-Caveat Lector- <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"> </A> -Cui Bono?- GATEWAY TO THE GODS A New Approach to the Mysteries of Ancient Egypt http://www.templarlodge.com/stargate.html#Ancient Egypt, Mars & ET's Exclusive extract from a lecture by LYNN PICKNETT and CLIVE PRINCE at the Templar Lodge Hotel, Gullane, near Edinburgh, Scotland, 7th June 1999 Our research for The Stargate Conspiracy - although mainly leading to the uncovering of the conspiracy of the title - also opened up other, more positive and exciting, avenues that offer a solution to some of the enduring mysteries of ancient Egypt. Previously, we discussed the two most popular theories put forward to explain the puzzle of the ancient Egyptians' inexplicably advanced techniques - that the ancient Egyptians either learned their skills from a lost civilisation, or from visiting extraterrestrials. We would now like to offer an alternative theory, which, although not evoking Atlanteans or space-gods still has a resolutely otherwordly quality. The technical achievements of the ancient Egyptians, as displayed most obviously in the building of monuments such as the Great Pyramid and the Sphinx of Giza, and the questions that they pose for conventional historians, are too well known to need repeating here. But it was not only in this area that the Egyptians were so sophisticated. Even in the superficial field of cosmetics, recent discoveries have shown that their practical application of chemistry was far from primitive. In fact, they did what Givenchy and Christian Dior have only just begun to do, incorporating active sun-block into foundation creams. However, what most intrigued was the extraordinary cosmological knowledge that can be found within their religious texts. The earliest religion known in ancient Egypt was that of Heliopolis. Now buried under a suburb of Cairo, and marked by a single obelisk, Heliopolis was the greatest religious centre of ancient Egypt, and home to not only what we would call religion, bur also every other kind of knowledge, from philosophy and medicine to cosmology. The High Priest of Heliopolis also held the title that translates as 'Chief Astronomer'. Imhotep, the genius who designed and built the first pyramid, the Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara, was a priest of Heliopolis. We don't know when Heliopolis was established, but we do know that when records began in Egypt it was already the supreme religious centre. The religion of Heliopolis was the religion of the pyramid builders. In fact, the three Giza pyramids align with Heliopolis, which is 12 miles (20km) away. This is one alignment that is even accepted by Egyptologists. The religion of Heliopolis is encapsulated in the famous Pyramid Texts, which are hieroglyphic inscriptions covering the walls of some fourth dynasty pyramids. Although the earliest inscripions date from some 200 years after the building of the Great Pyramid, there is no doubt that the texts are much older. From studying them, we can discover not only what the Heliopolitan priesthood believed in a religious sense, but also the extent of their knowledge in other areas. The central theme of the Pyramid Texts is the afterlife - or rather the presumed afterlife - journey of the King, in which he is identified with the god Osiris and ascends to the heavens where he is transformed into a star. In this otherwordly realm he has many adventures in which he encounters various gods and other entities, and has to persuade them to accept him into their ranks. When this happens he is reincarnated as his own successor, in the form of Osiris's son Horus. The most fundamental revelation of the Pyramid Texts is that the Heliopolitan religion was essentially monotheistic. (Will admirers of Akhenaten please take note!) Although there were many god-forms, they were all understood to represent the many aspects of the One God, Atum. In fact, all living things were considered as part of Atum, including mankind. In the Heliopolitan creation story, in the beginning the Universe was a formless, watery void, called Nun. Out of this emerged a phallic-shaped hill, the primeval mound, the centre of all creation. On this hill, Atum masturbated himself to an explosive orgasm that both gave birth to the Universe and seeded it with life. From this act, the Universe expanded outward, becoming ever more complex and unfolding through many levels of creation until the material world that we inhabit came into being. Atum was hermaphroditic, encompassing both male and female principles. But immediately after his creative act, two beings, the god Shu and the goddess Tefnut, emerge. Another name for Tefnut is Ma'at, goddess of eternal justice and balance. Shu is the male principle, the active force, and Tefnut the female principle that limits, controls and directs the male. The principle of duality - similar to the Taoist yin-yang - is fundamental to the Heliopolitan system. >From the union of Shu and Tefnut are born Geb, the Earth god and Nut, the sky goddess. They, in turn, give birth to the famous double pair of brother-sister twins, Isis and Osiris, and Nephyts and Set. They express the principle of duality in two ways - male-female and light-dark. These are the nine gods of the Great Ennead, but they remain only expressions of Atum, reaching through the levels of creation from the void Nun to the world of matter in which we live. To the Helipolitans, Osiris was also Geb, and Shu, and Atum. Through the offspring of Isis and Osiris, the magical child Horus, the system is repeated. Horus becomes head of the Lesser Ennead, the nine gods of this world. Horus is to this plane of existence what Atum is to the Universe. Horus is, in effect, the god of this world. The Heliopolitan system is multi-layered and expresses several ideas at once in an extremely elegant way. For example, in an association of imagery, the emergence of Atum's hill from Nun was equated with the rising of the sun, and the daily 'birth' of the sun was considered a microcosm of the original creation event. This is why Atum is associated with the sun-god Ra, sometimes referred to as Ra-Atum. This explains much of the fluidity, and apparent confusion, in the way the ancient Egyptians seem to have mixed and matched their gods. For example, the association of Atum and Horus explains why the Sphinx of Giza was called variously, and simultaneously, the 'Living Image of Atum', Horakhti ('Horus of the Horizon') and Ra-Horakhti. It was built to face towards the rising sun, Ra, which equated with the creation of the Universe by Atum, who was also identified with Horus, head of the Lesser Ennead and god of this world. But there is more to this complex and elegant system than simply a series of metaphysical correspondences. In the Heliopolitan creation myth the Universe bursts forth from a point of singularity and expands, as it does so becoming ever more complex as new levels of creation come into existence until the material world that we inhabit appears. This is strikingly similar to modern theories of the origins and evolution of the Universe - the 'Big Bang' and 'Expanding Universe' theories. But the Heliopolitan myths go a lot further than this. Although Nun, the original void, is formless, it is also described as water. It is within this that Atum's Hill appears - which is equated with the sun. Interestingly, scientists have only recently discovered that water is found in interstellar space in far greater quantities than previously considered possible. It is now believed that such clouds of water play a vital role in the creation of stars - in other words, suns. Modern scientists are, in effect, saying that suns emerge from water - formless clouds of water. Is it possible that the priests and priestesses of Heliopolis knew this as well? There is another, equally provocative, parallel. Recently, a NASA team researching the origins of life in the Universe made an astonishing announcement. For decades, scientists have been trying to create, in the laboratory, some of the complex molecules that are necessary for life - and have always failed. However, this NASA team recreated the conditions found inside clouds of gas in interstellar space - and found that these extremely complex molecules could not only be created very easily but virtually formed themselves. It is, therefore, easier for the molecules necessary for primitive life to evolve in space than on a planet. They are probably then 'seeded' onto planets by comets, where they can then begin to evolve into more complex life-forms. This even led the leader of the NASA team to state: 'I begin to really believe that life is a cosmic imperative.' In other words, life - or the potential for life - exists throughout the Universe. Belgian writer and researcher Philip Coppens has pointed out that all of this is implicit in the Heliopolitan creation myth, in which Atum seeds the Universe with life. It is extremely significant that the most sacred object of Heliopolis was the ben-ben stone, which most Egyptologists believe to have been of meteoric origin. The name 'ben-ben' derives from the ancient Egyptian word meaning 'seed' or 'semen', brilliantly encapsulating the concept of the seeding of life on Earth by objects from space. Faced with these realisations - as well as the well-known mysteries of the ancient Egyptians' advanced technical skills - we naturally came to consider the question of where they had acquired such knowledge. Where, or from whom, had they learned such things? But we also asked another question. These mysteries concern things that happened in the ancient past, and the obvious problem is that we cannot study the past directly. We cannot go back in time and see what happened for ourselves. Therefore we are left with the interpretation of archaeological and textual evidence, which inevitably leads to some degree of speculation. The question we asked was: is there any parallel for the acquisition of inexplicably advanced knowledge that we can study directly - in other words, that is happening in the world today, We believe that there is. <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soap-boxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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