KEPH-A-RA
by Winifred G. BartonCHAPTER
5
The Middle Kingdom
1980 B.C. to 1706 B.C.
As the flood waters throughout the world
subsided, Egypt began to rebuild itself, this time as one
nation. The magnitude of the natural disaster had caused
many people to leave their original homelands and seek
safety on higher ground.
Now the displaced wanderers were eager to
settle down in more permanent
locations. Mixed bands of people from both the Upper and
Lower Kingdoms
flocked to the Nile Delta. At first they lived in small
disorganized
communities which, in the course of time, grew into
towns, then into the
nuclei of political divisions, called nomes, which came
to be the
traditional characteristic of Egyptian political
geography.
From a geographical standpoint, Egypt, at this
time, was isolated from
the world at large by a vast expanse of water to the
north, near arid
desert to the west, and a distant boundary of hills to
the east, beyond
which lay another stretch of salt-water-soaked marshland
extending as
far as the eye could see.
Upper or Southern Egypt appeared as a long
narrow canyon cut into a
plateau by the Nile, with a comparatively narrow strip of
fertile land
along the riverbanks.
Lower or Northern Egypt was more like a broad
fertile plain which
continued to the "Red River" and beyond into
the eastern foothills. In
time, the settlers introduced a system of irrigation that
soon made
Lower Egypt the "bread basket" of the country,
and its capital city,
Noph, became the centre of great commercial activity.
Although Thebes in the South was the true
capital of Egypt, ruled by
the direct descendants of the ancient Pharaohs of the
City of Pillars,
the pace in Thebes was conservative and moderate compared
to the stream
of activity in the northern capital.
In supervising the reconstruction of Lower
Egypt, the priests selected
a leader (let's call him a king for the sake of
differentiation between
the leaders of the Upper and Lower Kingdoms). The king
was a direct
descendant of ancient Khe heritage, probably every bit as
"royal" as the
Pharaoh.
The new leader changed the name of the old
capital, Noph, to Memphis.
Memphis soon became the hub of a vast trading area with
most of its
activity centring directly around the king and his court.
The King, as indeed the Pharaoh in Upper
Egypt, had a dual capacity. He
was both head of church and head of state. It was at
Memphis that the
King, in his capacity as head of state, kept his
storehouses, scribes,
his civil service, his arsenal, and the enormous retinue
of servants who
governed his domain.
As head of the church, the monarch lived in
another city, Heliopolis
(Or), on the opposite bank of the Nile and here, over the
centuries,
built the most extensive and beautiful temples in all
Egypt,
establishing what might be termed a holy city.
At this time in Egyptian history there was a
multitudinous retinue
connected with the court, so that the King needed not
just a palace, but
an entire city to meet his domestic requirements.
In Memphis, the King's actual apartment was
easily distinguishable by
its projecting balcony from which he could watch the
daily drilling of
his guard, the stately approach of foreign envoys bearing
gifts, feudal
nobles seeking audience and numerous officials coming and
going about
their business.
Visitors would advance from the far end of the
courtyard to stop before
the balcony and prostrate themselves. Then they stood up
wringing their
hands, chanting the King's praises, imploring his
attention to their
cause.
The great halls in which the King dealt with
state affairs were
enormous. The ceiling was supported by long rows of tall
columns carved
out of rare wood and painted with intricate designs in
bright colours.
The doors in the palace were massive, inlaid with gold
and silver,
encrusted with malachite, lapis lazuli and other semi-precious
stones.
The king's private quarters were entirely
separate. They were connected
with the Queen's dwelling (unless she was sufficiently
illustrious to
have her own separate palace) and with the harem of wives
of inferior
rank.
The royal children, who numbered a legion,
once beyond the nursing age,
lived in quite separate quarter under the care of tutors
in "The House
of the Children". Later they had their own houses
and a train of
servants proportionate to their rank, age and the fortune
of the
mother's family. The nobles who had appointments at court
and the
highest of royal domestics lived in the place proper. But
the offices of
the different employees, the storehouses for provisions,
the homes of
minor functionaries, formed a distant village outside the
palace area
with small passageways and a labyrinth of connecting
courtyards spread
throughout the entire area.
(Note - in Book there are 6
pages of pictorial graphics)
Such a city was Memphis at the
height of its greatness. The inhabitants
of the city were the most varied craftsmen imaginable and
represented
every ethnic origin in the known world. First there were
the people
immediately serving the King, the palace retainers and
statesmen, each
with a highly complex degree of rank and status. It was
as if the King's
person was minutely subdivided into departments, each
requiring a
retinue of attendants. Ra was treated in much the same
manner.
The King's toilet alone gave rise
to a score of different trades. There
were royal barbers, manicurists, perfumers, massagers,
cosmeticians,
shoemakers, beltmakers, tailors. Each of these royal
appointees had his
own establishment and sub-establishments. There was a
legion of
laundresses, for example, who took the linen to laundries
on the banks
of the Nile where it was rinsed, starched, pleated and
smoothed, to fill
the incessant demands of a royal family who regarded
white as a symbol
of purity and who definitely associated cleanliness with
godliness.
The jewellers and metal craftsmen
also represented a major section of
the royal community, especially as the Kings were in the
habit of
expressing their favour with necklaces and jewels. The
tasks of the
jewellery craftsman was not an easy one when you consider
that every
piece of work was an original creation and the enormous
variety of
necklaces, earrings, bracelets, rings, sceptres and
diadems, which
ceremonial costume required for particular times and
occasions. The
royal keeper of the crowns was almost on a par with the
priesthood in
terms of status and dignity.
The Queen required numerous
attendants, as did the ladies of the harem.
Troops of musicians, singers, dancers, clowns and dwarfs
were in
constant demand to while away the leisure hours.
The staff of servants required
for supplying and serving food exceeded
all others in number, for there was no monetary exchange
system in Egypt
at this time and servants were paid in goods. The King
therefore had to
supply food not only for his family, civil service and
regular servants,
but for everyone remotely in his employ, as well as his
visitors and
their retinues.
The complex status of each of
these civil servants is impossible to
describe, though our scribe smiles to indicate
understanding and implies
that a similar situation still exists on earth today
among civilian
employees who serve the state. There were head-cooks,
grocers, game and
fruit dealers, pantrymen, pastry cooks, fishmongers,
butchers -- the
list is nearly endless. The bakers who made the ordinary
bread were not
to be confused with those who made biscuits. Pancake and
doughnut makers
took precedence over the cake makers. Those who concocted
delicate fruit
preserves were socially superior to the common date
dryers.
Honorary privileges, which were
highly esteemed and jealously guarded,
all formed a part of the complex social structure --
idioms of dress for
example, such as the right to wear sandals in the palace,
while the
general crowd of courtiers could only go unshod, or the
right to wear a
panther's skin or some other symbolical apparel, or the
right to kiss
the King's feet, or enter his bedchamber. At one time you
had similar
status symbols among white and blue collar workers in
North America.
However humble one was on the
civil service status list, it was still a
mark of honour so far as ordinary Egyptian citizens were
concerned. To
have once held a post in the King's household was
something to be proud
of in life and to boast of in one's epitaph.
Royal favour was the sole means
of selection to a higher position. The
chiefs, whom this army of servants obeyed, could be of
noble or common
descent. They could rise from the bottom to the top of
the palace
hierarchy by a single stroke of good fortune or by years
of painstaking
service.
Generally speaking, the higher
court officials held positions which
their fathers and grandfathers had held before them.
These men were the
recipients of closely guarded family secrets -- of
lotions, potions,
recipes etc., handed down in much the same way that the
priestly
hierarchy passed on its own inner secrets.
A few of the most favoured court
officials were called "Master of the
Secret of the Royal House", which meant the King
trusted them and acted
less formally in their presence. Often they had been the
companions of
his early formative years when he had still been living
an obscure life
in the "House of the Children." He had grown up
with them as brothers.
He lavished titles and offices upon them and trusted them
with the
innermost palace secrets.
The King, like all other men and
objects, was considered to be not one,
but two individuals. If the city of Memphis which housed
the elaborate
paraphernalia to support the King's mortal aspect could
be considered to
represent the physical King, then the temples at
Heliopolis could be
said to represent the King's immortal aspect; while the
palace at Thebes
could be construed as representing a joining of the dual
aspects.
For the mortal man we see the
irrigating, ploughing, sowing, reaping,
the building of barns and granaries, the fattening of
poultry and
cattle. This would lead to a group of workmen of all
descriptions
engaged in many trades -- smelters, glass blowers,
carpenters, weavers,
artists -- all this activity revolving around the person
of the King.
However, in the temples at
Heliopolis and in the sacred burial areas,
we would find an identical array of labourers and
craftsmen all depicted
in pictures -- pictures which supplied to the King's
double (or essence)
those things which his mortal person required on the
plane of existence.
Our scribe indicates a desire to
translate this into her own terms for
greater clarity to modern metaphysicians. Her aura
explodes in beautiful
little bursts of recognition and eagerness for expression
at these times
-- which is difficult to resist.
She is saying how wonderful it is
that since the dawn of human history
man has somehow recognized the duality of his being, as
depicted today
in the PSI-man symbol. Throughout the ages man has
constantly striven to
express this concept in different ways, but the meaning
never varies. In
modern metaphysics, Win teaches of twin realms of essence
and existence.
A central source of enlightenment pervades the dimension
of essence and
penetrates the dimension of existence in a form of crude
material
reality. too often modern man is confused by the illusion
that the
material world is all there is to reality, and fails to
focus his finer
powers of discernment to pierce the illusion and
experience the
dimension of essence.
In ancient Egypt, equal attention
was paid to caring for the double and
to caring for the physical, insofar as the needs of the
double were
understood. The King exemplified this concept.
The pyramid-building era was over.
During these years in Egypt another
kind of monument, comparatively crude and artless, was
being constructed
in quantity. This was the mastabas, the "Eternal
House" or burial
chambers of the Egyptian elite. While the bodies of
common people were
thrust naked into about a three-foot layer of sand, the
wealthier
classes provided elaborate chambers for their doubles.
These were
composed of an above-the-ground chapel, an underground
shaft and a few
subterranean vaults. The mastabas varied in size
according to the wealth
of the owner. The maximum size was about 30 to 40 feet
high, 80 feet
deep, and perhaps 160 feet in length. The minimum size
ran to about 16
feet square with a height of 10 feet. The four sides of
the buildings
faced the four cardinal points with usually an entrance
door on the east
side. At the door there was a smooth flagstone bearing
the name of the
deceased person, and an enumeration of his works and
titles.
Inside the mastabas faithful
portraits of the deceased, members of his
family, food and other earthly assets were carefully
inscribed on the
walls of the inner chambers. One scene might depict the
deceased seated
comfortably at a banquet, with water for absolution and
every possible
article for the comfort of the double. It was believed
that the double
would regularly partake of the food and comforts, or
rather enjoy the
double (or soul) of the bread, meat and beverages. It was
not even
necessary that these offerings should have a physical
existence in order
to be useful; the concept could suffice, which is why the
walls were so
richly inscribed with scenes depicting servants bringing
a constant
procession of offerings.
Every noble who built an "Eternal
House" had to make an agreement with
the priesthood to have the chapel served in perpetuity.
This particular
group of priests were called "Priests of the Double"
and their whole
lifetimes were spent performing liturgies for the dead.
The reward for
this service was a steady supply of meats, vegetables,
linens, liquors,
from the household of the deceased which, at times, could
ill afford the
constant sacrifice. It eventually got to the point where
a young family
might be paying for liturgies for ancestors deceased for
three or four
generations.
In order to ensure that the
double could, if necessary, be maintained
throughout the centuries, the thoughtful man not only
depicted
quantities of sustaining goods but made representation of
the lands and
activities by which more could be produced. There were
also scenes to
enable the double to more easily re-enact pleasant times
in his life --
hunting, eating and drinking with his wife, happy with
his family.
Again our scribe wishes to
comment. She notes a similarity between
these ideas and the things she has been taught by Loliad.
At the time of
his death, Loliad existed momentarily in triplicate; then
quickly the
Divine Spark returned to source, leaving his IDentity to
reflect on his
life errors in outer darkness for a thousand years.
The "Eternal House" of
the ancient Egyptians seems to reflect this
theme -- even to the point of providing a physical place
for the double
to occupy during its period of reflection and personal
purification
prior to that time when it is ready to sever earthly ties
and make a
final exit from this dimension.
The "Eternal House" of
ancient Egypt was much more like a
well-appointed residence than a tomb. Families made
regular visits and
had no shred of doubt that they were actually being
received by their
beloved. The master of the house, the deceased, was
surrounded by
everything that made earthly life enjoyable. There would
be many statues
of him around the chamber, usually depicting him
laughing, vigorous,
often phallus erectus. The statues were believed to be
not merely images
but alive and conscious, for as the double of a god could
be linked with
an idol in the temple, so could the double of a man
inhabit an effigy of
his physical body. This belief was so strongly taught by
the Egyptian
priesthood that it still persists in some religious
circles today. It
was passed down through Atlantis to Egypt, to Mythraism,
and survived to
become the basis of much of modern Christianity.
It was also believed that the
double could endow the statue with all
kinds of guardian powers. It could strike out to avenge
if its tomb-home
was invaded, or punish thieves who might try to plunder
the vault. The
double's power would be destroyed if the statue it
inhabits was broken.
Hence arose the practice of hiding away many statues in
the tomb. These
sustainers of the double insured for him a practical
immortality as well
as the power to continue operating in the mortal
dimension.
During the course of many
centuries the mastabas formed uninterrupted
lines of burial places, often lining the sides of regular
roads up the
present day -- a parade of living history.
The question of identity received
very serious consideration among my
people. The choice of name was of major consequence. Not
only did men
and animals have names, but even inanimate objects had
one or more
names. It was believed that no person or thing on Earth
attained
existence until a name had been conferred. The most
ancient names were
often a short word denoting some moral or physical
quality -- as Faith,
Hope and Charity would in your generation.
The names of nobles and royalty
were somewhat longer and more
meaningful, often consisting of a short sentence, for
example,
Menkauhoru -- "the doubles of Horus last forever",
and my own name
Keph-a-Ra, sometimes written Khafra -- "his rising
is Ra."
The identity or name having once
taken possession of a person at the
time of birth never left him, in either this world or the
next. In later
eras on earth, a person's occupation was often added to
their name to
complete the identity structure of the double; names such
as Smith,
Brewer, Shoemaker, Tanner, Hunter, Draper originate in
this manner.
While among ordinary mortals the
body was considered to be physical and
the double divine, the Pharaoh (King) was believed to be
divine in both
his body as well as his soul. He represented a god rather
than a man, a
successor of the gods who ruled the two worlds -- for
even in those days
no problem arose regarding the reality of the world of
essence and the
world of existence.
The Pharaohs were direct of
descendants of Ra from a physical point of
view insofar as it was implied that Ra secretly descended
to earth to
rejuvenate the human race by impregnating a mortal mother.
The Kings
were thus not only blood relatives of God but in addition
each of their
"doubles" detached from Osiris to become
infused in the royal infant at
the moment it received a name. It lay dormant in those
princes not
called upon by destiny to reign, but awoke to full self-consciousness
at
the time a King ascended to the throne, and from that
moment on the
mortal factor, of the Pharaoh was completely effaced.
When the royal
prince received his first name in infancy, this appendage
did not
include the whole man. The name of the double was
revealed to the prince
at the time of his ascension to the throne -- thus the
Pharaohs had a
"state name" and a "church name".
Because it was believed that the
King's double descended directly from
Ra, in hieroglyphics the double is often depicted as a
bird, frequently
a hawk or eagle, to represent power and freedom of the
soul.
In the temples an enthroned
statue of the Pharaoh, animated by one of
his doubles (for it was understood even then that the
Spirit was not
confined to any one place, but could be in many places at
any given
time) received worship, prophesied, and fulfilled all the
necessary
functions of a Divine Being both during his lifetime and
after he had
rejoined the company of gods in the cosmic dimension.
The Pharaoh, in his role of Head
of the Church, acted as a constant
mediator between his people and the gods. The King was
regarded as being
on terms of daily intercourse with the gods who told him
exactly how to
govern the country and foretold the future. His dreams
played a large
part in this communication and among the retinue in his
"Church City"
was a large staff of dream interpreters and minor
magicians, each
claiming some special powers.
After arriving in this dimension
it was a great joy for me to attend
classes given by the Cosmic Lord, Loliad-R-Kahn, and
realize the origin
of so many of the customs and beliefs of my people.
In the beginning when Lower Egypt
was strongly influenced by Khe,
communication directly with God was available to all by
the simple
process of turning the mind towards Him and offering a
humble heart.
There were no temples, no rituals, no priests, and no
secrets. Because
of this, Lower Egypt did not develop politically in the
same way as the
Upper Kingdom. In earlier times there was no one great
monarch in the
south, but rather a series of feudal communities with
authority more
generally spread among various patriarchs.
Gradually, however, over a period
of several hundreds of years this
system eroded. Travellers returned with tales of the
spectacle and
glamour of the Upper Kingdom, and the wealth and power of
its gods.
Meanwhile, Upper Egypt,
influenced by early Atlantean missionaries
seeking personal power, had started common men along a
trend which by
this time had led to an almost insane way of pomp and
ceremony.
Nevertheless, a single, comprehensive theme emerged.
For many years prior to the
downfall of Atlantis, the powerful priestly
sect had taught that they alone could intercede with the
gods on behalf
of the people. Succeeding generations of ambitious high
priests
(probably themselves half-believing what they taught, for
invariably a
high priest was the son of the son of a high priest and
trained from
infancy to believe implicitly the Church teachings) led
the way to soul
slavery.
With each passing decade God
became more and more removed from the
people and supposedly relinquished more and more of his
power to the
priesthood, while religious amalgamation between sects
solidified their
ideas.
The myth of the annunciation was
one of many taught in order to help
invest a single mortal with god-like powers. One of the
most tragic
aspects, the aspect which had a cosmic classroom rocking
with agony, was
to see the true beauty of the original grains of
spiritual truth which
had been passed down to mankind, and the horrible way in
which a jungle
of ego-twistings had grown up to bend it to suit the ego
of the
priesthood.
Other books in this series go
into full detail of how every PSI is a
spark of God in the flesh. Every baby has a physical
casing produced by
a union of physical parents. Likewise, every baby has a
double -- an
essence-self -- a PSI, dwelling in the flesh and living
on after its
mortal causing is dust. This is the true meaning of the
story that
spirit does indeed cohabit with flesh in producing an
infant which is a
physical-spiritual hybrid, a facet of God incarnate.
With regard to the Pharaoh's
divinity, clever and ambitious priests,
vying with each other for power over the years, had
realized the value
of unity -- one great central source of authority. This
concept, under
the emergence of the great god, Ra, had served to unite
Upper Egypt
under a single God-State ruler, making it stronger than
the loosely
divided system used in Lower Egypt.
It is painful to reflect that
free will which is exercised without fear
or dogma is a far more difficult force to wield for good
than rigid
structure and dogma. Some of our students on earth today
would like to
see metaphysics rolling forward like a steam roller,
crushing all
opposition in its path.
Only an intelligence and love as
exquisite as the Master's could rightly
predict, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall
inherit the Earth," in
the face of such mountainous evidence to the contrary,
amassed over
thousands of years of Earth history.
Each individual will seek
personal freedom from the bondage of his
inner fears and rigid programming. Then, of his own free
will, he can
become a lion in the fight to change the present
orientation of human
thought -- which is the goal of modern metaphysics.
Earlier in this chapter we spoke
of the displaced Egyptians' trying to
find places to settle, and of the fact that the King of
Lower Egypt was
of the Khe heritage. We have spoken of the hills which
sketched the
eastern boundary of Egypt and the marshes which lay
beyond.
Thence came Abram and his
wandering tribe. Abram claimed kinship with
the ruling house of Lower Egypt by virtue of their common
Khe ancestry.
The evidence would indicate that Abram's claims were
valid, for these
were hard times, and it would have been almost impossible
for such a
sizeable community to receive a welcome otherwise. In
this story, it was
not only Abram and his tribe, but his nephew, Lot, and
his people also.
Abram and his family had
previously been settled in the land beyond the
Euphrates. In seeking richer pastures, Abram's tribe had
overcome and
captured many of the people already occupying lands which
he had passed
through and spoiled. Both Abram and Lot had become rich
on their journey
by the simple expedient of plunder.
They arrived in Egypt rich in
cattle, silver, sheep and servants, yet
still without the Law of the Ten Commandments.
Times were such that survival of
the fittest was the predominant law
governing earthlings. Yet even now, Abram paid homage to
Yaweh, the
monotheistic, all-terrible protector of Israel.
Interesting evidence of
Abram's adherence lies in the fact that at no time would
any of the
Israelites recognize by name any authority who
represented another
church.
Although in the biblical version
of these events emphasis is placed on
naming servants, places, and the minor rulers of
political districts,
not once is the Sovereign Head of the Church and State
given a name.
The biblical version deals with
three crucial events of the times: the
tales of Joseph, his family and his predictions of
forthcoming famine;
the story of Moses, his discovery in the bull rushes and
subsequent rise
to power; and of the Exodus of the Israelites and the
events surrounding
the time of their departure. Throughout the whole
history, covering
more than two hundred years, not one single Pharaoh is
named.
As in all human versions of
interaction between Spirit and man, the
scribes arranged the facts of the matter in such a way as
to imply a
special status for their people in the eyes of the gods.
Actually,
Chapters Twelve and Thirteen of Genesis describe the
various wiles and
deceits practiced by the Israelites to cheat the
Egyptians who had
actually treated them with fairness and honour.
Finally Abram and Lot quarrelled
between themselves and decided to part
company -- Lot to occupy the plain of Jordan and Abram
the land of
Canaan. Thus began two hundred and fifteen years of
Israelite sojourn in
Egypt.
The Israelites settled in the
district of Rameses in a relatively poor
pasture area, just north of Or, the religious capital.
The land was
swampy and often covered with water, which explains why
Jacob had no
trouble getting permission to settle the land. The
Egyptians were hoping
that the skills and industry of the Israelites would
develop the area
and make it fruitful. The results proved much more
effective than the
Egyptians had ever imagined. The land, the flocks, and
the people all
prospered even as stated in Genesis 47:27: "And
Israel dwelt in the land
Egypt in the country of Goshen; and they had possessions
therein and
grew and multiplied exceedingly."
The rapid growth of the Jewish
population was mostly due to their
system of inbreeding and the practice of breeding
servants to beget
servants at such times in the female menstrual cycle that
pregnancy was
almost bound to occur. This rate was out of all
proportion to the
general population of Egypt.
In time the land of Rameses
because too small to contain all the
Israelites, and they started to fan out into a broader
area, presenting
a real threat to the priests of Egypt who had for some
time been eyeing
the situation with alarm. The main threat was that the
Israelites had a
totally different system of worship and spoke out quite
frankly against
the inadequacy of Ra and his entourage. They also had a
very positive
identity structure and were apt to outwit and override
the regular
Egyptian population.
Stern measures to combat the
Israelite threat were inaugurated. As they
had chosen to use "the war of the cradle" to
gain numerical supremacy (a
practice repeated time and time again with minority
groups to gain
power) the priests decided to combat this plan with one
of their own.
And so it came to pass that the
decree went out that all male babies
born to the Israelites would be destroyed. The girls,
however, useful
for later intermarriage with the Egyptians, would be
saved.
Even in those days it was
customary for a woman to come to her husband
with a dowry and to formally accept his faith as her own.
This system
was open to all kinds of intrigue. Often the bride gave
lip service only
and all kinds of religious skulduggery was practiced in
the harems among
foreign-born wives who secretly worshipped other gods.
The Master and His Cosmic Host
must have been sorely tried in those
days, trying to help everyone, especially the cause of
human evolution.
Balancing out all the aspects to get the most for the
mostest, and
viewing the situation from an empathetic rather than a
sympathetic
viewpoint must surely have had the heavens humming.
However, in the final outcome,
despite every possible hardship and all
the cruelties and cross-cruelties, the Israelites
survived.
Moses knew, however, the time had
to shortly come when his people would
have to move on to a new land -- the permanent home
promised by Jaweh --
a land flowing with milk and honey.
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