Book Review of Ancient Egyptian Mysticism and It's Relevance Today By John Van Auken
I've always had a deep attraction to all things Egyptian. You don't have to believe in reincarnation or find the work of Edgar Cacye to be even slightly true to appreciate this book. If you merely pick it up out of curiosity to view Egypt through the eyes of a mystic...you'll enjoy this book. This is not a stuffy academic explanation or some philosophy academic studying of this topic. John Van Auken has been to Egypt and remembers a past life experience in Egypt. I am not an advocate for the stuffy professors of Egyptology with their 1800's anthropological attitude that everything that came before the egalitarian christian ideology is savage death magic. They, like many other academics, are very stuck in a particular era and there mindset has changed little from the time when King Tut's tomb was opened. Of course they think that Ancient Egyptian's (not to be confused with modern day Muslim Egypt) were obsessed with graves...because the majority of their artifacts and knowledge come from graves. John Van Auken always comes off as a very down to Earth regular guy who want's to make mysticism approachable for everyone. He has the phenomenal ability to sum up concepts that are very complex in every day language. He presents a wealth of material from Egypt to explain how the Egyptians saw life and death. They were a culture that were intricately familiar with the concept that spirit descended into the material world and became trapped. Further, they left a guide so that we may remember the way home out of material reality. Not only was that story encapsulated in what we commonly know as the Egyptian Book of the Dead (the name that the Ancient Egyptian scribe who wrote it gave it was Coming Forth By Day). In this book John Van Auken includes excerpts from the book of the Dead so we can follow Ani on his trip to the afterlife. The philosophy put forward for Egyptian Mysticism by John Van Auken fits well with the Buddhist belief in Samsara and the ability to attain enlightenment so that we do not have to reincarnate into the material world. This also seems to be the source material for the Sumerian religion. John Van Auken makes a strong argument that the Egyptian creation story correlates with the biblical creation story. I go back to this book when I'm comparing cosmologies all of the time. The one part that I have found repeated in all the creation stories is the part where Ra perceives himself and then starts naming his members who are the God's who accompany him. That's not very different from how in the Bible Adam naming things as soon as he is created. If you are interested in cosmology and Egypt I highly recommend this book. This approach to who Egyptian's viewed the world simply makes sense...instead of the Egyptian Book of the Dead being a 'spell performed for the dead to ensure they go to the afterlife' as the stuffy academics perceive it.... The full page color photos really bring alive his examples and he explains how the God's really represent concepts in the physical realm (a.k.a. forces of nature/archetypes) and the Egyptians knew they were weren't actual 'beings' (at least at the start of the Kingdom). A good portion of the book is dedicated to explaining Edgar Cacye's past life as an Egyptian Priest...which isn't as interesting as the explanations for the tomb drawings or John Van Auken's approach to Coming Forth by Day but it is very interesting. I refer to this all of the time in this blog and when comparing cosmologies it offers a very fascinating look into interpreting Egyptian Mysticism in a way that it actually makes sense...and ties in nicely with a majority of other cosmologies throughout the world. Instead of making Ancient Egypt appear to be a unique culture filled with magical heathen practices that existed within a vacuum without influencing other cultures...He explains how the Egyptian perception of life is still relevant in our life today. I highly recommend this book even if you look at it all as pure fancy and fiction it is a highly entertaining read.
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By now you probably noticed the changes in my blog. I wanted to take a moment and explain why they happened and how they happened. I also wanted to share the motivation I have for blogging along with some ideas that form the foundation for my perspective of life and spirituality.
I realize that everything in this blog is my truth. This may be my truth but I encourage you to find your own. Perhaps by gazing upon my experience you will want to make your own spiritual journey towards self enlightenment. I don't deal in absolutes. I won't tell you how to live your life or that my spiritual journey is better than anyone else. I've found a lot of healing after facing trauma's from which some people (and my psychologist) believed they can't heal. I find it funny that in this blog from February 26th I talked about the transformative energy that would last through March 20th 2017, the Spring Equinox (note I thouht the Spring Equinox was the 23rd at the time I wrote the blog but my calendars say it's the 20th). (http://bridgetkorns.weebly.com/blog/transformative-energy ) Isn't it interesting synchronicity that I ended up transforming my blog at this time? Why Change The Blog The main reason I updated my blog was because of technical reasons. I realized that the archives on the right side of the blog did not show anything after August 2016. I've been writing the blog for three years now (I deleted my entire blog at one point so everything from 2014 was lost). I realize this website has advertisements. I don't profit off of them. They are how the creators of Weebly allow people to have free blogs. I can't really see paying money for the blog. Advertisements is the best way most people make money sharing media so at the moment I can't really complain. Why Change The Name Since I was updating the look of the blog I decided to update the name. In wondering through the internet I discovered months ago that someone else had a blog titled 'Oh The Humanity.' I don't recall if the blog was made after mine or before mine but I decided that if the opportunity arose I would re-name my blog since it was no longer an original title. The subjects covered in the other blog did not involve spirituality but I was still disappointed to see someone had also used the title. The new name for this blog came from a dream fragment. I don't remember the context but I was contemplating the idea of what I would name a book containing my favorite blog posts. The name that came to mind and the reasoning for it is what I have subsequently used for this blog. Why Use The Term Mystic? I don't like labels. I feel labels group people and help them solidify a personality or identity based on that label. Having a personality...defining yourself as this or that is very unhealthy. In fact, all of the literature and research I have done spiritually argues that dissolving our personality construct (which most people refer to as ego) is necessary for a Spiritual Awakening. You can call this Awakening to being in the Spirit of Christ, Enlightenment, or Awakening to our Higher Self...the specifics are not necessary. The goal is the same...to lessen our personal suffering and bring the light of God/Source into this world. The idea that I could be called a mystic in any way shape or form once bothered me. Let's face it, ever since Yeshua's death people who were mystics died horribly at the hand of others. Either they died following in Yeshua's footsteps or were burnt at the stake for being a witch or warlock. Given that I believe in a past life I died painfully and horribly for defending my personal spiritual beliefs....writing this blog was hard at first. The last thing I want to do is be persecuted for my beliefs. I have not been persecuted by others for my beliefs since writing the blog and it's become a wonderful outlet for me. The definition of a 'mystic' really does capture what my personal 'hobby' has been since I was in my early teens. Here is the definition according to Google: "1. A person who seeks by contemplation and self-surrender to obtain unity with or absorption into the deity or the absolute, or believes in the spiritual apprehension of truths that are beyond the intellect." In that case, I can say that I am a mystic. I've owned the fact that the term can be applied to me and it also conveys that the blog is written from a Spiritual view point. Even if I'm doing a Book or Movie Review it's always filtered through my spiritual beliefs in this blog. I can see them from other perspectives but for me much of reality is the song of spirit. That's, of course, because I believe we exist within a Subjective Reality which is a topic I've written about previously that I will revisit in the near future. Why Use The Term Butterfly? Since I was about eight years old and inherited my Aunt Ruthies Butterfly pendant collection I've been crazy about Butterflies. I was into butterflies before the trend's in the late nineties where it started to be plastered onto everything. I didn't mind that and I still don't. When I got my butterfly tattoo at 16 (my parents were there and signed a paper giving permission) very few other people had butterfly tattoos. I don't mind the merchandising or the fact that butterflies have become an extremely popular symbol. I buy a lot of stuff with butterflies on it because I feel it is my personal symbol. The Butterfly has always represented Transformation to me. Even as a young teenager I felt that was my 'Spiritual Idea' (a concept based on Edgar Cacye's work). Since I started working with my dreams as a young teenager I have had an appreciation of the symbolism involving a butterfly. Therefore, Mystic Butterfly might also be interpreted as Spiritual Transformation which is my inner and very personal life work. Why Write a Blog? I first started writing fantasy novels when I was in high school. I completed my first one- Merosis- when I was 16 years old. I used to think Fantasy was the main vehicle I could use to convey spiritual ideas that I had been studying. In my twenties I finished completed writing a Merosis trilogy. I sought to have them published but the realm of Fantasy novels had been slowly dying out during that time. I did have a short science fiction fantasy story called The Huntress set in the world of Merosis published by an E-Zine called Midnight Times. Eerily, my life has reflected the life of the main protagonist in my stories. You always start off writing what you know so naturally the main character was based on me. Writing the books was a very personal psychological inner journey. My taste in what I liked to read changed when I hit my thirties. I read more mystical books. I started off with Zechiriah Stitchins Annunaki books, then branched out to books published by Edgar Cacye's A.R.E. and on to a number of others that you will eventually be able to peruse in a Source Page I'm going to add to my blog website. I also became more interested in watching YouTube video's on Spirituality and Listening to Talk shows that talked about spiritual subjects. Whether Christian, Buddhist or something else I'd give anyone who had a plausible argument a listen. What I found was that almost all of it was negative fear based information or Bliss Bunnies (a term originally coined by Jamie Sams) who had no idea what they were talking about...but it felt good man! I saw information provided in a way that could do more harm than good. I began this blog as a way to change that and give people a different paradigm to look through. I love looking at life through different perspectives. I think this is very healthy and anyone working on the positive side to help illuminate other peoples minds is very much needed in the very dark world we live in. An Inclusive Approach In a previous blog I wrote about the idea of Inclusive vs. Exclusive point of view. This rambles a bit but here it is: http://bridgetkorns.weebly.com/blog/inclusive-vs-exclusive. At the time I was very much into the Shift which I no longer think is all that important. That is an entirely different subject I wrote about in the same period of time that I wrote that blog. The important thing is that this point of view of being Inclusive regarding spiritual beliefs is different from what the majority of society has held. The other day I was talking about seeing the X-Men movie Logan while I was at work. A gentleman overheard the conversation and tried to verbally attack the movie X-Men Apocalypse. He was fishing to see if I was upset by anything in that movie and I commented that I didn't think it was the best but it was as good movie. He was disappointed and went on to lecture me. He did not like that the character Apocalypse saying that he was, "Elohem, Yahweh...Ra, etc." The customer said he didn't care that the old Egyptian God name of Ra had been invoked but how dare they use a name for God found in the Bible- Elohem. That was blasphemy, he declared to me, and he believes in Jesus Christ. I smiled at him indulgently. Eventually he left commenting that, "He must be old," as the reason why I didn't see a problem with the context of that movie. Later, I was happy to observe that I hadn't heard anyone say the word Blasphemy in a very long time. I didn't mind that he had his own opinion, it in no way affected mine, and I was going to tell him I know a lot about the word Elohem. I did not want to start an argument. Instead I just smiled and said I understood that it could cause discomfort. Elohem has been a hot button topic in the metaphysical realms for awhile as some suggest the Sumerian Annunaki were the Elohem. Some believe the Annunaki were aliens that came down and engineered humanity (much like the movie Prometheus). Strangely, Elohem is plural...meaning more than one being. The mere fact he focused on that word and not Yehovah surprised me but maybe he wasn't as familiar with the connection between the name Yehovah and the Christian God. Of course, I was fine with the charterer in Apocalypse stating those were his prior names as a part of the X-Men movie. I see Source, or what Christians call the Trinity, in the Hindu concept Brahman and Atman. I see it in the Egyptian Amun, Ra, and Ptah. I see that same concept in the Hopi concept of Tawa, Masauwu and the Spider Woman. I see it in the Dogon concept of Ama or the Sumerian creation story of Anu, Enki and Enlil. Call the Trinity or Source by any name you wish...it's the same Source/God/All-That-IS. Just as I am the same person whether you call me Bridget, B, Bird, Bridge to the T, Bridgey Korns, etc. A name is just a name and in a realm made of energy, who cares? In fact, I really don't care about the hundreds of different names for the species of frogs that exist...because to me they are still just frogs. Perhaps, it's because Apocalypse is an alien and he's mortal that the many said it was Blasphemy. Well, there is an entirely different concept called Oneness. That we are all reflections of the divine and One with Source. This is a difficultl abstract lesson I've learned but have yet to write down in a blog. Yet, I will say, that in a way we are all Yehovah, we are all Elohem, we are all reflections of the God's that have ever been named. Why can't all spiritual beliefs be based on the same truth just stated and interpreted in different ways? Maybe, they distorted what they have perceived and caused harm but that is most likely by accident (hence the saying the road to hell is paved with good intentions). Why can't commonly recurring symbols mean the same thing, at their basic level, from one culture to the next? This approach is that of harmony...of brotherhood and of "Loving your neighbor as yourself." (Mark 12:31). I don't see Jesus (Yeshua) as growing up in a cultural vacuum. He had access to Buddhist monks, Greek mythology, Roman mythology and Hindu Yogis. India is not that far from Israel and there were plenty of traders. Israel was definitely one of the countries that had thriving trade with other nations especially under the rule of the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire, at the time, very tolerant and often correlated regional Gods and Goddess to their own system. Yeshua didn't reject the Samaritan at the well when she asked him questions. Instead he recognized that she had the spiritual necessities to appreciate truth and shared some with her. How can any follower proclaiming to follow Yeshua not be accepting of their neighbors earnest search for Godin whatever format that might take? In many ways when we explore life, when we explore ourselves, we explore a part of Source/God. Subjective Reality I will touch on this for a moment. Through earning my Bachelors Degree in Psychology I made a staggering discovery. The final class I was required to take had an amazing admission. Psychology has discovered that people cannot be categorized into groups or their behavior predicted by their identification. The way people approach a particular life event depends on too many variables to be predictable and is unique to every individual. We know that when the human eyes are mapping our world that there are gaps in what we perceive. Our brain happily fills in those gaps. Here is an article on the subject: https://braindecoder.com/post/up-to-90-of-your-perception-could-be-made-up-purely-by-the-brain-1104633927?utm_source=facebook Life is entirely Subjective to the Individual. We interpret the information we encounter through the uniquely developed filter that we have created based on our personal life experiences. These filters can change but most people tend to stick to the filters they form during their High School years. This erases the possibility of any Absolute Truth ever being applied to every human being. The worlds we perceive on an individual bases is purely unique to each individual. This isn't to say that the truth of Source and the Natural Order does not work within all of those perspectives in a similar way. Instead, while that same 'force' may be interwoven into these individually perceived unique worlds it can be interpreted differently. Not one single person holds all the answers and truth for everyone. This is also why we have to journey within to discover Source for ourselves on an individual level and not through a book, Preachers, Guru, or any other person who tries to hold themselves up as a Spiritual Source or Contact for Source. There is an individual perspective of 'universal truth' and a societal truth that is arrived at through debate/expression of the individuals. This is why Free Speech is so important and it's absolutely wrong to oppress another person based on their beliefs. As long as no one else is harmed in the process each should be able to pursue their own beliefs because not one person knows the filter of another. We can't walk in each others shoes so we can't judge people but we can judge their actions. Paradigm Shifts People who hold onto a particular view, making it very solid, encounter a great deal of dissonance when they meet people of other cultures or belief systems. This is a hard way of living life...judging other peoples worthiness or righteousness by comparing their way of living to your own. In that traditional perspective everything you believe is right and part of your personal identity (Ego). Therefore when something 'outside' threatens that perspective it has to be defended as though the your life itself (or that of the Ego) is at stake. This is where, to me, it is so valuable to look at the Cosmos through as many different perspectives/filters as possible. Whether listening to others life stories, reading books that challenge my point of view, or watching movies that make me think...I grow as a person. The more I learn about how other people see the world the more I learn about myself. When Paradigm Shifts or Epiphanies happen it as though the entire world has moved or we moved a mountain. Yet, the only thing that really shifted was our own perspective of the world. Our vision becomes a little bit more wider...a little bit more lose when it comes to the 'truths' we hold. With practice, paradigm shifts lead to a very fluid responsive state of mind that is flexible when presented with opposition. There is no reason to fight but a great sense of compassion and a desire to understand the other person. I understood why that man said X:Men Apocalypse was Blasphemy. When I was in my teens I held the same point of view that I had learned the few times I interacted with religious people. The old Roman Catholic Point of view was very particular about obliterating anything that threatened their religion. Society considered it acceptable that anyone even slightly threatening their paradigm could be burned at the stake for practicing the 'dark arts.' I know the history. I know he is working with an outdated framework. He knew it too, stating, "Maybe I'm just old." I pitied him then, I admit. Yes, his mind was a rock unable to perceive anything beyond a time worn way of thinking that newer generations just can't conceive. In isolation such thinking may thrive but when you are part of a culturally diverse world it is impossible. Different is not bad (unless it hurts someone physically) but it can cause people who have a very solid 'personality complex' pain. Those types of people can't separate their self-identity from their beliefs. The dissonance as they try to integrate and relate to people with different beliefs they never considered can be acute. Often they lash out in pain when they encounter a point of view they don't understand or they shut down mentally. Dreams A long time ago I set the precedent that if Spirit wishes to communicate with me it must be through dreams. I have always believed that dreams had deep meaning...at least on a psychological level. People such as Psychologist Carl Jung were very much into using dream interpretation to help patients. The basis for all of the Spiritual Truths that I own and integrate into my beliefs come from dreams. Often, I find a verification for a truth that I was first shown in a dream after I have the dream. There is no chance, most of the time, that an outside influence was the source for the inspiration of the information for a dream. I will reference dreams often when talking about concepts that I'm exploring. That's because the exploration of the different subjects are usually connected to or prompted by a dream. I, like most, want some sort of external validation and if there were others who experienced something similar I can take comfort knowing I'm not the only one. Conclusion I'm excited that my Blog changed by chance. I write my blog for numerous reasons. Mostly, my aim is to help others lessen their suffering. I do this through investigating and explaining different paradigms and spiritual ideas. I explore new themes I see in the metaphysical and spiritual communities. I share insights and epiphanies I gain from dreams. I write this blog as as service to other people. I don't do this for profit but for others. Hopefully, if I share this information other people around the world will suffer less as I have learned ways to lessen my suffering. I am not a spiritual leader. I share what I learn from others and I will be adding a Sources page soon. I encourage people not to take what I am saying as their Truth. I ask that everyone investigate and read the material that I have shared and read and come to their own conclusion. My deepest prayer is that the work of the Source/God is reflected through my blog bringing Source/God into others lives so they can work in harmony with Source. With understanding, compassion and harmony we can start working with one another instead of opposing one another all of the time. On my Spiritual Journey I've learned that it's not all about me. Even if I were to reach enlightenment it would be very lonely unless I had companions who were the same. That, as much as anything else, is why I write this blog to share my journey. May all of us reach Enlightenment together, being in this world in the now but not of it and magnifying Source's presence on this planet to the betterment of all. |
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Brave Soul! May Your Journey On The Path Of The Seeker Bring You Joy and Peace! I'm currently posting every Saturday. With a new addition the family I have pre-scheduled most posts through December 2022. Full Moon Posts will contain up-to-date content when I can get to them. Thank you so much for your support and understanding! This is a place where you can encounter new spiritual ideas that have helped me develop as an Individual On The Path of the Seeker. Take or Leave this information as you see fit. Archives
April 2024
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