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The Soul of Ancient Egypt
Restoring the Spiritual Engine of the World
By Robert Bauval and Ahmed Osman
Published by Bear & Company
Distributed by Simon & Schuster
Table of Contents
About The Book
Imagine the paradise of ancient Egypt: a lush green valley with a gentle river, full of animals and birds of all sizes. The first settlers, arriving by way of the desert, would have marveled at this beautiful landscape. This awe held on through the first three millennia of settlement in Egypt. Centered on careful observations of the natural rhythms of their environment, particularly the Nile, this enlightened civilization lived in a state of spiritual balance and harmony they called "living in Maat." This state was further enhanced by the sacred landscape of Egypt and the colossal monuments and pyramids the Egyptians built to reflect the heavens, thus creating a cosmic "spiritual engine" for the ancient world. But sadly, the paradise and Maat of ancient Egypt were not to last, and for the past two thousand years Egypt has experienced many occupations by hostile forces bent on taking control of this magical land.
Exploring the exemplary social and cultural model that produced the golden civilization of ancient Egypt as well as the many waves of conquest and destruction up to the present day, Robert Bauval and Ahmed Osman examine each phase of Egyptian history from its origins and the Pharaonic period, through the Roman conquest and its Christianization, to the Pan-Arabization of Nasser and the ongoing Islamization that began with the Muslim caliphate in the 7th century. They show how the current Islamic rulers are actively working to eradicate all traces of Egypt's spiritual roots, the source of the Western Mystery tradition. They provide a revised portrait of the life of Muhammad, revealing his connections to the Essene tradition, and explain how most Sharia Law is not based on the Koran.
Revealing how even the dams built on the Nile are impeding Egypt's sacred role, the authors sound the call for a return to the original tenets of Egyptian civilization, one that sustained itself in harmony and peaceful creativity for more than three millennia.
Exploring the exemplary social and cultural model that produced the golden civilization of ancient Egypt as well as the many waves of conquest and destruction up to the present day, Robert Bauval and Ahmed Osman examine each phase of Egyptian history from its origins and the Pharaonic period, through the Roman conquest and its Christianization, to the Pan-Arabization of Nasser and the ongoing Islamization that began with the Muslim caliphate in the 7th century. They show how the current Islamic rulers are actively working to eradicate all traces of Egypt's spiritual roots, the source of the Western Mystery tradition. They provide a revised portrait of the life of Muhammad, revealing his connections to the Essene tradition, and explain how most Sharia Law is not based on the Koran.
Revealing how even the dams built on the Nile are impeding Egypt's sacred role, the authors sound the call for a return to the original tenets of Egyptian civilization, one that sustained itself in harmony and peaceful creativity for more than three millennia.
Excerpt
Chapter 1
Living in Maat
The “Pharaonization” of Egyptians
THE NAME OF "EGYPT"
When Shakespeare wrote the play Romeo and Juliet he pondered on the violent, even deadly feud between the noble Capulet and Montague families and, more particularly, their obsession with their “good name.” This prompted the English bard to ask: “What’s in a name?” And then gave his opinion by adding, “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”1 In other words, Shakespeare concluded that a name was not so important but rather the essence of the object. But this was not so for the ancient Egyptians; for them the name of a person or an object was the most important aspect, and it was crucial to the very nature and meaning of that person or object. This is because ancient Egyptian sages were not philosophers; they were magicians and understood the magical power of a name. They carefully and intently observed the world around them, studied what they saw, and when they felt they fully knew and understood what they saw, they gave it a “name.” The name became a talisman that encapsulated all the meaning and qualities of the object. Thus when a name was uttered, it evoked all the power of that object and caused a strong emotional and mental reaction with the receiver. Think of the name of your first lover or the name of your best friend. Think of the name of the country, town, or neighborhood where you feel the most happy and safe. Such names become talismans imbued with an invisible, immaterial, and immeasurable energy that impacts on the human mind and unleashes strong memories, emotions, and thoughts. In this way names are not just mere sounds to identify an object but rather become magical invocations to reach the soul within. The ancient Egyptians were the masters of this form of magical thinking.
Among the many peculiarities of the ancient Egyptians--not least their very deep interest in the afterlife--was the importance they placed on naming correctly an object or a place. Nothing could be more insulting, more desecrating, more damning than to have one’s name soiled, defaced, removed, or forgotten. This was regarded as one of the worse abominations that could be inflicted on a person.
Unlike modern society, the ancient Egyptians recognized the true importance of the name (Egyptian ren). Giving a name to a newborn was therefore a sacred act for any Egyptian parent. Speaking or writing his/her ren gave “existence” to a person, both in life and for eternity--so long as that name was perpetuated in eternal stone, to be read and uttered by devout descendants. To chisel out or erase a name was to kill a person in the afterlife. To forget a name was to make it non-existent. To the Egyptian mind, the ren was as important as the soul because, through the continuing memory of that name, the being--or on a grander scale the civilization bearing that name--continued to exist beyond time.
Bearing this in mind, one would have thought that the ancient Egyptians would have carefully chosen the name of their country. Today the world refers to the very long and narrow fertile strip of the Nile Valley running from the First Cataract in the south to the shores of the Mediterranean in the north as “Egypt.” This name is universally known in the Western world and many erroneously take it as having been the original name. Furthermore the people that inhabit it today are regarded--as indeed they, too, regard themselves--as “Arabs.” Thus it often comes as a surprise that when considered from a historian’s and anthropologist’s viewpoint, calling this country “Egypt” and its people “Arabs” is incorrect. In view of the principal theme of this book, namely to define the true identity of the Egyptians, it is very important to know the legitimate nomenclature for this country and its people. Egyptians, especially today in these troubled times, are in dire need to understand who and what they are or, at the very least, to be aware of their true legacy and ancestral identity.
It is known that the name “Egypt” was actually coined not by the native dwellers of the Nile but by foreigners, Greeks colonists to be precise, sometime in the fourth century BC. It is, in fact, the corrupted derivative of the Greek name Koptos, itself also a corrupt derivative from the name Gebtu of an important town in Upper (southern) Egypt near today’s modern city of Qena some forty kilometers north of Luxor. This site was inhabited from the earliest stage of the “Egyptian” civilization, from at least the Second Dynasty (ca. 3000 BCE). It stood within the so-called Fifth Nome (district) of Upper Egypt, dedicated to the fertility god Min, the latter represented as an upright man, curiously with his left arm holding his erect phallus and his right arm in a saluting gesture that, according to Egyptologists, is “not fully understood.” But the ancient Egyptians themselves did not call their country “Gebtu” or “Coptos” at all. And although they had many names for it, the most commonly used was Km.t (Kemet).
This name is transliterated by Egyptologists as “The Black Land,” the reasoning behind this being, at least according to them, that after the annual flood the waters receded leaving behind a dark, almost black soil, which supposedly inspired the natives to call their land “The Black Land.” But even though it is true that the soil of the Nile Valley is very dark in color, it is also true that the original inhabitants of Egypt were almost certainly dark, black-skinned Africans, a fact that can be clearly ascertained even today by the black-skinned Nubians that still live there in Upper Egypt.
Living in Maat
The “Pharaonization” of Egyptians
THE NAME OF "EGYPT"
When Shakespeare wrote the play Romeo and Juliet he pondered on the violent, even deadly feud between the noble Capulet and Montague families and, more particularly, their obsession with their “good name.” This prompted the English bard to ask: “What’s in a name?” And then gave his opinion by adding, “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”1 In other words, Shakespeare concluded that a name was not so important but rather the essence of the object. But this was not so for the ancient Egyptians; for them the name of a person or an object was the most important aspect, and it was crucial to the very nature and meaning of that person or object. This is because ancient Egyptian sages were not philosophers; they were magicians and understood the magical power of a name. They carefully and intently observed the world around them, studied what they saw, and when they felt they fully knew and understood what they saw, they gave it a “name.” The name became a talisman that encapsulated all the meaning and qualities of the object. Thus when a name was uttered, it evoked all the power of that object and caused a strong emotional and mental reaction with the receiver. Think of the name of your first lover or the name of your best friend. Think of the name of the country, town, or neighborhood where you feel the most happy and safe. Such names become talismans imbued with an invisible, immaterial, and immeasurable energy that impacts on the human mind and unleashes strong memories, emotions, and thoughts. In this way names are not just mere sounds to identify an object but rather become magical invocations to reach the soul within. The ancient Egyptians were the masters of this form of magical thinking.
Among the many peculiarities of the ancient Egyptians--not least their very deep interest in the afterlife--was the importance they placed on naming correctly an object or a place. Nothing could be more insulting, more desecrating, more damning than to have one’s name soiled, defaced, removed, or forgotten. This was regarded as one of the worse abominations that could be inflicted on a person.
Unlike modern society, the ancient Egyptians recognized the true importance of the name (Egyptian ren). Giving a name to a newborn was therefore a sacred act for any Egyptian parent. Speaking or writing his/her ren gave “existence” to a person, both in life and for eternity--so long as that name was perpetuated in eternal stone, to be read and uttered by devout descendants. To chisel out or erase a name was to kill a person in the afterlife. To forget a name was to make it non-existent. To the Egyptian mind, the ren was as important as the soul because, through the continuing memory of that name, the being--or on a grander scale the civilization bearing that name--continued to exist beyond time.
Bearing this in mind, one would have thought that the ancient Egyptians would have carefully chosen the name of their country. Today the world refers to the very long and narrow fertile strip of the Nile Valley running from the First Cataract in the south to the shores of the Mediterranean in the north as “Egypt.” This name is universally known in the Western world and many erroneously take it as having been the original name. Furthermore the people that inhabit it today are regarded--as indeed they, too, regard themselves--as “Arabs.” Thus it often comes as a surprise that when considered from a historian’s and anthropologist’s viewpoint, calling this country “Egypt” and its people “Arabs” is incorrect. In view of the principal theme of this book, namely to define the true identity of the Egyptians, it is very important to know the legitimate nomenclature for this country and its people. Egyptians, especially today in these troubled times, are in dire need to understand who and what they are or, at the very least, to be aware of their true legacy and ancestral identity.
It is known that the name “Egypt” was actually coined not by the native dwellers of the Nile but by foreigners, Greeks colonists to be precise, sometime in the fourth century BC. It is, in fact, the corrupted derivative of the Greek name Koptos, itself also a corrupt derivative from the name Gebtu of an important town in Upper (southern) Egypt near today’s modern city of Qena some forty kilometers north of Luxor. This site was inhabited from the earliest stage of the “Egyptian” civilization, from at least the Second Dynasty (ca. 3000 BCE). It stood within the so-called Fifth Nome (district) of Upper Egypt, dedicated to the fertility god Min, the latter represented as an upright man, curiously with his left arm holding his erect phallus and his right arm in a saluting gesture that, according to Egyptologists, is “not fully understood.” But the ancient Egyptians themselves did not call their country “Gebtu” or “Coptos” at all. And although they had many names for it, the most commonly used was Km.t (Kemet).
This name is transliterated by Egyptologists as “The Black Land,” the reasoning behind this being, at least according to them, that after the annual flood the waters receded leaving behind a dark, almost black soil, which supposedly inspired the natives to call their land “The Black Land.” But even though it is true that the soil of the Nile Valley is very dark in color, it is also true that the original inhabitants of Egypt were almost certainly dark, black-skinned Africans, a fact that can be clearly ascertained even today by the black-skinned Nubians that still live there in Upper Egypt.
Product Details
- Publisher: Bear & Company (November 6, 2015)
- Length: 256 pages
- ISBN13: 9781591431862
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Raves and Reviews
“When you hear about a new book by Robert Bauval, you know you are in for a treat. Trying to understand how the ancient Egyptians viewed the world in which they existed has been a long-held goal of Egyptology. Bauval and Osman set out to reveal that golden thread of Egyptian religion and philosophy, as it winds its way through human history, long after the civilization of the pharaohs fell into ruin.”
– David Rohl, Egyptologist, former director of the Institute for the Study of Interdisciplinary Scienc
“A positively vital addition to the historical bookshelf. The authors have created a perfect review of the heart of Egypt, from its predynastic beginnings to its age of the pyramids and beyond to its changing times right now. Written from an educated, enlightening perspective by two men whose genuine passion for Egypt seems never ending.”
– Andrew Collins, author of Göbekli Tepe: Genesis of the Gods
“In a new collaboration following their book Breaking the Mirror of Heaven (20/01), Robert Bauval and Ahmed Osman, both Egyptian born, call for a return to the tenets that held ancient Egyptian civilization intact for 3,000 years. These were based on "living in maat", in spiritual harmony and physical balance with the heavens and Earth; it was a natural "religion" that reflected the rhythms above and below. The Nile was a barometer, its annual flooding heralded in the stars and fertilizing the land. Fast forward, and that sacred influence was impeded by the construction of dams and a lake; the fertility of the land fell into decline.
The authors cover the rise of early Christianity and the Copts, the Islamization of Egypt in a Muslim caliphate in the seventh century, Napoleon's failed incursion, and colonization by foreign powers--with a fair few Egyptian rulers leading their country towards bankruptcy. They then examine the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood and key events surrounding the rules of presidents from Nasser, Sadat and Mubarak to Morsi and el-Sisi. They point to the huge challenges that lie ahead with overpopulation, environmental degradation, social and cultural problems, and economic woes.
But Bauval and Osman see a way beyond 2,000 years of suppression to restore the ancient balance between order and justice. They urge Egyptians to connect with their original soul identity and the golden legacy that's all around them.”
– Nexus, December 2015
“Mr. Bauvel and Mr. Osman make sense of the complex multi-cultural history of Egypt and end their book with a sense of hope for the country--a rekindling of the ancient Egyptian soul.”
– New Dawn, Marc Star, March 2016
“The Soul of Ancient Egypt is extremely well written, easy to follow and thoroughly researched; however, I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who was interested in the beliefs and spirituality of ancient Egypt. The first chapter provides a great crash course, but the book as a whole is focused on historical and political matters. Religion plays a role in this because Egypt is and has always been a religious nation, but the crux of this book is about the political and religious history of Egypt. A fascinating read, The Soul of Ancient Egypt would be excellent for anyone interested in history, specifically in the ways regions are shaped through religious politics, and the impact industrialism has on a country.”
– Spiral Nature
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