MEDITATION The Ancient Egyptian Path to Enlightenment Many people do not know about the rich history of meditation practice in Ancient Egypt. This volume outlines the theory of meditation and presents the Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic text which give instruction as to the nature of the mind and its three modes of expression. It also presents the texts which give instruction on the practice of meditation for spiritual Enlightenment and unity with the Divine. This volume allows the reader to begin practicing meditation by explaining, in easy to understand terms, the simplest form of meditation and working up to the most advanced form which was practiced in ancient times and which is still practiced by yogis around the world in modern times.

26.HEALING THE CRIMINAL HEART. Introduction to Maat Philosophy, Yoga and Spiritual Redemption Through the Path of Virtue Who is a criminal? Is there such a thing as a criminal heart? What is the source of evil and sinfulness and is there any way to rise above it? Is there redemption for those who have committed sins, even the worst crimes? Ancient Egyptian mystical psychology holds important answers to these questions. Over ten thousand years ago mystical psychologists, the Sages of Ancient Egypt, studied and charted the human mind and spirit and laid out a path which will lead to spiritual redemption, prosperity and Enlightenment. This introductory volume brings forth the teachings of the Asarian Resurrection, the most important myth of Ancient Egypt, with relation to the faults of human existence: anger, hatred, greed, lust, animosity, discontent, ignorance, egoism jealousy, bitterness, and a myriad of psycho-spiritual ailments which keep a human being in a state of negativity and adversity

Bojana Mojsov tells the story of the cult of Osiris from beginning to end, sketching its development throughout 3,000 years of Egyptian history.
Draws together the numerous records about Osiris from the third millennium B.C. to the Roman conquest of Egypt.
Demonstrates that the cult of Osiris was the most popular and enduring of the ancient religions.
Shows how the cult provided direct antecedents for many ideas, traits and customs in Christianity, including the concept of the trinity, baptism in the sacred river, and the sacrament of the Eucharist.
Reveals the cult's influence on other western mystical traditions and groups, such as the Alchemists, Rosicrucians and Freemasons.
Written for a general, as well as a scholarly audience.

This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishings Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the worlds literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

In their wide-ranging interpretation of the religion of ancient Egypt, Francoise Dunand and Christiane Zivie-Coche explore how, over a period of roughly 3500 years, the Egyptians conceptualized their relations with the gods. Drawing on the insights of anthropology, the authors discuss such topics as the identities, images, and functions of the gods; rituals and liturgies; personal forms of piety expressing humanity's need to establish a direct relation with the divine; and the afterlife, a central feature of Egyptian religion. That religion, the authors assert, was characterized by the remarkable continuity of its ritual practices and the ideas of which they were an expression.Throughout, Dunand and Zivie-Coche take advantage of the most recent archaeological discoveries and scholarship. Gods and Men in Egypt is unique in its coverage of Egyptian religious expression in the Ptolemaic and Roman periods. Written with nonspecialist readers in mind, it is largely concerned with the continuation of Egypt's traditional religion in these periods, but it also includes fascinating accounts of Judaism in Egypt and the appearance and spread of Christianity there."

Contents: nature of gods; nature of man; future life; animal worship; groups of gods, animal-headed gods; human gods; cosmic gods; abstract gods; foreign gods; cosmogony; ritual and priesthood; sacred books; private worship; Egyptian ethics; influence of Egypt.

First English-language edition, with revisions and additions by the author.This classic work by one of the world's most distinguished Egyptologists was first published in German in 1984. The Search for God in Ancient Egypt offers a distillation of Jan Assmann's views on ancient Egyptian religion, with special emphasis on theology and piety. Deeply rooted in the texts of ancient Egypt and thoroughly informed by comparative religion, theology, anthropology, and semiotic analysis, Assmann's interpretations reveal the complexity of Egyptian thought in a new way.Assmann takes special care to distinguish between the "implicit" theology of Egyptian polytheism and the "explicit" theology that is concerned with exploring the problem of the divine. His discussion of polytheism and mythology addresses aspects of ritual, the universe, and myth; his consideration of explicit theology deals with theodicy and the specifics of Amarna religion.

The gods were everywhere in Ancient Egypt. Represented by statues, bas-reliefs, and funerary paintings, they even walked among the Egyptians in the person of Pharaoh, considered to be a living god, son of the divine Ra. What better way to understand that distant culture than by becoming familiar with the people who served those gods?

Using as his sources the Egyptian texts and the testimony of classical authors, Serge Sauneron illuminates the role of the priesthood in Ancient Egypt. He re-creates the system of thought of one of the great civilizations of antiquity, addressing such topics as priestly functions, the world of the temples, holy festivals, tombs, and pyramids.

Sauneron describes the ceremonies of daily worship, considered vital in preventing the world's descent into chaos. He takes us deep into the sacred precincts of the temples -- home to the divine statues in which a part of the god was believed to dwell. One of the duties of the priests was to maintain these sacred effigies, to nourish, clothe, and protect them from attacks by evil spirits.

This edition of The Priests of Ancient Egypt, an augmented version of the 1957 classic, was published in France in 1988, and has been translated authoritatively by David Lorton.

Akhenaten, also known as Amenhotep IV, was king of Egypt during the Eighteenth Dynasty and reigned from 1375 to 1358 B.C. Called the "religious revolutionary, " he is the earliest known creator of a new religion. The cult he founded broke with Egypt's traditional polytheism and focused its worship on a single deity, the sun god Aten. Erik Hornung, one of the world's preeminent Egyptologists, here offers a concise and accessible account of Akhenaten and his religion of light.

Hornung begins with a discussion of the nineteenth-century scholars who laid the foundation for our knowledge of Akhenaten's period and extends to the most recent archaeological Finds. He emphasizes that Akhenaten's monotheistic theology represented the first attempt in history to explain the entire natural and human world on the basis of a single principle. "Akhenaten made light the absolute reference point, ' Hornung writes, "and it is astonishing how clearly and consistently he pursued this concept." Hornung also addresses such topics as the origins of the new religion; profound changes in beliefs regarding the afterlife; and the new Egyptian capital at Akhenaten which was devoted to the service of Aten, his prophet Akhenaten, and the latter's family.

The contents of the texts range from the collection of spells in the Book of the Dead, which was intended to offer practical assistance on the journey to the afterlife, to the derailed accounts of the hereafter provided in the Books of the Netherworld. Hornung looks closely at these latter works, while summarizing the contents of the Book of the Dead and other widely studied examples of the genre. For each composition, he discusses the history of its ancient transmission and its decipherment in modern times, supplying bibliographic information for any text editions. He also seeks to determine whether this literature as a whole presents a monolithic conception of the afterlife. The volume features many drawings from the books themselves -- drawings that illustrate the nocturnal course of the sun god through the realm of the dead.

Originally published in German and now available in a fluid English translation, this volume offers an accessible and enlightening introduction to a central element of ancient Egyptian religion.

Introduction; The Instruction of Ptah-Hotep; The Instruction of Ke'Gemni; Note to appendix; The Instruction of Amenemheet; Explanation of Names; Bibliography.

This is the first English translation of a highly appealing volume originally published in French in 1993. Informed by a sense of wonderment at divine doings, it treats the ancient Egyptian gods as if they were an ethnic group that captured the fancy of ethnologists or sociologists. The book begins with the discussion of the gods' community as a society unto itself. The authors describe the structures of the society of the gods and some of the conflicts that frequently upset it, with individual gods acting to protect their own positions in an established hierarchy and struggling to gain power over their fellows. The nature of their immortal but not vulnerable bodies, their pleasures, and their needs are considered. What did they eat, the authors ask, and did they feel pain? The second part of the book cites familiar traditions and littleknown texts to explain the relationship of the gods to the pharaoh, who was believed to represent them on earth. By performing appropriate rites, the pharaoh maintained a delicate equilibrium, balancing the sky home of the sun god, the underworld of Osiris and the dead, and the earth itself. While each world was autonomous and had its own mythological context, the separate spheres were also interdependent, requiring the sun's daily course and the pharaoh's ritual actions to ensure the cohesion of the universe.

Rudolf Steiner emphasizes the astonishing and special relationship between our own time and that of ancient Egypt-how, in the natural rhythm of the ages, the so-called third Post-Atlantian (Egyptian) epoch is mirrored by the fifth (present) epoch. In this sense, today it is especially relevant to look at ancient Egypt with fresh eyes. The evolution of Western civilization has been profoundly influenced by Egyptian myths through the Greek mysteries. Because of other influences, however, this heritage has degenerated-thinking has mummified, and myth has all but disappeared. Consequently, it is important to revive the seed of goodness passed down to us from ancient Egypt. Through true imagination, we have the task of renewing human knowledge of the creative forces in nature, as the Egyptians attempted through the Osiris-Isis myth, and the Greeks through the myth of Demeter. This is what Steiner attempts in this lecture cycle. Steiner's subjects include: experiences of Egyptian initiations; esoteric anatomy and physiology; the stages of evolution of the human form; and much more. The final lecture is on the Christ impulse as the conqueror of matter.

A Study of the Temple-Worship and Mythology of the Ancient Egyptians; Contents: The Worship of the Sun and the Dawn; First Glimpses of Egyptian Astronomy; Astronomical Basis of the Egyptian Pantheon; Two Horizons; Yearly Path of the sun-God; Probable Hor-Shesu Worship; Methods of Determining the Orientation of Temples; Earliest Solar Shrines in Egypt; Other Similar Shrines Elsewhere; Solar Temple of Amen-Ra at Karnak; Age of the Temple of Amen-Ra at Karnak; Stars-Their Risings and Settings; Egyptian Heavens-Zodiacs of Denderah; Circumpolar Constellations: The Myth of Horus; Temples Directed to the Stars; Further Inquiries with Regard to the Stellar Temples; Building Inscriptions; Star Temples at Karnak; Personification of Stars-Temple of Isis at Denderah; Temple of Hathor at Denderah; Star-Cults; Egyptian Year and the Nile; Years of 360 and 365 Days; Vague and the Sirian Years; Sothic Cycle and the Use made of it; Calendar and its Revision; Fixed Year and Festival Calendars; Mythology of Isis and Osiris; Temple-Stars; History of Sun-Worship at Annu and Thebes; Early Temple and Great Pyramid Builders; Cult of Northern as Opposed to Southern Stars; Origin of Egyptian Astronomy-Northern Schools; General Conclusions as to the North and South Races; Egyptian and Babylonian Ecliptic Constellations; Influence of Egypt Upon Temple-Orientation in Greece.

With Their Influence on the Opinions of Modern Christendom. "When Christians shall at length acknowledge that many of those doctrines, which together now make up orthodoxy, or the religion of the majority, as distinguished from the simple religion which Jesus taught and practised; when they shall acknowledge that many of them are so many sad and lamentable errors; then, and not till then, will they seek to know their origin, and enquire from which of the several branches of Paganism they sprung. They will then see that most of the so-called Christian doctrines, that have no place in the New Testament, reached Europe from Egypt, through Alexandria." Contents: Religion of Upper Egypt; Religion of Lower Egypt; Religion Under the Persian Conquerors; Religion Under the Ptolemies; Religion Under the Romans; Christianity Under the Roman Emperors; Christianity Under the Byzantine Emperors.

What is the Tekenu? What was its function? What are its origins? These are questions upon which Egyptologists have long pondered. However, Egyptologists, until now, have avoided any major work on the topic. Previous treatments of the Tekenu largely adopt a selective approach focusing on a specific form. Rarely has the Tekenu been examined profoundly in all of its forms or contexts with its possible origins commented upon merely in passing. The aim of The Tekenu and Ancient Egyptian Funerary Ritual is to provide a provocative examination and interpretation of the Tekenu in an endeavour to proffer plausible answers hitherto eluding scholars. Attested from the Fifth Dynasty until, and including the Saite Period, the Tekenu is a puzzling icon which is depicted within the funerary scenes in the tombs of some ancient Egyptian nobles. In this work four distinct types of Tekenu are identified and classified and then a Corpus Catalogue is formed. The Tekenu is appraised within the context of the wall scene. Two tombs are dealt with in greater detail.

SHAMANISM / SPIRITUALITY"Shamanic Mysteries of Egypt is a valuable contribution toward uniting Science and Spirit. Combining ancient wisdom with guided shamanic journeys, it offers readers an opportunity to experience personal evolution through merging the knowledge of the mind (the source of Science) with the awareness of the heart (the source of Spirit)." --Bruce H. Lipton, Ph.D., author of The Biology of Belief "This book is based upon a startling premise--that the deities of ancient Egypt embody and express the myriad aspects of Nature as archetypal forces that have 'overseen' the human experiment from the very beginnings of our long journey across eternity. This compelling book will change the lives of its readers. I couldn't put it down!" --Hank Wesselman, Ph.D., author of the Spiritwalker Trilogy and The Journey to the Sacred Garden In Shamanic Mysteries of Egypt, Nicki Scully and Linda Star Wolf renew humanity's connection to the ancient gods of Egypt, the neteru. Voices from these divine ancestors remind us of the healing power of the heart, and call us to bring their consciousness into the present to help us remember our true nature as divine humans with sacred purpose. The authors provide rituals, meditations, and rites of passage that allow us to meet our personal and planetary challenges with grace, wisdom, and love. The shamanic initiations provided are invoked, directly experienced, and transformed into embodied wisdom that awakens consciousness and illumines the intelligence of the heart.Scully and Star Wolf focus their rituals on twenty-six of the primary divine entities that preside over the ancient mysteries whose roots are in Old Kingdom and prehistoric Egypt. Thisfresh interpretation of ancient mysteries unites the energies of Thoth and Anubis to guide us through the current cycle of Earth changes and to help us remember who we really are at heart. Through these passages, Anubis lives up to his ancient title as the Opener of the Way, and Thoth as the Architect of Higher Learning. Together they evoke their power to unite heart and mind in the sacred marriage that brings transformation, renewal, and the awakening of consciousness.Nicki Scully has been a healer and teacher of shamanism and the Egyptian mysteries since 1983. She lectures worldwide and specializes in spiritual tours to sacred sites in Egypt, Peru, and other countries. The author of Power Animal Meditations and Alchemical Healing, she lives in Eugene, Oregon. Linda Star Wolf is the founder of Venus Rising Institute for Shamanic Healing Arts. She is a shamanic guide who has led transformational workshops in the United States and abroad since 1984. She lives in North Carolina.

Akhenaten, also known as Amenhotep IV, was king of Egypt during the Eighteenth Dynasty and reigned from 1375 to 1358 B.C. E. Called the "religious revolutionary," he is the earliest known creator of a new religion. The cult he founded broke with Egypt's traditional polytheism and focused its worship on a single deity, the sun god Aten. Erik Hornung, one of the world's preeminent Egyptologists, here offers a concise and accessible account of Akhenaten and his religion of light.Hornung begins with a discussion of the nineteenth-century scholars who laid the foundation for our knowledge of Akhenaten's period and extends to the most recent archaeological finds. He emphasizes that Akhenaten's monotheistic theology represented the first attempt in history to explain the entire natural and human world on the basis of a single principle. "Akhenaten made light the absolute reference point," Hornung writes, "and it is astonishing how clearly and consistently he pursued this concept." Hornung also addresses such topics as the origins of the new religion; pro-found changes in beliefs regarding the afterlife; and the new Egyptian capital at Akhetaten which was devoted to the service of Aten, his prophet Akhenaten, and the latter's family.

This book provides the first edition with an extensive introduction and full commentary of a unique land survey written on papyrus in Greek which derives from that area of southern (Upper) Egypt known as the Apollonopolite (or Edfu) nome and is now preserved in Copenhagen. Dating from the late second century BC, this survey provides a new picture of both landholding and taxation in the area which differs significantly from that currently accepted. The introduction sets this new evidence in its contemporary context, drawing particular attention to what it reveals about the nature of the relations of the Ptolemaic royal administration with local grandees, Egyptian temples and the army. No student of Hellenistic Egypt can afford to ignore this text, which importantly extends our knowledge of Upper Egypt under the Ptolemaic kings and involves some modification to the prevailing picture of landholding in Hellenistic Egypt.

'A complex, gorgeous and compelling tapestry of love, death, trust and betrayal' - Daily Mail A sweeping historical fantasy saga based on the hit podcast Tumanbay ****** 'Immersive, rich, compelling and populated with characters who come alive on the page, it will transport you to a different world. I loved it and didn't want it to end.' - Sarah Lotz, author of The Three 'Written with the finesse of a master-assassin's dagger... I could not put it down!' Christian Cameron ****** Tumanbay: the most magnificent city on earth. The beating heart of a vast empire. A city of dreams - where those who arrived as slaves now reside in the seat of power. But the wheel of fate is never still: from the gilded rooftops to the dark catacombs, there are secrets waiting to be uncovered. For Gregor, Master of the Palace Guard, the work of rooting out spies and traitors is never done. His brother, the great General Qulan, must quell a distant rebellion. Whilst Shajah, chief wife to the Sultan, is suspicious that her new maid Sarah is not who she claims to be. And a mysterious stranger arrives with a gift for the Sultan himself. A gift that will change Tumanbay forever... ****** 'The writing and imagery are flawless, taking you right into the heart of the story and characters. While I was reading, this was MY world, and you can't ask for more than that from a fantasy novel.' Reader review (five stars)

Has the ancient Egyptian cult of immortality resurfaced in Brighton? When a freshly-mummified body is discovered at the Brighton Museum of Natural History, Detective Francis Sullivan is at a loss to identify the desiccated woman. But as Egyptian burial jars of body parts with cryptic messages attached start appearing, he realises he has a serial killer on his hands. Revenge, obsession and an ancient religion form a potent mix, unleashing a wave of terror throughout the city. Caught in a race against time while battling his own demons, Francis must fight to uncover the true identity of the Embalmer before it's too late...