Post by Malcolm on Apr 7, 2014 16:52:26 GMT -5
It is astonishing in the number of ways that the ancients tried to re-represent the Ancient Egyptian beliefs and the case of The Burning Bush gives us a close look at the mind set of those scribes and how they were both serious and yet employed a sense of humour at the same time.
Here is what Gerald Massey found in his study of Egyptian rituals:
" 'Ancient Egypt' - referring to the Pyramid Texts - "In the texts the golden unbu is a symbol of the solar god. It is a figure of the radiating disk which is depicted raying all aflame at the summit of a sycamore-fig tree which thus appears to burn with fire, and the tree is not consumed. " And - "The Egyptian golden bough is a bush of flowering thorn. It is a symbol of the young solar god who says, "I am Unbu, who proceedeth from Nu (heaven), and my mother is Nut" (Rit., ch. 42; Pyramid Texts, Teta 39). "I am Unbu of An-ar-ef, the flower in the abode of occultation" (Rit., ch. 71). This identifies the golden bough with Horus in the dark and the bush that flowered at Christmas like our Glastonbury Thorn. The golden bough or burning bush is a solar symbol of Atum-Huhi, who says to Anhur, "O lion-god, I am Unbu", and who thus identifies himself with Ihuh in the burning bush. "I am Unbu", says the Egyptian deity in the flowering thorn, where the Hebrew god announces that he is Ihuh from the midst of the burning bush."
The following is from "Tempest & Exodus" by Ralph Ellis, pages 158/162 with the odd note by myself:
"Who comes forth from the Asert Tree:
This final sentence is also interesting because the Aser-T tree is a strange feature of the traditional Giza ritual, as there are no trees growing on the plateau. The Aser-t tree is described as the tree that Ap-uat (Anubis) 'came out of', although it is not said what Ap-uat was doing in the bush in the first place, so the intended ritual is a little obscure here. There is, however, another description of this event in the Bible; one that confirm this ancient tradition of a Giza 'tree':
And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame out of the midst of a bush: and (Moses) looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed...God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, 'Moses, Moses'. (Where art thou Moses)? And he said. 'Here am I'.
Moses had been standing at the bottom of Mt.Horeb or Mt.Sinai (depending on the account) at the time of this vision of god. Since we now know that Mt. Sinai and Mt.Horeb are the massive pyramids on the Giza plateau, the name of the god that Moses saw is plain to see. The unnamed god of Moses in the biblical account, and the god Ap-uat in the Text of Unas: both came out of a bush at the foot of the Great Pyramid. The Koran not only agrees with the biblical description of this burning bush, it adds some new elements that confirm its location:
When (Moses) saw a fire, he said to the people: 'Stay here, for I can see a fire (on the mountainside). Perhaps I can bring you a lighted torch or find a guard nearby.' When he came near, a voice called out to him 'Moses, I am your Lord (blessed be god who is in the fire). Take off your sandals, for you are now in the sacred valley of Tuwa'.
While the Koran as traditionally succinct, it also lets out little details of interest. That mention of Tuwa, for instance; it is an unknown location that is not mentioned in the biblical account, but it happens to translate well into Egyptian. As confirmation that this coming translation is based on secure foundations, the first word to match with Tuwa is Tuwi, meaning sandals. (Malcolm: It may be the first that comes to mind, but how about 'TAWY'? This means 'The Two Lands' and refers to the Two Lands that were Egypt – Lower and Upper Egypt. 'Tawy appears in the names of many kings – 'Lord of the Two Lands' Remember there were rarely any vowels written in the ancient languages of Egyptian and Hebrew).
This mention of sandals is not only a physical command to go barefoot, it is also a scribal pun to show those in later generations, who where 'in the know', what the real translation of Tuwa was likely to be. This secretive method of writing is very similar to the pattern of hints and puns that are to be found in the cockney rhyming slang dialect that has developed in the East End of London.
In cockney rhyming slang, a dog and bone means a telephone: the phrase not only rhymes well with phone, but the image of a 1920s two-piece phone is quite exquisite. Similar rhymes and imagery are to be found in the husband's 'trouble and strife' and the pilot's 'joystick'.
In Egypt, the technique was more of a straightforward pun than a rhyme and so Tuwi (the sandals) also becomes; Tuwa the pillar, Tjua the mountain, and Tjui the two mountains of sunrise and sunset, which have already been identified with the pyramids of the Giza plateau. The custom was obviously to take off one's sandals when stepping onto the mirror-smooth black basalt pavement around the Great Pyramid, as both the Bible and Koran imply, and so the sandals became synonymous with the sacred site itself. The Giza pyramids were also symbolically associated with many other, more mundane, items that came in pairs, so perhaps there was a strong link in this sandal pun directly to these pyramids.
It is probably from this tradition that the Masonic 'slipshod' pose, that of wearing only one sandal during an initiation, arose. This tradition was wonderfully portrayed in the film Life of Brian, where the reluctant hero Brian loses a sandal and instantly becomes a famous prophet. But this obscure detail of a cult film must have a distinguished and quite ancient tradition, for Jason does exactly the same thing at the start of his quest for the Golden Fleece; in fact, Jason was only recognised by Pelias because he had lost a sandal. Like Brian, Jason's fame, quest and destiny was forged by the loss of a humble sandal.
It should also be pointed out that the Giza Pyramids were encased in Tura limestone, form the Tura quarries across the Nile. This does not appear to be an ancient Egyptian name for this type of stone, but there again, it only needs to be as old as the Koran, which dates from the sixth century AD. If Tura was the original Arabic name for the quarry and, in turn, for the limestone casings blocks on the Great and Second Pyramid as seems highly likely, then the 'sacred valley of Tuwa (as the Koran calls it) would be a perfect description for the small gap in between these two great monuments. This once more confirms, for a completely independent perspective and source, that the biblical 'burning bush' episode happened on the Giza plateau.
But there is a problem with this interpretation of Anubis and the bush. The Koranical account describes a lighted torch, while the biblical (and Josephusan) account describes a complete tree that was burning. The accounts of the Koran are the least embellished of the biblical texts, so it can be assumed that this ritual only involved a small tree, perhaps about two metres high. While this drastic reduction in size would accord more with the arid and barren reality of the Giza plateau, it still does not explain the burning. The Egyptian texts do not indicate that the Aser-t tree was burning in any way, so this surely undermines the whole thesis?
It would, if it were not for the inventive scribes. As one might expect, a pun or two has been employed here and the first of these alternative interpretations of the Aser-t tree gives a secure confirmation that this pun is not being made up. Ash-t means a jackal, the very animal that lends its image to Ap-uat (Anubis). This pun also confirms that the swap from and 's' to an 'sh' is perfectly acceptable (numerous Egyptian words involving and 's' have exact equivalents using 'sh'). Looking at further synonyms, however, we find that asher means to roast, asher-t is a roasted sacrifice, while asher is the evening and also a fire or flame.
Not only does this scribal wordplay explain the burning of this bush, but it also shows why the Koran chose to set the scene in the evening. There is no evidence that the original ritual, on which this story was based, involved the sacred bush of Aser-t actually burning, or it being performed in the evening; so it has to be assumed that this was another piece of cockney rhyming slang. The London East Enders are reputed to have evolved the slang dialect so that they could talk in code without the police or informers being able to understand the location of the next robbery; the biblical slang was derived so that only the priesthood would understand that the 'burning bush' meant the sacred Aser-t tree of Ap-uat (Anubis). Both the laity and the police remained intentionally in the dark.
This wordplay also explains the reason for the biblical burning bush not 'being consumed' by the fire. The scribe is simply labouring the pun a little; the tree was not 'consumed' because it was not really on fire. Yes, thank you scribe, we got that one the first time! So here was Anubis' sacred tree of Aser-t and the strange ritual of Anubis talking through its branches.
This ritual, if not its real meaning, was certainly known about in a very late era of Egyptian history, and I confidently assert this because the same ritual has been inherited by that dumping ground for leftover arcane rites – Christianity. The modern version of the Aser-t tree is known as a Christmas tree and originally this, too, was 'burning' but not (hopefully) consumed. In the interests of safety, however, the candles have now been replaced by small lights. To finish this esoteric symbolism, as star is then placed upon the top – but is this the 'Star of David' or is it Sirius, the Dog Star? While Sirius is not explicitly related to Anubis, it is true that the words Sepdj-t and Shedj-t refer to Sirius and Anubis respectively. If the star of the Christmas tree were a representation of Anubis, then the re-enactment of the ritual would be complete.
According to the Bible, this ritual of the burning bush was performed at the base of Mt.Sinai [the Great Pyramid], a location that was confirmed by the Koran's Tuwa mountains. But there remains one final piece of biblical evidence that confirms again the true location for this ritual: it comes from a short extract in Genesis:
And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces. Genesis 15:17 (Malcolm note: The Good News Bible changes the word 'pieces' into 'pieces of animals'!!! Another example of inserting words that were never written in the first place)
Now this extract concerns Abraham rather than Moses, but both these events involve the participants making a covenant with god, so presumably this 'divine' agreement' was a part of what this original ritual entailed. Note that in this extract it was evening and dark, and a fire was seen; all of which is exactly as the Koran tells the story. But instead of the fire being on a mountain, it is now between two 'pieces'. Just what are these strange 'pieces'? I would suggest that another Egyptian word has found its way into Hebrew and the Torah, because the Hebrew word for 'pieces' is pronounced as Gezer (רוכ)
And don't be tempted to suggest that Giza (Gizeh) is a modern name for the plateau. As we saw in chapter 1, Ges was the prefix used for 'east' and 'west', which we have, in turn, been translated as being pseudonyms for the pyramids themselves. In fact, the glyphs for these words use the glyph for 'side' or 'platform', indicating that the intended terminology was something like Ges-abtet – 'platform of the east' and Ges-ament – 'platform of the west'. It is not hard to see 'platform' being yet another pseudonym for pyramid.
Likewise, if the glyph for 'side' were the more important notation in Ges, then the biblical texts display a very similar reverence for particular sides of these pyramids.
We (god) delivered you from your enemies and made a covenant with you on the right side of the Mountain. Koran 20:76
You were not present on the western side of the Mountain when We (god) charged Moses with his commission. Ibid 28:24.
Undoubtedly, each side of the pyramids had its own specific role to play in the liturgy and ritual of Giza, and this is why the term Ges – meaning the side – was so important. So, in both the eastern and western form of Ges, the word Geza (Geza-btet, Geza-ment) can be clearly seen. The Giza of the west would refer to the Second Pyramid, while Giza of the east would refer to the Great Pyramid. In this case, it is quite understandable that the 'burning lamp', or the 'burning bush' was seen to be in between these two 'pieces'; and in turn, 'Giza' is most probably a very ancient name for the plateau. Note that in the examples in figure 40, the 'm' plinth glyph can be replaced with the 'g' throne glyph, giving the pronunciation 'ges' rather than 'mes'.
Here is what Gerald Massey found in his study of Egyptian rituals:
" 'Ancient Egypt' - referring to the Pyramid Texts - "In the texts the golden unbu is a symbol of the solar god. It is a figure of the radiating disk which is depicted raying all aflame at the summit of a sycamore-fig tree which thus appears to burn with fire, and the tree is not consumed. " And - "The Egyptian golden bough is a bush of flowering thorn. It is a symbol of the young solar god who says, "I am Unbu, who proceedeth from Nu (heaven), and my mother is Nut" (Rit., ch. 42; Pyramid Texts, Teta 39). "I am Unbu of An-ar-ef, the flower in the abode of occultation" (Rit., ch. 71). This identifies the golden bough with Horus in the dark and the bush that flowered at Christmas like our Glastonbury Thorn. The golden bough or burning bush is a solar symbol of Atum-Huhi, who says to Anhur, "O lion-god, I am Unbu", and who thus identifies himself with Ihuh in the burning bush. "I am Unbu", says the Egyptian deity in the flowering thorn, where the Hebrew god announces that he is Ihuh from the midst of the burning bush."
The following is from "Tempest & Exodus" by Ralph Ellis, pages 158/162 with the odd note by myself:
"Who comes forth from the Asert Tree:
This final sentence is also interesting because the Aser-T tree is a strange feature of the traditional Giza ritual, as there are no trees growing on the plateau. The Aser-t tree is described as the tree that Ap-uat (Anubis) 'came out of', although it is not said what Ap-uat was doing in the bush in the first place, so the intended ritual is a little obscure here. There is, however, another description of this event in the Bible; one that confirm this ancient tradition of a Giza 'tree':
And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame out of the midst of a bush: and (Moses) looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed...God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, 'Moses, Moses'. (Where art thou Moses)? And he said. 'Here am I'.
Moses had been standing at the bottom of Mt.Horeb or Mt.Sinai (depending on the account) at the time of this vision of god. Since we now know that Mt. Sinai and Mt.Horeb are the massive pyramids on the Giza plateau, the name of the god that Moses saw is plain to see. The unnamed god of Moses in the biblical account, and the god Ap-uat in the Text of Unas: both came out of a bush at the foot of the Great Pyramid. The Koran not only agrees with the biblical description of this burning bush, it adds some new elements that confirm its location:
When (Moses) saw a fire, he said to the people: 'Stay here, for I can see a fire (on the mountainside). Perhaps I can bring you a lighted torch or find a guard nearby.' When he came near, a voice called out to him 'Moses, I am your Lord (blessed be god who is in the fire). Take off your sandals, for you are now in the sacred valley of Tuwa'.
While the Koran as traditionally succinct, it also lets out little details of interest. That mention of Tuwa, for instance; it is an unknown location that is not mentioned in the biblical account, but it happens to translate well into Egyptian. As confirmation that this coming translation is based on secure foundations, the first word to match with Tuwa is Tuwi, meaning sandals. (Malcolm: It may be the first that comes to mind, but how about 'TAWY'? This means 'The Two Lands' and refers to the Two Lands that were Egypt – Lower and Upper Egypt. 'Tawy appears in the names of many kings – 'Lord of the Two Lands' Remember there were rarely any vowels written in the ancient languages of Egyptian and Hebrew).
This mention of sandals is not only a physical command to go barefoot, it is also a scribal pun to show those in later generations, who where 'in the know', what the real translation of Tuwa was likely to be. This secretive method of writing is very similar to the pattern of hints and puns that are to be found in the cockney rhyming slang dialect that has developed in the East End of London.
In cockney rhyming slang, a dog and bone means a telephone: the phrase not only rhymes well with phone, but the image of a 1920s two-piece phone is quite exquisite. Similar rhymes and imagery are to be found in the husband's 'trouble and strife' and the pilot's 'joystick'.
In Egypt, the technique was more of a straightforward pun than a rhyme and so Tuwi (the sandals) also becomes; Tuwa the pillar, Tjua the mountain, and Tjui the two mountains of sunrise and sunset, which have already been identified with the pyramids of the Giza plateau. The custom was obviously to take off one's sandals when stepping onto the mirror-smooth black basalt pavement around the Great Pyramid, as both the Bible and Koran imply, and so the sandals became synonymous with the sacred site itself. The Giza pyramids were also symbolically associated with many other, more mundane, items that came in pairs, so perhaps there was a strong link in this sandal pun directly to these pyramids.
It is probably from this tradition that the Masonic 'slipshod' pose, that of wearing only one sandal during an initiation, arose. This tradition was wonderfully portrayed in the film Life of Brian, where the reluctant hero Brian loses a sandal and instantly becomes a famous prophet. But this obscure detail of a cult film must have a distinguished and quite ancient tradition, for Jason does exactly the same thing at the start of his quest for the Golden Fleece; in fact, Jason was only recognised by Pelias because he had lost a sandal. Like Brian, Jason's fame, quest and destiny was forged by the loss of a humble sandal.
It should also be pointed out that the Giza Pyramids were encased in Tura limestone, form the Tura quarries across the Nile. This does not appear to be an ancient Egyptian name for this type of stone, but there again, it only needs to be as old as the Koran, which dates from the sixth century AD. If Tura was the original Arabic name for the quarry and, in turn, for the limestone casings blocks on the Great and Second Pyramid as seems highly likely, then the 'sacred valley of Tuwa (as the Koran calls it) would be a perfect description for the small gap in between these two great monuments. This once more confirms, for a completely independent perspective and source, that the biblical 'burning bush' episode happened on the Giza plateau.
But there is a problem with this interpretation of Anubis and the bush. The Koranical account describes a lighted torch, while the biblical (and Josephusan) account describes a complete tree that was burning. The accounts of the Koran are the least embellished of the biblical texts, so it can be assumed that this ritual only involved a small tree, perhaps about two metres high. While this drastic reduction in size would accord more with the arid and barren reality of the Giza plateau, it still does not explain the burning. The Egyptian texts do not indicate that the Aser-t tree was burning in any way, so this surely undermines the whole thesis?
It would, if it were not for the inventive scribes. As one might expect, a pun or two has been employed here and the first of these alternative interpretations of the Aser-t tree gives a secure confirmation that this pun is not being made up. Ash-t means a jackal, the very animal that lends its image to Ap-uat (Anubis). This pun also confirms that the swap from and 's' to an 'sh' is perfectly acceptable (numerous Egyptian words involving and 's' have exact equivalents using 'sh'). Looking at further synonyms, however, we find that asher means to roast, asher-t is a roasted sacrifice, while asher is the evening and also a fire or flame.
Not only does this scribal wordplay explain the burning of this bush, but it also shows why the Koran chose to set the scene in the evening. There is no evidence that the original ritual, on which this story was based, involved the sacred bush of Aser-t actually burning, or it being performed in the evening; so it has to be assumed that this was another piece of cockney rhyming slang. The London East Enders are reputed to have evolved the slang dialect so that they could talk in code without the police or informers being able to understand the location of the next robbery; the biblical slang was derived so that only the priesthood would understand that the 'burning bush' meant the sacred Aser-t tree of Ap-uat (Anubis). Both the laity and the police remained intentionally in the dark.
This wordplay also explains the reason for the biblical burning bush not 'being consumed' by the fire. The scribe is simply labouring the pun a little; the tree was not 'consumed' because it was not really on fire. Yes, thank you scribe, we got that one the first time! So here was Anubis' sacred tree of Aser-t and the strange ritual of Anubis talking through its branches.
This ritual, if not its real meaning, was certainly known about in a very late era of Egyptian history, and I confidently assert this because the same ritual has been inherited by that dumping ground for leftover arcane rites – Christianity. The modern version of the Aser-t tree is known as a Christmas tree and originally this, too, was 'burning' but not (hopefully) consumed. In the interests of safety, however, the candles have now been replaced by small lights. To finish this esoteric symbolism, as star is then placed upon the top – but is this the 'Star of David' or is it Sirius, the Dog Star? While Sirius is not explicitly related to Anubis, it is true that the words Sepdj-t and Shedj-t refer to Sirius and Anubis respectively. If the star of the Christmas tree were a representation of Anubis, then the re-enactment of the ritual would be complete.
According to the Bible, this ritual of the burning bush was performed at the base of Mt.Sinai [the Great Pyramid], a location that was confirmed by the Koran's Tuwa mountains. But there remains one final piece of biblical evidence that confirms again the true location for this ritual: it comes from a short extract in Genesis:
And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces. Genesis 15:17 (Malcolm note: The Good News Bible changes the word 'pieces' into 'pieces of animals'!!! Another example of inserting words that were never written in the first place)
Now this extract concerns Abraham rather than Moses, but both these events involve the participants making a covenant with god, so presumably this 'divine' agreement' was a part of what this original ritual entailed. Note that in this extract it was evening and dark, and a fire was seen; all of which is exactly as the Koran tells the story. But instead of the fire being on a mountain, it is now between two 'pieces'. Just what are these strange 'pieces'? I would suggest that another Egyptian word has found its way into Hebrew and the Torah, because the Hebrew word for 'pieces' is pronounced as Gezer (רוכ)
And don't be tempted to suggest that Giza (Gizeh) is a modern name for the plateau. As we saw in chapter 1, Ges was the prefix used for 'east' and 'west', which we have, in turn, been translated as being pseudonyms for the pyramids themselves. In fact, the glyphs for these words use the glyph for 'side' or 'platform', indicating that the intended terminology was something like Ges-abtet – 'platform of the east' and Ges-ament – 'platform of the west'. It is not hard to see 'platform' being yet another pseudonym for pyramid.
Likewise, if the glyph for 'side' were the more important notation in Ges, then the biblical texts display a very similar reverence for particular sides of these pyramids.
We (god) delivered you from your enemies and made a covenant with you on the right side of the Mountain. Koran 20:76
You were not present on the western side of the Mountain when We (god) charged Moses with his commission. Ibid 28:24.
Undoubtedly, each side of the pyramids had its own specific role to play in the liturgy and ritual of Giza, and this is why the term Ges – meaning the side – was so important. So, in both the eastern and western form of Ges, the word Geza (Geza-btet, Geza-ment) can be clearly seen. The Giza of the west would refer to the Second Pyramid, while Giza of the east would refer to the Great Pyramid. In this case, it is quite understandable that the 'burning lamp', or the 'burning bush' was seen to be in between these two 'pieces'; and in turn, 'Giza' is most probably a very ancient name for the plateau. Note that in the examples in figure 40, the 'm' plinth glyph can be replaced with the 'g' throne glyph, giving the pronunciation 'ges' rather than 'mes'.