CHAPTER V

ANCIENT EGYPT
Toth
Ptah-Hotep
Hermes Trismegistos
Akhenaten

ILLUSTRATIONS
The Sphinx of Akhenaten
Akhenhaten

RECOMMENDED FIRST MEDITATIONS
"Archaeosophy, a New Science"

PTAH-HOTEP

Be not ungrateful to thy Creator, for I have given thee life.  I am the Fount of Light.  I pierce the Darkness.  I make clear the Path for all; the Lord of Joy.  I, height of love, open the double gate of the Horizon.

Hail to thee!  Thou art great, tho art old, Father of the gods, God ancient from the beginning;
Who fashioned men,
Who made the gods,
Who began with the Creation as the first creator,
Who created for all who came after him,
Who made the heaven; as his heart he created it;
Who founded the earth of thy own power,
Who circled in the primal water,
Who created the invisible world, which brings the dead bodies to rest;
Who let Ra come to make them glad.
As Prince of Eternity,
Lord of Eternity,
Lord of Life;
Who fills the lungs with air,
Who gives breath to every nostril,
Who vivifies all beings his gifts.
Length of life, fortune, and fate are subject unto him
Who made contentment for all the gods,
Lord of Eternity, to whom Eternity is subject,
Breath of Life for all beings.

TOTH

I have measured out the heavens and planned the earth, and everything which is in them; my will and power kept the forces in heaven and earth in equilibrium; I have directed the motions of the heavenly bodies and their times and seasons.  Thy soul shall breathe forever and ever, and thy form shall be endowed with life upon earth, and thou shalt be made a God.

I have come unto thee, O Osiris, Prince of everlastingness; I am in the following of God Toth, and I have rejoiced at everything in which he hath done for thee.  He hath brought unto thee sweet air for thy nose, and life and strength for thy beautiful face and the North wind which cometh forth from Tem for thy nostrils...He hath made God Shu to shine upon thy body; he hath illumined thy path with rays of splendor...He hath made the two Horus brethren to be at Peace for thee; he hath destroyed the storm wind and the hurricane; he hath made the Two Combatants to be gracious unto thee, and the two lands to be at peace before thee.

HERMES TRISMEGISTOS

Thee I invoke who hast created all, who dost transcend the whole, the self-begotten God, who seest all and hearest all, but who art seen by none.  For thou didst give the sun his glory and all might, the moon her increase and her decrease, and unto both their ordained course.  For when thou didst shine forth, Cosmos came into being, and light appeared, and all things were dispensed through thee.  O thou, whose actual form none of the gods can see, who dost transform thyself into them all, O thou Eternity of the eternity.  Thee I invoke, O Lord, that the true form may manifest to me.  I invoke thee, O God, the living one, who dost show forth thy splendor in the fire, thou unseen Father of the Light!

THE HYMN OF AKHENHATEN

O Living Aten, beginning of Life!  Though Thou art afar, Thy rays are on earth:  though Thou art on high, Thy footprints are the day.

How manifold are all Thy works!  They are hidden from before us, O Thou sole god whose powers no other possesseth.

Thou makest the beauty of form through Thyself alone.

Thou art in my heart; there is none other that knoweth Thee save Thy son Akhenhaten.

For Thou art duration, beyond Thy mere limbs; by Thee man liveth.

Thy world is in Thy hand, even as Thou hast made them.