You've just entered the theater of an alien sky.
If the words and images seem strange to you there's a reason for this.
Our world was once a vastly different place.
To experience this won't hurt you and there is nothing to fear.
The cosmic mountain revered around the world
possessed a uniquely interesting feature. The towering hill terminated in a
spectacular crescent. From one land to another, we see this crescent presented
mythically as twin peaks, with a remarkable story to tell.
The well-known Egyptian hieroglyph places the sign of the ancient Sun god
Ra between two peaks. But what does this mean? The glyph is typically translated as
"the horizon". As if it signifies the geographic place of sunrise.
But many specialists have already acknowledged that the subject is a cosmic mountain.
The Egyptian symbolists themselves make this clear by placing the twin peaks
not on the horizon,
but upon a standard or pedestal whose original meaning was the pillar of the sky.
The Egyptian symbol in question, Akhet does not literally mean the horizon.
It literally means the twin peaks of a mountain or pillar of fire and light.
The two peaks are, in fact, the upper termination of the cosmic pillar of
Shu we've previously discussed.
Traced to it's archetypal origins, the contexts become fully predictable
by our identification of the two peaks as the revolving crescent.
One form, with multiple mythic interpretations.
Outstretched arms of the pillar god. Horns of the Bull of Heaven.
And the twin peaks of a singular cosmic mountain.
Much the same symbolism occurs in ancient Mesopotamia, where we see the Sun
god Shamash depicted between the twin peaks of the world mountain,
though other divine figures appear in the same strategic placement
with respect to the horns of the Bull of Heaven. We also see the twin peaks
in Crete, where they merge with the famous Horns of Consecration.
The symbolism of the cleft summit appears even in Mexico, where natives placed
the sign of the ancient Sun god between the two peaks.
And even amongst the Delaware Indians, in their descriptions of an ancient
divine land of peace and plenty.
As we continue this series, the core symbolism will show up in many other
cultural contexts, as well. And the mythic interpretations of the root form
extended far behind the idea of a twin peaked mountain.
It was a revolving crescent that inspired the worldwide imagery.
And happily, this unique form presents the most stringent demands upon our
reconstruction. A crescent exhibited on the face of the primeval Sun god?
An inseparable connection to a visible,
axial pillar of the sky? A crescent revolving around a central
orb or star in a daily cycle, with no parallel in
any natural experience today? It's the converging
imaginative interpretations that give integrity and
concrete meaning to the ancient accounts.
The coherent story comes from the preposterous yet inseparable connection
of each part to the others. Two arms of a cosmic pillar or pillar god
that mean exactly the same thing as the two horns of the Bull of Heaven,
the celestial bull whose identity resolves itself into just a pillar and shining horns, as we've seen.
One celestial form provoked more than one mythic interpretation.
In fact, the ancient artists confirmed the underlying identities repeatedly
by juxtaposing one imaginative interpretation with another.
So, we see the twin peaks juxtaposed with the head of a bull.
Or upraised arms extending from the same cosmic pillar.
Upraised arms, upright horns
and upright twin peaks all signified the phase of springing into life,
the phase of brightness, identifiable with the position of the crescent below.
And that will explain why the Egyptian symbol of life - the Ankh
- was repeatedly linked to the upraised arms beneath the Sun god,
and to the twin peaks of the Akhet, and to the Bull of Heaven, as well.
For this reason, it's hard to imagine a more costly mistake
than the common translation of the Akhet as the horizon.
The revolving crescent was the luminous face of Ra himself.
You'll never see Ra rising above the twin peaks,
though that would be the first thing to look for if the common interpretation were correct.
Seen in the light of this reconstruction the extraordinary implications leap out to us, as well.
If as we've claimed, the crescent revolved around a central star or
orb, then for the sake of consistency, we must ask whether the twin peaks of the
world mountain revolved around the sky in a daily cycle,
just as the two arms of the pillar god and the horns of the Bull of Heaven
revolved in the sky - all contrary to any imaginable terrestrial referent today.
The answer will be given in our next episode as we look at the vast
field of evidence provided by the Egyptians and other cultures
in their depictions of the ship of heaven.
What will seem absurd under common suppositions,
becomes an explicit prediction of our reconstruction.