6). The dimmest, thinnest area occurs opposite this in the area at the feet of the constellation Gemini (Figure 7). These are the areas where everything can come together: the sun, the Zodiac and the Milky Way. Early humans would be well aware of all of this.
Figure 6. The middle of the Milky Way running across the tail of the constellation Scorpius ((https://starwalk.space/en).
Figure 7. The thin outer edge of the Milky Way running at the foot of the constellation Gemini (https://starwalk.space/en).
The intersections of the Zodiac and the Milky Way are fixed: one in Scorpio and one in Gemini. But these points slide through time in relation to the sunrise. Presently the constellation Pisces rises helically, i.e. at the same time as the sun, on the Spring Equinox. Two thousand years ago the constellation Aries would have been the stars that would have risen at sunrise on the Spring Equinox.
Figure 8. Sunrise on the Spring Equinox, 2021 with the helical rise of the constellation Pisces (https://starwalk.space/en).
We need to go back in time to six thousand years ago for the Spring equinox to have had the helical rising with the thin edge of the Milky Way in the constellation Gemini. This would be about the time of the pre-dynastic Egypt when humans began using written symbols[1]. The Newgrange solar temple in Ireland was built around this time. The intersection of the Milky Way with Gemini is likely also very significant for the ancient observers of the sky. For about two thousand years in mid-March the sun, Zodiac and Milky Way would all occur together. Their spirits could intermingle unlike the times before or since. These times we will refer to as the times of the Obsidian Alignment to connect with the obsidian artifacts discovered at the Göbekli Tepe site.
But what might the special alignment, the Obsidian Alignment, have to do with the early stone circles of Göbekli Tepe with their massive pairs of standing stones? The pairs of T-shaped pillars in the centre of the Göbekli Tepe stone circles were created 9,000 years BCE when the constellation Leo rose in the Spring[2]. This was almost five thousand years after the previous Obsidian Alignment of the Milky Way and Zodiac in the constellation Scorpio and five thousand years before the following Obsidian alignment in Gemini.
The scorpions and snakes embossed on the stones of Göbekli Tepe may be referring to the previous time. The preceding time of the intersection between the Zodiac and the Milky Way, the Obsidian Alignment, would have been twenty-two thousand years ago. The thick bright centre of the Milky Way and the constellation Scorpio would have risen with the sun on the Spring equinox – everything would have been lined up. This would have been the time at the end of the last ice age towards the end of the Solutrean culture with their advanced flint tool-making and advanced cave art[3]. This is also around the time the great North American mound complexes began to be constructed[4] & [5].
But the predominant motif are the looming pillars at the center of the circles (Figure 9). Could they have been constructed as a reminder that the Obsidian alignment will reoccur in Gemini? Is it possible that the two main pillars of each circle of stones somehow relate to Gemini? Was it a recognition that the precession of the equinox had moved the helical rising on the Spring Equinox had moved away from Scorpio, 17,000 years ago at the end of the last Glacial Maximum and was hoped to return in when Gemini rose helically thousands of years later? Possibly they were built to encourage the Obsidian Alignment to return?
Figure 9. Twin pillars in the centre of a Göbekli Tepe stone circle (https://www.andrewcollins.com/page/articles/Gobekli.htm).
Stone circles built over the past 10,000 years evidence human awareness of the movement in the sky[6]. The sun, moon, planets and Milky Way are easily observed over days, months and years of the lives of early humans. But their awareness of the movement of the Obsidian Alignment of the Zodiac and the Milky Way over 1,000s of years is almost impossible for modern western humans to appreciate. Yet there is great evidence for it in the art, myths and incredible constructions. It is critical to note that the cultures that built the famous stone circles aligned to the changing sky didn’t need the circles to guide them through the seasons in support of food production, they obviously had plenty of food – sufficient for them to amass the effort to construct the stone circles. The circles, such as the earliest known at Göbekli Tepe, served other non-practical, powerful creative irrational, purposes. Following the obscure changes in the Spring Equinox helical rising would have no benefit to the practicalities of human life but may have been core to the emotional and spiritual understanding of their lives – thus essential for their existence as human.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egypt#Predynastic_period
[2] https://www.ancient.eu/article/234/gobekli-tepe---the-worlds-first-temple/
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solutrean
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mound_Builders
[5] https://grahamhancock.com/america-before/
If Osiris and Horus were Ancient Egyptian representations of stars and constellations and their movements[1], then what or where did they see Seth, the shadowy, often evil brother of Osiris? Is it possible to identify Seth as a representation of the sky and its changes?
Sellers suggest on page 224 of her book that “It could also be that Seth is here indicated as a zodiacal constellation rising with the sun. The most likely candidate in that case would be Scorpius, the classical world’s slayer of Orion.[2]” The constellation Scorpio is opposite of the constellation Taurus in the zodiac (Figure 1). Such opposition fits well with the conflict that is recorded in the myths about Seth and Horus battling for supremacy following the death of Osiris. But it doesn’t easily support the theme of Seth killing Osiris. Where could this have arisen?
Figure 1. Artistic impression of the zodiac constellations showing the opposition between Taurus and Scorpio (https://www.amazon.ca/Hippolya-Tablecloth-Constellations-Astrology-Divination/dp/B082RVLNXC/ref=asc_df_B082RVLNXC/).
Recognizing that there is no point in searching for a single one-to-one mapping of the sky to the myths, we look here for another view of Seth. Returning to the basic premise that the precession of the equinox is the basis of ancient myths proposed in Hamlet’s Mill[3], and that Osiris and Horus are representations of the constellations Gemini and Taurus, it makes sense to continue our search for Seth in the zodiac around the time of the Spring Equinox. With precession constantly changing the location of the location of the constellations, the time of a “living” Gemini/Osiris would have been from 8,000 to 6,000 years ago. Preceding it in the precession was the constellation that we presently call Cancer the crab. It would have risen with the sun on the Spring Equinox from 10,000 to 8,000 years ago. Could the theme of “brother killing brother” that was highlighted in Hamlet’s Mill be at play here? Could the precession of the constellation Cancer/Set have been seen as resulting in Osiris/Gemini’s ultimately “death”?
As an initial step in the speculation we can ask about any characteristics of the constellation, presently known as Cancer (Figure 2A), that line up with what has been recorded about the god Set (Figure 2B). To start, the constellation is made up of dimmest stars of the zodiac constellations[4]. It is not nearly as noticeable as the other constellations. This corresponds with Set as a “dark and moody god”[5]. It contains two stars that are presently called for the animal “donkey”. Although the representations of Set took many forms throughout the history of Ancient Egypt, and no animal has all of the physical characteristics of Set images, Set is strongly connected to a donkey or ass[6]. Finally, the brightest star the Cancer constellation has an orange-coloured hue. The god Set was known as the lord of the Red Land. He is often represented with the colour red: hair, eyes, mantle. The image of the Christian “red devil” comes to mind. Could this be Seth? Although not obvious in the photos presented here, the typically forked tail of Seth, and/or the bottom of the Was scepter that he often holds, may be related to the present day view of the claws that one would expect in a crab constellation.
Figure 2. A) On the bottom the constellation Cancer with named stars ( https://www.space.com/16970-cancer-constellation.html). Note the two stars named Asellus Borealis and Asellus Australis, Latin for “"northern donkey" and "southern donkey" respectfully (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancer_(constellation)). The star Asellus Australis has an orange hued colour. B) On the top is an image of Seth from Karnak, Egypt.
In regard to the timeline of the precession of the equinox, it may also be important to note that Set was one of the earliest, original family members of the gods along with Osiris, Isis and Nephthys. A Set constellation would have been seen rising helically on the Spring Equinox between 10,000 and 8,000 years ago. There are strong suggestions that Set was represented in the very earliest pre-dynastic culture. There is evidence that the Ancient Egyptians were creating art objects reflecting Set 6,000 years ago long before the Pyramids were built[7]. Perhaps their earliest art was an act of remembering the earlier age of Set just before the pre-dynastic time of Ancient Egypt that began 8,000 years ago[8].
The first Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt is referred to as Narmer. He is believed to have reigned about 5,000 years ago. By this time the Set constellation would have been seen to have “descended” below the horizon on the Spring equinox and have been replaced by Gemini/Osiris constellation. Set’s descent may be reflected in the Pyramid Texts suggestion that Osiris “kicked” Set – maybe this action having sent him down below the horizon[9]. In any event, later Set is said to have killed his brother Osiris. One version relates that Osiris is drowned in water. Is this a representation to the fact that Set would have been below the horizon and have dragged Gemini/Osiris with him to his death below the horizon?
What the speculation comes down to is a rather straight forward interpretation of the Osiris myth based on the precession of the equinox. Using the zodiac constellations as the basic framework, going back through time, the timeline of the myth starts with Set/Cancer, followed by Osiris/Gemini before the time that Horus/Taurus ruled the unified Egypt (Figure 3).
Figure 3. A starchart with images of the Ancient Egyptian gods overlaid on constellations from left to right: Cancer, Gemini and Taurus. https://skyandtelescope.org/interactive-sky-chart/.
There are many representations of Set and Horus standing on each side of the Pharaoh such as seen in Figure 4A. With Horus/Taurus on the right, Osiris/Gemini as the king in the middle, it stands to reason that Cancer/Seth stand on the left! This is a common theme dating to with the early Pyramid Texts and the Pharaoh Unis[10]. Figure 4B shows a theme from Hamlet’s Mill relating the two gods in a similar arrangement with the Axis Mundi[11]. Figure 4C shows the theme from around the Pharaoh Seti I.
Figure 4. A) Sketch of relief from Gebel Adda - Rock Temple; Horemheb depicted between Seth and Horus (from Lepsius 1849: iii; 122a) https://www.escholar.manchester.ac.uk/api/datastream?publicationPid=uk-ac-man-scw:180305&datastreamId=FULL-TEXT.PDF. B) https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/mqr/2015/05/lettuce-and-kings-the-power-struggle-between-horus-and-set-2/. C) https://www.thenotsoinnocentsabroad.com/blog/horus-vs-seth-homosexuality-hippos-and-familial-violence
“There is also evidence identifying Seth with the pillar that supported the sky. In the Ramesseum Dramatic Papyrus, Seth is identified as a sacred pillar beneath Osiris, while according to G.A. Wainwright the djed-pillar at Busiris (Djedu) belonged originally to Seth prior to its reassignment to Osiris." (Alan F. Alford, _The Midnight Sun_, page 294)”[12]. This is another possible statement regarding the effect of the precession of the ages. The Djed column is tied to the great Axis Mundi of the world that is at a tilt from the north pole. At one point in time Seth would have been in control, but that would be passed to Osiris when the constellations were seen to shift. By the time of Seti I images represent Horus erecting the Djed Column (Figure 5).
Figure 5 The pharaoh Seti I, as Horus, on the right erects the djed column with the help of Isis on the left. The small kneeling figure on the left is likely another representation of Seti I as Osiris. From the Temple of Osiris in Abydos.
There is evidence for the suggestion that Seth is a representation of the constellation presently called Cancer. The precession of the equinox that would have slowly moved this constellation below the horizon on the Spring equinox 8000 years ago and leading to the age of the living Osiris. But Seth’s pre-descent may be been seen as connected with the falling of Osiris – essential accusing Seth with the death of his brother at the end of the age of Osiris. Not that the Ancient Egyptians were so literal as to simply imagine a story in the sky, they frequently expressed subtle and complex levels of thought that expressing multi-levels of existence[13].
[1] http://www.awhico.com/2021/2/12/blog-20-gemini-as-osiris-and-taurus-as-horus-egyptian-myths-in-the-stars
[2] Sellers, J.B., 2003. The Death of Gods in Ancient Egypt, a study of the threshold of myth and the frame of time.
[3] de Santillana, G., and H. von Dechend. 1977. Hamlet’s Mill: An Essay Investigating the Origins of Human Knowledge and Its Transmission through Myth. David Godine, Boston.
[4] https://www.space.com/16970-cancer-constellation.html.
[5] http://www.touregypt.net/godsofegypt/set.htm
[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Set_(deity)
[7] http://www.joanlansberry.com/setfind/3200bce.html
[8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prehistoric_Egypt
[9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osiris_myth
[10] http://www.joanlansberry.com/setfind/seti1.html
[11] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axis_mundi
[12] http://www.joanlansberry.com/setfind/laterwas.html
[13] www.awhico.com/…/chapter-5-the-egyptiannbspbodies-of-a-human
Since the beginning of Ancient Egyptian culture, the sky has provided a palette for their myths, religion and world view. We don’t know much about how exactly the Ancient Egyptians perceived the night sky. There are certainly a number of dominant features that are easily recognized such as references to Orion which they associated with the ancient Egyptian god Osiris. Sirius, the bright star used to track the beginning of summer flooding of the Nile is well represented in their recorded texts as Sopdet. The higher spiritual bodies of a person were encouraged to find their place in the “Imperishable Stars”, i.e., those surrounding the “North Pole”. Nut is likely their representation of the Milky Way arching over the earth. But there may be more to see in their view of the stars and their myths – especially as we accept the importance of the precession of the equinox. This blog explores the strong connections between what they were observing in the sky and the primary core Ancient Egyptian myths associated with death and resurrection of Osiris.
In the earliest Ancient Egyptian written text, the Pyramid Texts, Osiris is said to have died and been reborn[1]. It is said that Seth killed him. Horus, the son of the reborn Osiris, avenges his father’s death by winning the battle with Seth. Horus thus reigns as the primary god of a unified Egypt. It has not exactly been clear how all this relates to the stars, but it is becoming more and more likely that this is a record of the precession of the equinox observed between 9,000 and 5,000 years ago.
Readers are likely familiar with the concept that we are presently living in the Age of Pisces. This reflects that the constellation Pisces rises above the horizon with the sun on the Spring equinox (https://www.awhico.com/blog/2021/1/24/blog-19-a-return-to-hamlets-mill-and-the-milky-way). It has done so for 2,000 years since the time of Christ. In a few hundred more years the precession of the equinox will have the constellation Aquarius rising helically on the Spring equinox and we will enter the Age of Aquarius.
Hamlet’s Mill makes a convincing case that ancient myths were attempts by humans to capture the changes they were observing in the sky over very long time periods. They found common themes in myths in many different cultures around the world suggesting very ancient origins to the myths. Early humans were capable of seeing, tracking and recording the slow precession of the equinox[2]. The precession of the equinox through time can be observed in two ways: 1) the movement of the north pole and 2) the changes in the zodiac constellation that rises with sun on Spring Equinox. Figure 1 shows the circular movement of the “North Pole”. In present day we have a North Star in the Little Dipper constellation but for most of time there is no “North Star”. Although slowly, it is always seen to be circling around true north. Figure 1 also labels the constellation that rises with the sun associated with the differing locations of the north pole going back through time. Through 25,920 years the earth wobbles and the sun marches through the full zodiac and back again.
Figure 1. The circular locations of the earth's north pole through time. Presently it is aligned with the "North Star" in the handle of the Little Dipper constellation at the top of the circle at +2,000. Moving clockwise around the circle shows the location going back in time through its location during the different ages.
While Hamlet’s Mill explored the precession of the equinoxes in many cultures, Jane B. Sellers extends and expands this model by focusing solely on Ancient Egypt. Specifically, she explores the death and resurrection of Osiris[3].
Sellers notes that between 4,000 to 2,000 BCE the god Horus was predominant in Ancient Egyptian culture. This was the Age of Taurus when that constellation rose on the Spring Equinox. Although the image of a bull has been applied to the stars of the constellation since Sumerian and Babylonian times, possibly due to image of two horns extending upwards, this may not be how the Egyptians envisaged their sky 1000s of years earlier. Remember that we don’t know exactly how the Egyptians envisaged their sky. For them, it is possible that they imagined the head of a falcon, Horus the hawk, in this star grouping (Figure 2A) or the all-important Eye of Horus (Figure 2B).
Figure 2. The Constellation Taurus as seen with the naked eye with A) a Horus head is overlayed and B) Eye of Horus overlayed.
There are strong links between the Horus falcon and the bull in Ancient Egypt. For example, all of the New Kingdom Pharaohs had Horus names that contained bull references such as “The strong bull, high of plumes”[4] (Figure 3).
Figure 3. Hieroglyphs for Pharaoh Amenhotep-IV/Akhenaten Horus name, “The strong bull, high of plumes” that includes images of both the hawk and bull.
Going back to the Age that preceded Taurus/Horus, it was the constellation Gemini that rose helically on the Spring Equinox. The Age of Gemini ranged from 6,000 to 4,000 BCE that corresponds to the time of pre-dynastic Egypt. Seller explores the observed movements of the constellation Orion, in particular, the loss of Orion rising at sunrise on the Spring Equinox. She invests quite a few words constructing a framework where the constellation Orion represents Osiris and is seen to “die” by being drawn down below the “watery” Milky Way by Seth. The challenge she faced with this imagery results from the fact that modern-day Orion is off of the main pathway in the sky: the ecliptic. This was easily observed and well recognized by the ancients. So, unlike other important heavenly bodies such as the sun, moon, planets and zodiac constellations, Orion is somewhat isolated. In spite of this separation from the ecliptic, Sellers puts forth the idea that Orion was seen as a precursor to the sunrise for a time – and then precession moved it below the horizon at the Spring Equinox – and so was seen to die. She sees this “death” of Osiris/Orion resulting from its failure to rise helically on the Spring equinox heralding the change of an age.
But we see the possibility of a simpler and clearer connection between the observed sky and the enduring myths of Osiris and Horus. This can be accomplished by maintaining focus on solely the constellations of the zodiac. Such an approach would remain true to Hamlet’s Mill and the importance of the march of ages associated with the precession of the equinox. To do so requires only a bit of additional conjecture and speculation on how the Ancient Egyptians would have imagined the zodiac constellations. Sellers herself provides the key when she states on page 145 that “In Arabia, Orion/Osiris shared the name ‘Al Jauzah’ with the stars of Gemini”2!
While it is obvious that it this was the Age of Gemini, with her focus on the modern-day constellation Orion, Sellers barely mentions the constellation Gemini. But it is an easy extension of the modern-day view of the constellation Orion/Osiris up to include the stars of Gemini (Figure 4). If envisaged this way, then the death of Osiris would also be observed on the ecliptic - which the precession of the equinox would embody. The failure of Gemini to rise with the sun on the Spring Equinox would be recorded as the death of Osiris. Gemini would now be down in the underworld to be replaced by his son Horus/Taurus next in line in the precession.
Figure 4. The modern day constellations of Gemini and Orion overlayed with an image of Osiris and Taurus by the falcon head of Horus.
As we will see in the next blog post, drawing in the constellation Gemini into the Osiris myth plays an important role in explaining the interactions between Seth and Horus over the ages.
So yes the constellation Osiris was seen to have “died”, as the constellation Orion moved below the horizon, but concurrent with it, just above it on the ecliptic the constellation Gemini was also evolving in the precession. The proposition that the stars were providing early humans with a framework for very complex human world views began seems to hold true. Most importantly it must be remembered that this was not an effort to “identify” images in the sky, but rather a human-based effort to find stories and myths that captured their higher experiences.
[1] https://www.pyramidtextsonline.com/HorusPT.pdf
[2] de Santillana, G., and H. von Dechend. 1977. Hamlet’s Mill: An Essay Investigating the Origins of Human Knowledge and Its Transmission through Myth. David Godine, Boston.
[3] Sellers, J.B., 2003. The Death of Gods in Ancient Egypt, a study of the threshold of myth and the frame of time - https://books.google.ca/books?id=jDKTAgAAQBAJ.
[4] https://pharaoh.se/pharaoh/Amenhotep-IV