Mark David's homepage
The Elements community on google+
Follow The Elements homepage
Djoser, The Northern Star and the Soul of the Dead
The oldest statue of a Pharaoh.
This is the oldest statue of a Pharaoh. The pharaoh Djoser's Ka statue peers out through the hole in his serdab, ready to receive the soul of the deceased and any offerings presented to it. This is a copy of the original statue, the image taken from Wiki, processed by me to make it look old. The original statue, the oldest life size statue in Egypt, is in the Egyptian museum, Cairo.
The beliefs of ancient Egypt are confusing for those entering the subject for the first time, it is helpful and insightful to appreciate how beliefs developed over time, time being one of the three main themes in The Elements (the 3 main themes are belief, fate and time).
Background
Because Egyptians believed that the soul had to be maintained in order to continue to exist in the afterlife. These openings "were not meant for viewing the statue but rather for allowing the fragrance of burning incense, and possibly the spells spoken in rituals, to reach the statue”.
There is beauty, in life. Especially, in life, life eternal.
Djoser’s original name was Netjerykhet. Netjerykhet and Imhotep built a mortuary temple so it could face the northern star. The mortuary temple complex was the place where the rituals and offerings to the dead were performed, the center of a cult to the dead, so life could live on, eternally.
Ansley’s eyes shone with an inner light. ‘Find the ka statue… the life force, the ka, is embodied in the statue, that is why statue’s were carved, as containers, so they could gain power from the rituals, incantations of spells. It allowed the ka to live, witnessed by the eyes into ka…
Only later, did the cult of death and rebirth through the cult of the sun replace the old beliefs.
The actual burial chambers preserving the body were cut deeper until they passed the bed rock and were often lined with wood. A "serdab", from the Persian word for "cellar", down here was used to store anything that may have been considered as an essential such as beer, cereal, grain, clothes and other precious items that would be needed in the afterlife.
The first King of the Pyramids
Above in the mastaba, (to be the subject of a separate blog), a serdab was also the place housing the life-statue of the dead King Djoser, father of the pyramid builders (and his architect Imhotep), in the temple complex at Saqqara (The Step Pyramid of Djoser).
‘Look for the star… this is an old, old place. Look for the star…’ He looked up., around him. ‘See, see what we have created by the hand of man, see. Eternity.’
The above ground pre-pyramid building, the mastaba, housed a statue of the deceased that was hidden within the masonry for its protection. High up the walls of the serdab were small openings, because according to the ancient Egyptians, the ba could leave the body but it had to return to its body - or it would die.
These cults were in being in connection with a cult of the Northern Star, before the later cult of death and rebirth associated with Ra, the god of the sun. This is an important distinction, since the cult of Egyptian gods followed a path back to origins lost to us. A northern-orientation was thus preserved in the North-South axis of the later pyramids.
image processed from original by Charles J Sharp, Wiki Commons
Info
Because Egyptians believed that the soul had to be maintained in order to continue to exist in the afterlife. These openings "were not meant for viewing the statue but rather for allowing the fragrance of burning incense, and possibly the spells spoken in rituals, to reach the statue”.
The actual burial chambers preserving the body were cut deeper until they passed the bed rock and were often lined with wood. A "serdab", from the Persian word for "cellar", down here was used to store anything that may have been considered as an essential such as beer, cereal, grain, clothes and other precious items that would be needed in the afterlife.
Above in the mastaba, a serdab was also the place housing the life-statue of the dead King Djoser, father of the pyramid builders (and his architect Imhotep), in the temple complex at Saqqara (The Step Pyramid of Djoser).
The above ground pre-pyramid building, the mastaba, housed a statue of the deceased that was hidden within the masonry for its protection. High up the walls of the serdab were small openings, because according to the ancient Egyptians, the ba could leave the body but it had to return to its body - or it would die.
These cults were in being in connection with a cult of the Northern Star, before the later cult of death and rebirth associated with Ra, the god of the sun. This is an important distinction, since the cult of Egyptian gods followed a path back to origins lost to us. A northern-orientation was thus preserved in the North-South axis of the later pyramids.
Wiki:
No comments:
Post a Comment