The Pharaoh Tarot Deck of Sety I and Rameses II

Pharaoh Tarot Deck
© Douglass A. White, 2010
1
The Pharaoh Tarot Deck
of
Sety I and Rameses II
by
Douglass A. White, Ph.D.
/on
The Wizard of Amen
A Delta Point Monograph
December, 2010
V1012.21
Pharaoh Tarot Deck
© Douglass A. White, 2010
Osirian Tarot Winter Solstice Greeting Card
(commonly used as frontispiece to Book of the Dead)
Frontispiece Illustration in the Papyrus of Ani
Adoration of Ta-Tu-Nen (Osiris Resurrected)
TI}
2
Pharaoh Tarot Deck
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Description of the Frontispiece
The basic figure is an abstract form of Osiris dying to be resurrected at Winter
Solstice and was called Nen (nien 年 in Chinese). The Egyptians personified Nen
as the deity Ta-nen, or Ta-tu-nen the tutelary lord of Abydos, the sacred site of Osiris
in the south.
Here are some glyphs of Ta-nen.
^k
The ensemble of glyphs in the frontispiece depicts the sun (Ra) ecstatically lifted up
by the Tree of Life (Etz Chayyim = Tanenbaum = Christmas Tree). The Jed pillar is
the spine of Osiris, the tree in which his dead human body was captured by Nature
and transformed into a vegan deity to become the Lord of Plants. On top is the Ankh
symbol of life, showing that Osiris resurrects at the Winter Solstice, the Midnight
Hour of the dark Atlantean phase of annihilation, at the point when we take our next
in-breath, and the solar life force begins to rise again.
The whole ensemble is
established on the land (Ta T) between the two hills (tu I) that are sacred to
Anubis (Death) and Wepwawet (Guide Dog of the Blind) and hence is sometimes
called Tatunen, an ancient epithet for Osiris.
The sun glyph nestled between the
two hills forms the sign Aakhet >, used for both dawn and dusk, and marks the ideal
time for samadhi meditation when the light and dark phases of life reach equilibrium.
On the left is Isis (Feeling) and on the right is Nephthys (Ecstasy). The two sisters
join to support their brother, adore him, and love his pillar back to life, knowing that
his true nature is the Sun-Ra of the Higher Self embodying pure light even when he
appears to act out the low point of human existence that appears as death and
self-destruction. The two ladies kneel on benches made from the glyph for gold,
suggesting that the physical world is just a compression of the incorruptible golden
celestial light of the Higher Self.
Above on both sides of the solar sphere a troop of dog-faced baboons excitedly greets
the return of the Sun/Son. They are transformations of Baba/Thoth in his guise as
the playful Fool (the little "dog" on the Tarot card) and correspond to Sun Wu-kung’s
magical troop or Vrisha Kapi/Hanuman and his buddies. They perform sun
salutations, chant whoopie mantras, and generally carry on like the bunch of idiots
that they are. Stretched across the top is the glyph for Heaven (! the affirmative
answer to all questions).
Pharaoh Tarot Deck
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The Pharaoh Tarot Deck of Sety I and Rameses II
by
Douglass A. White, Ph.D.
The Discovery
Recently as I was starting a student off in the study of ancient Egyptian I leafed
through my copy of How to Read Egyptian by Collier and Manley. I like this text
because the authors teach you in a few lessons how to read real Egyptian artifacts
using lots of excellent sample artifacts from the British Museum as the reading
material. When I reached page 30, my eye was caught by two sentences introducing
a photograph of BM EA 117 (the Abydos King-List of Rameses II), an artifact that
Rameses modeled on a list that was carved in his father Sety I’s mortuary temple,
which is also at Abydos and is in a much better state of preservation.
“Originally there were 78 cartouches in the upper registers (the 76 found in the Seti I
list plus the two cartouche names of Ramesses II). This number probably reflects
cultic tradition, the space available on the wall, and possibly the 76 forms of the
sun-god enumerated in the religious text known as the Litany of Re.”
When I saw the numbers, I knew that “space available on the wall” was the least
probable explanation, since Rameses II was famous as the most extravagant pharaoh
throughout several thousand years of Egyptian history in terms of willingness to
devote space to carved rock. Khufu may have piled more rocks in one place, but
Rameses populated the entire Egyptian landscape with his colossal statues and
inscriptions.
The most likely explanation for the number Rameses chose was cultic
tradition and the forms of the sun-god enumerated in the Litany of Ra.
Before we get into a theory concerning the kings list we should become acquainted
with the full royal titles of Sety I and Rameses II, because the names they chose have
some bearing on the story.
were as follows:
The five traditional royal titles of Egyptian pharaohs
The Horus & Name (or Serekh o Name) was usually written in a serekh-style
cartouche and emphasized the power of pharaoh’s will, because Horus symbolized the
power of the will to assert itself and create an identity. The serekh was an early form
of Egyptian palace architecture, so the cartouche represented the king in his palace.
Horus was the chief totem deity from the founding of dynastic Egypt and represented
Pharaoh Tarot Deck
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the will to unite the country and build a great civilization. The serekh was the focal
point of an organized society, and its fundamental meaning is to cause someone to
know something (se-rekh). The king’s job was to promulgate the rules of the society,
to formulate and announce national policies and plans, and to execute them. Horus
is an animal totem for the sun and represents the ability of the Higher Self to define
energy into forms of life. “Se-rekh” is very similar to the term “Da-rekh”, which is
to “give” someone (i.e. empower someone) to know something. “Da-rekh” is the
ancient Egyptian origin of the word Tarok, the ancient term used in many countries of
Europe to describe the deck of cards most English speakers know in our day as the
Tarot. The Tarot (Tarok) is a set of 78 cards designed to present the ancient wisdom
of mankind in a flashcard format. For thousands of years it has existed in a variety
of formats as an educational device disguised as a game or a divination technology.
The Nebty i Name emphasized the awakening of a pharaoh’s kundalini life force
so as to make him healthy and fit to lead the entire country. The “Nebty” are animal
totem glyphs (vulture [mut] and green cobra [wajet]) used to represent goddesses who
symbolically embodied the vital energy of Southern and Northern Egypt. The
geography of Egypt was conceived as a giant model of the human body. Thus the
cobra goddess represented the neck and head (approximately from the sphinx to the
Mediterranean), whereas the vulture represented the trunk from the shoulders on
down (from the sphinx on south to Nubia). The hemispheric basket glyphs represent
the word for Lord (Neb), here rendered in the feminine dual form “Nebty”. The two
ladies were Mother (Mut) Nekhebet and Lady Wajet. The vulture totem also
personified the discipline of yoga symbolized esoterically by the ox’s yoke (nekhebet)
and the lotus flower of kundalini yoga (nekhebet). The cobra totem personified the
awakening of the Eye of Wisdom (Wejat) through the rise of kundalini serpent energy
into the brain and the realization of immortal youthfulness.
The Golden Hawk a Name emphasized pharaoh’s essential immortality and equal
status with the gods. The bench made of gold symbolizes the highest value and the
incarnation of the sun’s light as a foundation for life with a solid physical form that
does not decay. The hawk symbolizes the divine nature of the pharaoh as an
expression of Ra, the Higher Self Sun.
The Sultan-Basileus (Sut[en]-Bat[y]) tt Name declared pharaoh to be king who
ruled over North and South Egypt. (Scholars often call this title the “nesu baty”, but
“su[r]ten” – Exalted One (ten) Magnified in Years (Se-Wer = Ser) – is the proper
reading of the first glyph, and “nesu” is a conventional metaphor for the king as his
Pharaoh Tarot Deck
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“Throne Name” title that was often used as an interchangeable reading. “Ser” as Sar
or Shar became a standard title for a king, noble, or elder in many parts of the ancient
world. It survives in English as “sir”. The sedge glyph symbolized the king of the
south. The bee glyph “Bat” was the symbol for the king of the north. The Greeks
pronounced “Bat” as “Bas” (βασ) and added “helios” (ήλιοσ) which means “sun” and
this evolved into the Greek title “Basileus” which means Sun-King. The Greeks
called the capital of Northern Egypt Helio-polis (City of the Sun).)
The Son of the Sun )@ (Sa R@) Name declared pharaoh to be an avatar “son” of
Ra, the Higher Self Sun and therefore a man possessing an expanded awareness that
would empower him with the vision to care for all the people compassionately and
wisely. The Egyptian concept of an avatar was different from that of the Tibetans.
The Dalai Lama is considered by his followers to be an incarnation of a great
Bodhisattva of Compassion born to lead the people of Tibet. Each time he passes
from the body he then reincarnates in the body of another male child. As the
pictures below illustrate, the Egyptian pharaoh was considered an emanation of the
sun, but not of a single “bodhisattva” or deity. Otherwise, how could Sety and
Rameses be seen together? The Egyptian idea was more fluid. Each person was an
emanation of Ra. Each member of the royal family was a special emanation of Ra
endowed with the wisdom and skill to lead the country. An individual could identify
with any of the emanations of Ra, and a pharaoh specifically identified with Horus as
a living pharaoh, and then became Osiris when he died. His names and titles would
also indicate other identifications. For example, just from their titles we find that
Sety identified with Ra, Set, Baba, Maat, and Ptah; while Rameses identified with Ra,
Maat, and Amen.
The 5 Royal Titles of Sety I
Horus Name:
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Ka-Nekhet Kh@-em-Waset-Se-@nekh-Tawy
Mighty Energy Crowned in Thebes Who Brings to Life the Two Lands
Nebty Name:
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Wehem-Kh@u Sekhem Pekhety* Der-Pesejettyu Pesej
Repeating Riser, the Power of Baba Who Expels the Nine Bow-wielding Tribes
Golden Hawk Name:
<;/*m{¶
Wehem-Kh@u Weser-Pedjut-em-Taw-Nebu
Pharaoh Tarot Deck
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Repeatedly Arising Wizard of Bowmen in All Lands
Prenomen (Sultan-Basileus Name):
(_@^
_ :
_ )
Men-Ma@t-R@
Foundation of the Truth of the Higher Self Sun
Nomen (Son of the Sun Name):
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Sety Mer-en-Peteh
Stubborn One, Beloved of the Opener
*
The title “Pekhety” can be translated as “Doubly Mighty”, but is also an epithet
of Hew, Yoga Master of Taste, who in turn is an avatar of Baba, the Oxymoron of
Transcendental Consciousness. The glyph of the leopard’s head can be read “ba”,
and doubling of it provides a covert way of writing the name “Baba”. Baba
(Oxymoron: play within the unity of absolute transcendence and relative
consciousness) and Set (Illusion: solid matter caused by mutually resisting contrasting
viewpoints) are close friends and in some ways identical, so this is an appropriate title
for Sety. The name “Pekhety” also recalls Ramesesu I, the founder of the 19th
dynasty and father of Sety. Rameses I used the term in his prenomen, “Men-Pekhety
R@” [Doubly Mighty Foundation of the Higher Self Sun], as did Ahmose I, the
founder of dynasty 18, who took the prenomen, “Neb-Pekhety R@” [Doubly Mighty
Lord of the Higher Self Sun], while Thutmose III used “Sekhem Pekhety” [Doubly
Mighty Power] as part of his Golden Hawk Name.
The 5 Royal Titles of Rameses II
Horus Name:
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Ka-Nekhet Mery-M@at
Mighty Energy Beloved of the Truth Goddess
Nebty Name:
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Mek-Kemet W@-f Khasut
Protector of Egypt and Unifier of the Foreign Lands
Golden Hawk Name:
/)|!*|
Weser Renput @a-Nehktu
Wizard of Years and Great of Powers
Prenomen (Sultan-Basileus Name):
Pharaoh Tarot Deck
© Douglass A. White, 2010
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(_@/
_ ^
_ }
_ )
Weser M@at R@ Setep-enR@
Wizard of the Truth of the Higher Self Sun, Chosen by the Higher Self Sun
Nomen (Son of the Sun) Name:
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R@-Meses Mery-Amen
Ever-born of the Higher Self Sun and Beloved of the Invisible One
The King Lists
The king lists prepared by Sety and Rameses specifically included only the pharaohs
whom they considered to be fully legitimate. Kings who only ruled a portion of
Egypt, all kings of dynasties 9-10, as well as dynasties 13-17 (local rulers during the
first and second intermediate periods when Egypt was fragmented) were excluded.
The “heretical” pharaohs such as Akhenaten, Smenkhare, Ay, and even Tutankhamen
were also deliberately left out. Hatshepsut was omitted in spite of the fact that she
was an extremely competent ruler because Sety and Rameses considered her to be
only the regent for Thutmose III. Thutmose III appears in the list and plays a vital
role in the development of the cultic kings list promoted by Sety and Rameses.
Below are drawings of the complete lists prepared by Sety and Rameses.
Sety’s List of 76 Royal Names
(Source: Wikimedia Commons; figures from Encyclopedia Biblica, 1903; cartouches prepared by PLstrom)
(Source: www.narmer.pl/main/ima/aby04.jpg)
Pharaoh Tarot Deck
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This list survives in Sety’s mortuary temple at Abydos. The first two registers of the
list contain 38 kings each, to be read from left to right. Sety is the last king in the list
on the far right of the second register. The third register consists of iterations of
Sety’s “Suten Baty” (prenomen) and “Sa R@” (nomen) cartouches, suggesting that
Sety is the embodiment of all the kings. Thus there are 76 different kings on the list.
The persons standing next to the kings list are Sety I together with his young son and
heir Rameses. They are making a ritual offering to the list of kings and reciting the
list as a ritual litany similar to and perhaps even parallel to the Litany of Ra. If we
include in the list Rameses, the prince who succeeded Sety to the throne and probably
ruled Egypt longer than any other pharaoh, then we have a total of 77 kings.
Sety’s Sa Ra cartouche is spelled in an unusual way.
Instead of the glyph for Set,
Sety substitutes the glyph “Thet” * which stands for the knot of Isis, and is code for
her name. He thus spelled his name with a lisp: “Thety Mer-en-Peteh”. This
identification with Isis rather than Set was probably in deference to the location of his
temple in Abydos, the traditional site where Set murdered Osiris, husband of Isis,
according to the ancient myth. On the old Senet Game Boards and in other contexts
the Thet knot coded for Isis, and the Jed pillar 4 stood for Osiris. By building his
temple in Abydos, Sety was consciously aligning himself with the orthodox Osirian
tradition to distinguish himself from the unorthodox Atenistic bias of the Amarna
period. His temple contains chapels to Osiris, Isis, and Horus, the Osirian triad as
well as the Amen, Ra-Horakhty, Peteh triad that was emphasized by the Ramesside
era pharaohs. Sety may have chosen the unusual name that he took because his
family came from humble origins, and he wanted to assert that Set also was a Son of
the Sun, or at least a grandson of the sun.
Rameses’ List of 78 Cartouches
Below is a drawing made by Mariette to reconstruct the list of Rameses II. The
jagged black line indicates the edges of the surviving artifact. The rest of the list has
been restored from earlier drawings and the matching list in Sety’s temple.
Pharaoh Tarot Deck
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The list of Rameses has four registers, and reads from right to left.
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On the far left
the illustration is lost, but we can still see the leg of a seated person – probably
Rameses. Each register has 26 royal cartouches, and the fourth register (bottom row)
contains the Suten Baty and Sa Ra names of Rameses alternating back and forth.
The total number of cartouches in the top three registers is 78, but the last two on the
far left of the third register both belong to Rameses, so there are really only 77
individual kings in the list. The Suten Baty name of Rameses is Weser M@at R@
Setep en R@ (The Wizard of the Truth of the Higher Self Sun Who is Chosen by the
Higher Self Sun). The Sa Ra name (given name) is R@-meses Mery-Amen (The
Higher Self Sun is Reborn Again and Again, Beloved of the Invisible One).
Alternatively we can read the royal given name as “The Ever-Reborn [Avatar],
Beloved of the Invisible Higher Self Sun”.
The Sa Ra name of Rameses is the final one on the list in both the third and fourth
registers. From this we know that the 78th name on the list is to be understood as Ra,
the Higher Self Sun, in his avatar embodiment as Rameses. In Sety’s list Rameses
plays the same role, but appears as a young prince wearing the braid that identifies
him with Ahy, the son of Hathor and young Avatar of the Higher Self Sun. Usually
Ahy holds the sistrum of Hathor to indicate he is her son and devotee. In the
illustration Sety carries an incense holder and young Rameses holds what appears to
be a papyrus scroll from which he chants the litany of royal kings as an offering to
their ancestor avatars as Sons of the Sun.
Pharaoh Tarot Deck
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¤
Ahy holding up a sistrum of Hathor
The text next to the young Rameses says: “A laudatory invocation by the prince, the
honorable Rameses, the royal son, first-born to his beloved body.”
ZAHQvnOG)smsn~
)smsn~fff#sZ
#sZss
Sety initiates the Litany with the following words:
Words spoken by King Menmaetre (Sety I). Bringing the god to his food offering, the
making of offerings for the kings of Upper and Lower Egypt. Greetings to thee, Ptah
Sokar (Osiris), who is South-of-His Wall! Come, that I may make for thee these
(things) which Horus made for his father Osiris.
(translation by Thomas F. Mudloff)
(Detail from Sety I Kings List; Sety’s left hand points at his speech. Each of the six
lines begins with the “jed medu” formula, indicating that this is mantra recitation.
Note the writing of Sety’s name as “Thety” in the Sa Ra cartouche on the far left.)
Origin of the Litany of Ra
The Litany of Ra first appears in the tomb of Weser-Amen (Useramen, TT 61), who
held the office of Vizier for upwards of 30 years during the 18th dynasty reign of
Thutmose III starting from early in the Hatshepsut regency while Thutmose was very
young. Weser-Amen was the son of Amenthu, also called Ahmose, who was Vizier
under Thutmose II, and Weser-Amen was succeeded in his office by his nephew
Rekh-ma-Ra. This suggests the powerful influence this noble family must have had
in the 18th dynasty royal court. Weser-Amen’s name means “The Invisible One’s
Wizard”, and he must have been very literate and well educated in order to hold such
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a high position for so long under one of Egypt’s most powerful pharaohs, renowned
for expanding the influence of Egypt in the ancient world and for major additions to
the Great Temple at Thebes. Weser-Amen is the only commoner with the Litany in
his tomb. He also has the earliest extant version. All other fairly complete copies
were found in the tombs of pharaohs.
Surviving copies of the Litany of Ra are found in the tombs of nine 18th, 19th, and
20th dynasty pharaohs beginning with Thutmose III and later followed by Sety I and
Rameses II, who apparently chose to elevate the Litany composed by Weser-Amen
under the patronage of Thutmose to a special status in the 19th dynasty. The other
copies of the text were found in the tombs of Merenptah, Sety II, Siptah, Rameses III,
Rameses IV, and Rameses IX – giving us a total of ten fairly complete copies that
survive, with allusions and quotations also appearing in a number of other times and
places, including two sections transcribed at the Temple of Rameses II in Abydos.
This indicates that the Litany of Ra was in vogue at the highest levels as a document
exclusively used for pharaohs (except for Weser Amen, the apparent author of the text)
for around 300 years from about 1400 BC to nearly 1100 BC (from Thutmose III until
Rameses IX). The Litany was not popularized in the manner of the Pyramid Texts
that gradually were adapted into Coffin Texts and eventually became the Theban and
Saite Book of the Dead scrolls.
The King List Deck and Theme-based Playing Cards
During childhood one of my favorite past-times with my siblings was the well-known
card game “Authors”. This traditional deck that has been in use for about 130 years
consists of one author for each of the 13 cards of an ordinary poker deck: Twain,
Dickens, Thackeray, Stevenson, Shakespeare, Cooper, Irving, Hawthorne, Longfellow,
Tennyson, Alcott, and Poe. Each of the four poker suits presents one of four
important works by the author. Authors is a special theme-based poker deck, and all
poker decks are descended from the earlier Tarot decks. Another more recent
theme-based deck is “Composers” with cards for Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart,
Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt, Brahms, Tchaikovsky,
and Grieg. There is also a deck of “Scientists”. Recently we also have President
playing cards. Deck I contains the first 13 presidents from Washington to Pierce.
Deck II contains 13 more presidents from Buchanan to Harding. Deck III has 60
cards and currently covers 15 presidents from Coolidge to Obama. The earlier
edition only went through George W. Bush. At least two other versions exist: one
called The Presidents Playing Cards (by Arcturus, LLC) with all 44 presidents in one
deck, and another I have encountered on the Internet called the Presidents Rummy
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deck. Below are thumbnail images from Internet sellers of Authors and the
Presidents series card games published by U.S. Games.
These playing cards – especially the president theme cards -- are direct descendants of
the Tarok deck invented by pharaohs Sety and Rameses as a royal spin-off of the
“Egyptian Angel Tarok” developed by Grand Vizier Weser-Amen and pharaoh
Thutmose III (Men-Kheper-R@ Tehuty-Mese). Of course today there are many
popular “Angel” themed decks, such as Doreen Virtue’s Archangel, Ascended Master,
and Fairy decks.
Litany of Ra Authorship
The historical circumstances around the first appearances of the text suggest that it
very likely was commissioned by Thutmose III to be written by or under the guidance
of his Vizier Weser-Amen. Thutmose III was the sixth pharaoh of the 18th dynasty.
His titles are as follows:
Thutmose III
Horus name: Ka-nekhet Kh@-em-Waset
“Mighty Energy, Crowned at Thebes”
Nebty name: Wah-Nesyt [R@-ma em Pet]
“Whose Throne is Placed in Heaven, Like the Higher Self Sun”
Golden Falcon name: Sekhem-Pehety Jeser-Kh@u
“Doubly Mighty of Power as Sacred Arisings”
Prenomen: Men-Kheper-R@
“Creative Foundation of the Higher Self Sun”
Nomen: Jehuty-Mese
“Avatar of Cosmic Intelligence”
Many of the figures that appear in the Litany of Ra also survive carved on seals made
in the shape of sacred scarab beetles. The largest number of scarab seals has the
prenomen of Thutmose III (Men-Kheper-R@) on it. Commemorative seals were
made bearing his name for over 1000 years. This suggests that Thutmose III was
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somehow deeply connected to a tradition of divination. People could divine using
slips of papyrus stamped with such seals or they could draw the seals from a pouch
containing a collection of them in the same way that we draw cards from a shuffled
deck of Tarot or other playing cards. (Note: as far as I know no examples of papyrus
with stamped impressions on them have survived, so this is speculation. The carved
seals seem to have been used as amulets, decorative jewelry, and possibly as
divinatory tokens. Perhaps future archaeological finds will resolve the puzzle of
why we lack examples of printing since so many carved seals with flat or roller
surfaces survive and Egyptians used papyrus extensively as well as ostraca, but not so
much clay tablets suitable for impressed images.)
In recognition of his contribution to the creation of the Litany of Ra Weser-Amen
was allowed to have a special personal copy of this royal solar cult text in his tomb.
Weser-Amen’s edition is uniquely in the first person, suggesting that this was the
original way the text was composed. The pharaohs then usually inserted their royal
cartouches in the place of the first person pronouns.
Contents of the Litany
The Litany of Ra consists of 75 avatars of Ra, plus the special images of the
crocodile Sebek, the serpent Apep/Set, and the namesake Ra who is the source of all
the Litany figures. Taken together the 75 avatars plus Ra and his two “associates”
constitute 78 transformations of the Higher Self Sun from his Invisible Amen state
into various creative archetypes of expression. In the comments that I wrote to
accompany my translation of the Litany of Ra I proposed that the 78 transformations
of Ra formed the earliest known stage in the development of what later came to be
known as the full-sized Tarot deck. Before that time divination usually was done
with the Senet Oracle Game Board, examples of which go back to the first dynasty,
although explicit depiction of divination rather than gaming only appears in the New
Kingdom era. An excellent example of divination can be seen in the tomb of
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Nefertary, first wife and queen of Rameses II.
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Other well-known illustrations of
Senet Board divination appear in the Book of the Dead (see the editions of Any and
Hunefer). The Senet Board has only 30 squares, so the earlier divination was done
using the 22 trump deities plus 8 secondary deities who probably are transformations
of the Primordial Ogdoad into the four Sons of Horus and the four Lords of the Senses.
There may also have been a system of divination using the various amulets that were
associated with the gods. The 78-card Litany of Ra set combined a selection of the
most popular amulets with the trump and secondary deities.
I also theorize that the original name for the Tarot was Tarok – as it still is called
today in many European countries, – and I suspect this name derives from the
Egyptian expression “da rekh” Dx, which means to enable someone to know
something.
Sety seems to have originated the creative idea of identifying the divine archetypes of
the Litany of Ra with the historical kings of Egypt. He probably was motivated to
do this because his father, Rameses I had been a commoner handpicked by the
heirless final king of the 18th dynasty, Horemheb, to begin a new dynasty. He
wanted to demonstrate that he was a legitimate ruler according to the ancient way of
the kings that united Egypt and distance himself from the Amarna troubles that had
torn the later portion of 18th dynasty into disarray even in the name of Akhenaten’s
attempts to unify the country under his monolithic cult of “Atenism”.
Sety decided to link his reign to that of Thutmose III, the greatest leader at the height
of the 18th dynasty by reviving the Litany of Ra of Thutmose’s reign and applying it
specifically to the theme of the great pharaohs who had united Egypt, kept her united,
and maintained her ancient traditions. He chose the ancient cult site of Abydos for
his great temple because pharaohs from the beginning of the first dynasty had come
there to identify with Osiris as the spiritual patriarch of ancient Egypt. He
recognized how Weser-Amen and Thutmose had expanded the archetypal Senet
Oracle Game Board of 30 “temples” into the 78 “Da Rekh” (i.e. Tarok) avatars of Ra
when they created the Litany. Sety then evolved and applied the Tarok system
developed by Weser-Amen and Thutmose by connecting the 78 archetypes to 78 of
the greatest pharaohs who had led Egypt up to his time. This idea of theme-based
correspondences to the Tarok has persisted even to our own day so that we now have
decks that correlate to various mythologies, historical figures, movie characters, and
any number of other fanciful themes.
Pharaoh Tarot Deck
© Douglass A. White, 2010
16
Sety’s idea definitely was not far fetched, because the pharaohs already had elevated
themselves to the status of gods and particularly saw themselves as Sons of Ra.
Linking the history of Egypt and its most august rulers to the Tarok Litany of Ra and
displaying them publicly in the holy site of Abydos also served as an excellent
propaganda device for the royal family and for preserving the national culture of
Egypt.
Perhaps it is coincidence, but when Sety conceived his idea, he already had a brilliant
son, Rameses, that he was grooming as his successor. The son’s given name was
Rameses Mery-Amen (named after the boy’s grandfather), and the royal title the boy
took as pharaoh was Weser-Ma’at-Ra. It is curious that each of these names of
Rameses includes one of the components of Weser-Amen, the Learned Vizier who
apparently originated the Litany of Ra.
Cultic Tradition of the Litany of Ra
Collier and Manley mentioned in the sentences quoted at the beginning of this article
that the kings list may reflect “cultic tradition”.
Other writers on Egypt, such as
Mudloff and the source that he cites, have also suspected a special cult status was
coming into play. As I mulled the implications of these two words with respect to
the Litany of Ra, the Abydos Kings List, and the development of the Tarot –
suddenly my whole body broke out in goose bumps. Perhaps there not only was a
“cultic tradition” but there was an extremely powerful and magical organization of
wizards maintaining the cult tradition quietly in the background of history. How
would you like some hard evidence of this claim?
We know that the ancient Egyptians practiced an elaborate cult of ancestor veneration
which required that the body of a dear family member must be mummified and then
buried with great honor. Egyptian funeral ceremonies were elaborate and the
wealthier families constructed special tombs (such as mastabas, pyramids, or cave
labyrinths) to house the sarcophagus with its mummy and sumptuous caches of burial
goods. The family then continued to make regular offerings to the deceased as long
as the family survived in Egyptian society. The pharaohs and their immediate family
of course received the most opulent burial treatment. This tradition so dominated
life in Egypt that it was common to greet a person by wishing them “Qereset
Neferet” – a beautiful funeral!
The fundamental paradox faced by a people with such an elaborate funereal tradition
was that the treasures buried with a wealthy person obviously attracted the attention
Pharaoh Tarot Deck
© Douglass A. White, 2010
17
of grave robbers. The more opulent the funereal trappings, the more attractive the
tomb was to grave robbers. This led the Egyptians to develop elaborate methods to
seal and conceal the tombs of the pharaohs in clever ways. Granite plugs blocked
entrances and false doors were supposed to mislead invading looters. Unfortunately
the robbers simply tunneled around the plugs and inevitably found almost all the
buried treasure. By the time the archaeological looters arrived almost all the real
treasure had been stolen. What remained were only a few lucky finds that the
efficient robbers somehow had missed – and mostly those finds were not of pharaohs.
The odds were always heavily stacked against a pharaoh’s tomb surviving intact.
Even the mummies of the pharaohs were physically ransacked by looters because of
the cultic tradition of placing precious amulets in sacred layouts on (or even inside)
the mummy itself and at various key places in or on the wrappings. Once we know
that the amulets represented sacred Tarok cards, the mummy placings become obvious
Tarok layouts, not done as divination, but as sacred synergetic protection for the
mummy of the deceased.
These layouts can be read just like Tarok readings.
We find that of approximately 300 pharaohs who ruled Egypt through a period of over
3000 years only about 42 mummies or parts of mummies of the pharaohs have
managed to survive the ravages of the looters.
(See a detailed list at http://www.mummytombs.com/egypt/pharaohmummies.htm.)
Of the 42 survivors, 6 are questionable and 9 survive only as fragments. Both before
and after the Litany of Ra period (18th and 20th dynasties) the survival rate of royal
mummies is extremely low. Amazingly all 9 of the pharaohs who put the Litany of
Ra in their tombs have survived as mummies. Some had their bodies damaged by
the ransacking looters, but an organized team of priests apparently moved the
mummies of these special pharaohs along with family members and other pharaohs of
their dynasties to safe cache locations. Thus today you can see all 9 of the Litany
pharaohs on display in the mummy room of the Cairo museum.
And Here Are Their Photographic Portraits!
Pharaoh Tarot Deck
© Douglass A. White, 2010
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Thutmose III
Founder of the Litany of Ra Tradition
Seti I
Ramesses II
Merneptah
Siptah
Ramesses III
Ramesses IV
Seti II
Ramesses IX
This august gallery of pharaohs from over 3000 years ago is absolutely unheard of in
world history. The faces of these men shine with power and intelligence even today
in spite of the rough treatment they have received at the hands of brigands. The
amazing vitality of Seti I is impossible to ignore and shines on today. The
nonagenarian Ramesses II is awesome to behold and his colossal granite statues still
dominate the land of Egypt.
Another interesting detail is that of the Ramesside pharaohs who took the name
Rameses, we have Rameses I, II, III, IV, V, VI, and IX. We are missing only the
later ones VII, VIII, X, XI, and XII, all of whom lacked the Litany of Ra. We also
have both Seti I and II.
Below are scenes from the tombs showing the various pharaohs being initiated by Ra
into the cult tradition of the Litany.
Pharaoh Tarot Deck
© Douglass A. White, 2010
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Sety I (KV 17)
Ramesses II (KV 7)
Siptah (KV 47)
Merenptah (KV 8)
Ramesses IV (KV 2)
Sety II (KV 15)
Ramesses IX (KV 6)
Initiations of Ramesside Pharaohs into the Litany of Ra
Ra Horakhty blesses the pharaohs with the breath of eternal life as his immortal
avatars on earth. He holds the ankh in his left hand and was in his right hand.
Often a jed pillar and ankh emanates from the was and points at pharaoh’s nose to
give him a new breath of life. The Jed-ankh combination forms the Nen Winter
Solstice sign. From Winter Solstice the sun is reborn and expands again to life.
Of the 77 separate pharaohs on the Cult List we have at least some portions of the
mummies of Jer (Djer #3), Jeser (Djoser #16), Seneferu (#20), Menkaure (#24),
Shepseskare (between #28 and #29), Djedkare (#32), Wenas (Unas #33), Teta (#34),
Pepi (#36), Merenre (#37), Mentuhotep II (#57 and one of his wives, Ashayet),
Pharaoh Tarot Deck
© Douglass A. White, 2010
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Ahmose I (#66), Amenhotep I (#67), Thutmose I (#68), Thutmose II (#69), Thutmose
III (#70), Amenhotep II (#71), Thutmose IV (#72), Amenhotep III (#73), Smenkhare
(Amarna figure, not on list), Ramesses I (#75), Seti I (#76), and Ramesses II (#77,
#78).
Except for Shepseskare (5th dynasty ruler who ruled between A-Kawy [Kakai] and
Nefer-f-re, who are both on the list), Hor and Taa II (13th and 17th dynasty kings
respectively), the shadowy short-lived Amarna “king” Smenkhare, and the other
short-lived boy king Tutankhamen, all the kings up through Ramesses II whose
mummies survive in part or in whole are on the kings list, a total of 21 kings out of
the 77 separate kings listed by Ramesses II and a total of 21 out of the 26 up through
Ramesses II whose mummies survive to some extent to our day. Furthermore, four
out of the five pharaohs from the 5th and 6th dynasties who preserved the Pyramid
Texts appear on the list and managed to preserve at least a few of their bones in their
thoroughly pillaged pyramids. Some such as the mummy of Ramesses I have
survived strange journeys. This accounts for over 27% of those on the list. What
is it about this particular group of kings that gives them such staying power that is
unheard of in human history?
The King Lists of Sety I and Ramesses II
Now let us explore the king list selected by Sety and compare it to the Litany of Ra.
The question that arises is whether there is any correlation between the kings and the
cards of the Litany. I suspect that there may not be any detailed relationship for
several reasons. First, Sety and Rameses lived many years after the time of
Weser-Amen and Thutmose. More importantly the pharaohs of the 18th and 19th
dynasties may have known about as much as we do regarding the lives and
personalities of the ancient pharaohs of the old kingdom – which is often very little.
At best there would only be the general notion that the divine archetypes of the
Litany are expressions of Ra and the pharaohs are also expressions of Ra and
possibly there is some link with the glyphs of the ancient names.
The following clear photographs of the Sety I Kings List are from the Wikimedia
Commons and were made by Rudolf Ochmann (Ochmann-HH) in 2006. I have
transcribed the names in the cartouches using my unorthodox system and added a
rough attempt at a translation of each name. The cartouches give the Throne Name
rather than the personal Son of the Sun name that most people are familiar with
through the literature, so they already will seem unrecognizable in most cases. I add
a more familiar transcription in the right column and a rough translation below.
Pharaoh Tarot Deck
© Douglass A. White, 2010
21
Dynasty 1
1.
A-men
(N@r-mer)
Dear Foundation; Invisible One; Beloved Fool
(Menes, Narmer)
Dear Image
(Kher-aha)
Emanation; All
(Djer)
2.
3.
A-tet
Tat
Kher-@ha
Jer
4.
5.
6.
Ata
Jet
Septy
Den
Mery Baa-pe @nej Ab
The Person
(Djet)
Two Nomes; Distinguished (Den)
Baba’s Beloved; Beloved of the Strong Place;
Bright Heart
(Anedjib)
7.
8.
Semesu/Hew Smer-kha
Qebeh
Qe@
First Born / Lord of Taste
Heaven
(Semerkhet)
(Qa’a)
Dynasty 2
9.
Bejau
Hetep-Sekhemuy
Ferrying Place ; Experience of 2 Powers
10. Ka-bahu
@-Neb
Virile Energies; *Kakau
(Hotepsekhemwy)
(Raneb)
11.
12.
13.
14.
En-Neter
Weneg
Senej
(Beby)
Divine Mind,
Immortal Tongue
The Heart of Osiris; Fear
Chief [Beby]
(Ninetjer)
(Wneg)
(Senedj)
(Khasekhemwy)
Ba-[en]-neter
Waj-nes
Sen-da
Jajay
Dynasty 3
Pharaoh Tarot Deck
15. Neb Ka
16. Jeser-Sau
17. A-Tet
© Douglass A. White, 2010
22
Lord of Energy
Sanakhte
(Jeser I)
Holy Protector ; (Netery Khet Jeser)
Djoser
Sekhem Khat Dear Image; Power of Body
Sekhemkhet
18. Sejes
Kh@-Ba
19. Nefer-Ka-R@ Heweny
Makes Himself; Rising Mind
Beautiful Ra Energy; Striker
Khaba
Huni
20. Sneferu
Makes Beautiful Things
Sneferu
21.
22.
23.
24.
His Amulets
His Stability is Ra
His Rising is Ra
Foundation of the Energies of Ra
Khufu
Djedefre
Khafra
Menkaura
His Energy is Venerable
Shepseskaf
26. Weser Ka-f
27. Sahu R@
His Energy is a Wizard
The Toes of Ra (Orion)
Userkaf
Sahure
28.
29.
30.
31.
Two Dear Energies
Neferirkare Kakai
His Beauty is Ra
Neferefre
Ra is For the Wizard
Nyuserre [Ini]
Foundation of Horus Energies Menkauhor Kaiu
Dynasty 4
Khu-f-u
Jed-f R@
Kh@-f R@
Men-Kau R@
25. Shepeses Ka-f
Dynasty 5
Akayu (A-Kaka)
Nefer-f R@
En Weser R@
Men Kau Heru
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© Douglass A. White, 2010
23
32. Jed Ka R@
33. Wenas
Stability of the Energy of Ra Djedkare Isesi
As Existence (or As You)
Unas
Dynasty 6
34.
35.
36.
37.
A-Tet
Dear Image
Teti
Weser Ka R@
Wizard of the Energy of Ra Userkare
Mery R@
Pepy
Beloved of Ra; Brickmaker; (Traveler) Pepi I Meryre
Mer en R@ Mehty em Sa-f Beloved of Ra; Caring in His Protection
Merenre Nemtyemsaf
38. Nefer Ka R@ Pepy
Beautiful Energy of Ra
Pepi II Neferkare I
39. Mer en R@ Mehety em Sa-f
Beloved of Ra, Caring in His Protection
Merenre Nemtyemsaf II
Dynasty 7
40. Neter Ka R@
41. Men Ka R@
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
Divine Energy of Ra
Foundation Energy of Ra
Netjerkare
Menkare
Nefer Ka R@
Beautiful Energy of Ra
Neferkare II
Nefer Ka R@ Neby
Beautiful Energy of Ra, All-Inclusive Neferkare Neby
Jed Ka R@ Shemay
Stable Energy of Ra, the Foreigner Djedkare Shemai
Nefer Ka R@ Khenedu Beautiful Energy of Ra, the Traveler Neferkare Khendu
Mer-en-Heru
Beloved of Horus
Merenhor
47. Se-Nefer Ka
Dynasty 8
One Who Makes Energy Beautiful
Neferkamin
Pharaoh Tarot Deck
© Douglass A. White, 2010
48. En-Ka R@
49. Nefer-Ka R@ Tererru
For the Energy of Ra
Nikare
Beautiful Energy of Ra, the Worshipful
50. Nefer-Ka Heru
51. Nefer-Ka R@ Pepy Seneb
52. Se-Nefer Ka @nu
53. An Kau R@
54. Nefer Kau R@
55. Nefer Kau Heru
56. Nefer Ary Ka R@
24
Neferkare Tereru
Beautiful Energy of Horus
Neferkahor
Beautiful Energy of Ra, the Healthy Brickmaker
Neferkare Pepiseneb
Beautiful One Who Beautifies the Energy
Neferkamin Anu
Bringer of the Energies of Ra
Qakare Ibi
Beautiful Energies of Ra
Neferkaure II
Beautiful Energies of Horus
Beautiful Action of Ra Energy
Neferkauhor
Neferirkare
Dynasty 11
57. Neb Hepet R@ Menthu Hetep
Lord of the Paddle of Ra; Nomad Pacifier
Mentuhotep II
58. Se-@nekh Ka R@ Menthu Hetep Makes Alive the Ra Energy; Nomad Pacifier
Mentuhotep III
Dynasty 12
59. Se-Hetep Ab R@
Makes the Heart of Ra Experience; Invisible One in Heart
Amenemhat I
60.
61.
62.
63.
The Energy of Ra Creates; Zen Wizard
The Energies of Ra are Golden
The Creation of Ra Arises
The Energies of Ra Arise
Kheper Ka R@
Neweb Kau R@
Kh@ Kheper R@
Kh@ Kau R@
Senusret I
Amenemhat II
Senusret II
Senusret III
Pharaoh Tarot Deck
64. En M@at R@
65. M@a-kheru R@
© Douglass A. White, 2010
For the Truth of Ra
The Truth Speaking of Ra
25
Amenemhat III
Amenemhat IV
Dynasty 18
66. Neb Pehety R@
67. Jeser Ka R@
68.
69.
70.
71.
Doubly Mighty Lord of Ra; Born of the Moon Ahmose I
Sacred Energy of Ra
Amenhotep I
@a Kheper Ka R@
@a Kheper en R@
Men Kheper R@
@a Kheperu R@
Greatly Creates the Energy of Ra
Creates Greatness for Ra
Creative Foundation of Ra
Great are the Forms of Ra
Thutmose I
Thutmose II
Thutmose III
Amenhotep II
72. Men Kheperu R@
Stable are the Forms of Ra
Thutmose IV
73. Neb M@at R@
Lord of the Truth of Ra
Amenhotep III
74. Jeser Kheperu R@ Setep-en-R@ Sacred Forms of Ra Chosen by Ra
Horemheb
Dynasty 19
75. Men Pehety R@
Doubly Mighty Foundation of Ra
Rameses I
76. Men M@at R@
Foundation for the Truth of Ra
Sety I
77. Weser M@at R@
78. R@ Meses Mery Amen
Wizard of the Truth of Ra
Rameses II
Ever-Born Ra, Beloved of the Invisible Rameses II
Note how the first and last portions of the two names of Ramesses II (underlined in
bold face) fit together to form the name of the author of the Litany of Ra.
Why 78?
We must now address the question of why the “Da-Rekh” (Tarok) organization settled
on 78 avatars of Ra and 78 kings to embody those avatars.
From pre-dynastic times
Pharaoh Tarot Deck
© Douglass A. White, 2010
26
the magic number had always been 30. That was the number of squares on a Senet
Oracle Game Board, and that was the number of days in an Egyptian solar month.
The number of days in a lunar month was just slightly under 30 (29.53059 days to be
more exact), and there was a myth current in ancient Egypt to explain how the lunar
month became foreshortened and why 5 extra days were needed (actually 5.25) to
bring an idealized 12-month solar year of 360 days to its actual real-world value of
365. The myth had to do with the clever intelligence of Thoth and is told in many
books and in articles sprinkled around the Internet, but I have never seen the myth
properly explained so that the whole story made sense.
According to the story the year originally was a nice even twelve months of 30 days
each for a total of 360 days.
Here is how Plutarch records the myth (excerpted from
The History of Isis and Osiris With Explanations of the Same, Collected by
Plutarch, and Supplemented by His Own Views. From Legends of the Gods The
Egyptian Texts, edited with translations by E. A. Wallis Budge, London, 1912.) The
words in parentheses are my clarifications of the Greek names for Egyptian gods.
XII. “Now, the story of Isis and Osiris, its most insignificant and superfluous parts
being omitted, runs thus: -- The goddess Rhea (i.e. Nut), they say, having
accompanied with Kronos (i.e. Geb) by stealth, was discovered by Helios (i.e. Ra)
who straightway cursed her, and declared that she should not be delivered in any
month or year. Hermes (i.e. Thoth), however, being also in love with the same
goddess, in return for the favours which he had received from her, went and played at
dice with Selene (i.e. Aah, the Moon Goddess), and won from her the seventieth part
of each day. These parts he joined together and made from them five complete days,
and he added them to the three hundred and sixty days of which the year formerly
consisted. These five days are to this day called the ‘Epagomenae,’ that is, the
superadded, and they are observed by them as the birthdays of their gods. . . . (Osiris,
Horus, Set, Isis, and Nephthys in that order.) As regards the fathers of these children,
the first two are said to have been begotten by Helios (Ra), Isis by Hermes (Thoth),
and Typhon (Set) and Nephthys by Kronos (Geb). Therefore, since the third of the
superadded days was the birthday of Typhon, the kings considered it to be unlucky,
and in consequence they neither transacted any business in it, nor even suffered
themselves to take any refreshment until the evening. They further add that Typhon
married Nephthys, and that Isis and Osiris, having a mutual affection, enjoyed each
other in their mother's womb before they were born, and that from this commerce
sprang Aroueris, whom the Egyptians likewise call Horus the Elder, and the Greeks
Apollo.”
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© Douglass A. White, 2010
27
We learn from this story that Osiris (the Witnessing Seat of Perception) and Horus
(the Will) were both really the children (i.e. direct avatars) of Ra (the Higher Self),
whereas Isis (Feeling) was the child of Thoth, the Heart Master of Cosmic
Intelligence. They are celestial deities and are keys to wisdom, compassion, and the
Higher Self. Osiris was born from the womb of Nut (Cosmic Space), but Horus (the
Will) was actually born from the womb of Isis (Feeling) with Ra/Osiris (the Higher
Self Seat of Perception) as his father. Set (Illusory/Resistance/Suffering) and
Nephthys (Bliss) were earthly deities sired by Geb (Physical Matter), and therefore
are closely bound up with the physical body and the lower chakras. Deeper insights
into these relationships can be gained by study of the Amduat, which is the detailed
chronicle of Ra’s voyage through the night hours of Nut.
The problem arose when Ra in his transformation as Shu (Shewe; Breath of Life)
discovered that his children Nut (Cosmic Space) and Geb (Earth) whom he had sired
with Tefnut/Sekhmet/Hathor/Mut (Love, Light, and Undefined Awareness) were
having a secret affair. Shu then stood between them and separated them – forming
the earth’s atmosphere – but disallowed Nut from giving birth to children in any
month or year. According to the myth the solar month and lunar month were both 30
days and the year was 360 days long in those ancient times. If Geb and Nut could
not give birth, then life and civilization could not arise on the planet, for the deities
necessary to facilitate life could not be born. In Egyptian art we often find Ra in his
avatar as Shu depicted in the act of pushing Nut up and away from a reclining Geb.
The ironic aspect of this myth is that Shu (the atmosphere) is what connects earth and
cosmic space, making life on the planet possible.
Thoth (the personification of Cosmic Intelligence) had the clever ability to engineer
the evolution of life and civilization on planets with the assistance of his wives Ma’at
(Truth) and Seshat (Evolution). To provide the essential Egyptian deities needed to
get Egyptian civilization going (plants, sunlight, fertile soil, desert, and irrigation),
Thoth (probably in his disguise as Baba, the playful baboon, made a bet with the
moon that he could beat her at the game of Senet. The stake was 1/72nd part of the
light of the moon (Plutarch rounded it off to 1/70th part, which actually comes closer
to the precise fraction needed).
The numbers are important for understanding the story. The story is not myth, but
math. The game of Senet was played on a rectangular chessboard with 30 squares
arranged in three rows of 10 squares each. Each square represented a day, each row
was an Egyptian solar week, called by the Egyptians a Met and called by the Greeks a
Pharaoh Tarot Deck
© Douglass A. White, 2010
28
dekan. The full set of three rows of ten squares made up a solar month. The twelve
months of a year came to 360 days. The point of the myth is to show how Thoth
managed to get a year of 365 days and a month of 29.53 days from a calendar board
with 30 squares. Thoth being the most intelligent of all the gods obviously won the
game and the moon was forced to give up 1/72nd of her light to add some extra days to
the calendar year so that the five Egyptian national deities could be born. If we
divide 360 by 72, the answer is 5. The last five squares on the right side of the
bottom row of the Senet board became five special squares that represented the
Epagomenal Days of the short 5-day 13th month at the end of each solar year. If we
divide 30 by 72, we get 0.416666.... We subtract that from the idealized 30-day
lunar month and get 29.583333... days, which is very close to the actual synodic lunar
month of 29.53059 days. If we divide the actual solar year of 365.2425 days by the
actual 5.2425 super added days needed, then we get 69.6695278969. When we
divide 30 by 69.6695278969, we get .43060432452. Subtracting this amount from
30 days gives us 29.5693956755... days, which is even closer to the “exact” lunar
month of 29.53059 days than 29.583333.... days.
By this clever trick Thoth tweaks the Senet Board’s idealized calendar of 30 days into
both a practical solar and a practical lunar perpetual calendar. The Egyptians could
alternate long and short lunar months of 29 and 30 days, depending on when the
crescent of the new moon started to appear, just as, for example, the Chinese and
Muslims do today in their lunar calendars,.
On the Senet Game Board layout Thoth traditionally occupies the first square in the
upper left corner. With his narrow curved ibis beak Thoth represented the thin
crescent of the new moon that defined the first day of the lunar month. However, in
his avatar as Kenmut the Foolish Baboon, he governed the first three dekans (set of 3
solar weeks of 10 days each) that define the first solar month of the solar year. That
means in his crazy baboon form he was always the first to finish all 30 squares of the
Senet Game Board and beat the moon while she was still unable to finish the 30th
square. So a little less than half a day was lopped off her month and she found
herself back at square one with Thoth already waiting there for her, papyrus and brush
in hand to keep an accurate record of the passage of time.
The Tarot/Tarok card decks evolved from the game of Senet, and even today our
modern poker playing cards essentially form calendar decks, the 52 cards representing
the weeks of the year, the four suits representing the seasons, and the 13 cards in each
suit representing the approximate number of lunar months in a solar year. Four
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© Douglass A. White, 2010
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7-day weeks give a 28-day approximate lunar month, and 13 such months make a
year of 364 days. The red joker is for the last day of the year, and the black joker is
for leap day. The Tarok minor cards have 14 cards per suit. Two suits make a
28-day lunar month. It is an interesting coincidence that the number 364 is evenly
divisible by both 13 and 14. We can see how the calendar math has evolved over the
centuries, but the principle of a game that is also a calendar persists. The Catholic
Church and the Orthodox Church both have perpetuated the idea of “angel” cards
combined into a calendar, but assign a saint to each day of the year and encourage
followers of the religion to contemplate the attributes of the saint on his or her day.
Also a person’s birthday becomes that person’s saint day, and is a special meditation
for the person’s whole lifetime. These traditions evolved from the Litany of Ra and
Senet Oracle Game Board meditation and divination traditions of ancient Egypt.
The number 72 is important because it is twice 36, and 36 is the number of Egyptian
dekans in a year. The epagomenal days form an additional half dekan used to
complete the solar year. Thus each dekan divides into two halves of 5 days each for
a total of 72 semi-dekans plus the epagomenal semi-dekan.
Schallwer de Lubicz (The Temple of Man, v. 2, p. 931) points out that the number 72
is encoded in the architectural design of the Holy of Holies at Luxor Temple. The
room’s width versus its length has the ratio of 9 to 8, whose product is 72. The
height of each register relative to the foundation is φ, taking the foundation as 1.
The three registers plus the foundation give 3φ+ 1, the total forming 7/8 of the wall
height. “Between the last line of the upper register and the frieze of uraei there is an
interval corresponding to the difference between 1/8th and 1/9th, or 1/72th occupied by
the standard border that constitutes the frame of the tableaux.
this arrangement is unique to the Inner Sanctum.
Schwaller finds that
Another derivation of 72 comes from the 6 components of the Lunar Eye of Horus
q that form the bifurcating fractions: 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32, 1/64. These
components combine in various ways to generate 64 fractions of unity – the Book of
Changes as it existed in ancient Egypt long before it appeared in China.
Thoth
showed Horus how to reassemble the fragmented Eye into the wholeness symbolized
by the full moon. When we add to that set of 64 fractions Thoth’s Ogdoad of
Primordial deities, we get the number 72. When we add the four sons of Horus (the
four classical elements) plus the principle of binary contrast (Min and Mut), we get a
total of 64 + 8 + 4 + 2 = 78.
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The number 78 is also the 12th triangular number, which generates the pattern of a flat
pyramid that can represent a year of 12 months in its 12 levels.
The Sun Pyramid with 12 Levels
The square pyramidal number sequence is 1, 5, 14, 30, 55, 91, 140, 204, 285, 385, 506,
650, 819, . . . . The fourth number of the series is 30, the exact number of squares on
the Senet Board, showing us how to transform the flat rectangular Senet Board into a
3-dimensional Egyptian-style square pyramid. We thus can obtain a year calendar
from 12 Solar Month Senet Pyramids of 30 Solar Sphere days plus a Mini
Epagomenal Pyramid made of 1 + 4 = 5 Solar Sphere days..
The sixth number in the square pyramidal number series is 91, the number of days in
13 seven-day weeks. Four times 91 equals 364, which is one day short of a solar
year of 365 days. This looks very much like code for a poker deck of 4 times 13 =
52 weeks plus a joker for New Year’s day. If we add the sun itself as the Eye of Ra
as that joker floating above our four pyramids of 91 solar spheres each, then we have
a set of 365 suns or earth-days. Each pyramid can represent a cardinal direction and
a classical element as well as a suit in our deck of cards.
1 + 4 + 9 + 16 Solar Spheres Stacked to Make a 30 Solar Sphere Square Pyramid
(Public domain graphic by David Eppstein for Wikipedia Commons)
The Temple of Min at Luxor may provide further hints at the number 78 as it was
conceived in the Egyptian tradition. The temple begins at the inner sanctum with a
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naos (inner sanctum) that has four columns, a design echoed again further out in the
Offering Hall. Beyond this is a Portico with eight columns. Moving further
outward we encounter a Hypostyle Hall with two sets of 16 columns altogether
totaling 32 columns. Next we enter the Court of Amenhotep with 64 columns
arranged in pairs around the perimeter. From the inner part of the temple to the
Court of Amenhotep we have a structure that clearly represents in its architecture the
Egyptian Book of Changes with the doubling that proceeds from the union of Min
and Mut. Moving outward beyond the Court of Amenhotep we pass through a
Colonnade consisting of seven pairs of colossal columns that represent the seven
physical chakras of the human body as well as the thighs of the giant Min.
Rameses II then expanded the structure further by adding a large courtyard that he
built at a skewed angle in order to include a triple solar bark shrine erected in the 18th
dynasty by Thutmose III to hold the processional boats of Amen, Mut, and Khonsu
during celebrations. That Rameses went out of his way to integrate the Thutmose
shrine into his courtyard rather than simply moving it or even removing it is
significant, because Thutmose III originated the Litany of Ra.
There appear to be 74 large columns in the courtyard plus 4 more that you can see
from the aerial photo have been subsumed into the thick walls of the Thutmose boat
shrine. Then there are 4 slightly smaller bud columns that grace the porch in front of
the Thutmose boat shrine to express in visible form the 4 larger columns hidden in the
Thutmose temple walls that demarcate the central room used for housing the boat of
Amen during its visits. The four hidden columns represent the four immanent
elements. The name Amen means “hidden” and the boat (waa D) stands for the
meditation that takes attention into the hidden recesses of the mind. This gives us a
grand total of 78 visible columns in the original Rameses II courtyard and beautifully
integrates Rameses II with Thutmose III, the Litany of Ra progenitor.
4 Columns at the Entrance to the Thutmose III Sacred Boat Temple in the Rameses II Courtyard, Luxor
Behind the Boat Temple are the Great Pylons of Rameses.
Two obelisks once straddled the main entrance.
The one not visible has been removed to Paris.
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Photo from http://www.ask-aladdin.com/images/Egyptpics/
The solar boat that would rest in the central room of the Thutmose shrine represents
the Amen Meditation (Transcendental Meditation) because of the wordplay between
the word for Boat (waa D) and the word for meditation (waa Ua). The boat
belongs to Amen, the Invisible Reality that hides behind phenomenal reality. The
colossal statues of the pharaoh between each pair of columns in the southern half of
the courtyard suggest that each column is intended to represent one of the pharaohs on
the sacred list of 78 pharaohs selected for special honor by Sety and Rameses. At
present eleven colossi (some seriously damaged) stand between the columns and two
others are seated on either side of the entrance to the Hypostyle Hall.
connection between statues and columns is clear enough.
The
As a person enters the temple and moves inward, the columns decrease from 78 to 64
to 32 to 8 to 4 that then splits into two pairs. Ultimately there is only the phallus of
Min. This is the transcending phase of the meditation. On the way out the process
reverses and one returns from unity to the world of diversity. The single identity of
all the colossi in the Rameses Courtyard suggests a viewpoint of unity within diversity.
The mirror reflection of the two Boat Chapels suggests that the outer physical world
(Thutmose Boat Chapel) is a reflection of the inner mental world (Alexander’s Boat
Chapel).
Colossal Statue of Rameses Standing Between Columns, Luxor
Photo taken by Hajor, Dec.2001 (Wikimedia Commons)
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Detail of public domain photo by Blalonde, 10 November, 2009 (Wikimedia Commons)
In this vista of the Luxor Court of Rameses there are standing statues of Rameses between each column,
and a pair of seated colossi on either side of the entrance to the grand colonnade.
Schwaller de Lubicz points out (Temple of Man, v. 2, p. 932) that if the first register
on the west wall of the Holy of Holies has a height from the baseline to the boundary
of the extended “heaven” glyph 2 at the top of the register of 100 units, then the
distance to the tops of the heads of the kings and images of Amen is 72 units (see his
plate 79 in Temple of Man that shows Amenhotep in various stages of making
offerings to Amen, and the detail below from a photo showing a portion of a pillar
with a similar scene).
In the photo detail you can see the king on the right making an offering to Amen, who
wears a crown with tall feather ornaments that extend all the way to the “heaven”
glyph at the top of the register. The register is four blocks in height, and each block
is the same height. Thus the top of the third block up from the baseline is 75 units if
we allow 25 units per block. The top of the king’s head comes right where 72 units
would be. The number 72 represents the 64 fractions of a lunar month plus the 8
Primordials of Thoth.
It also represents the 36 half-dekans that make up the solar
year that the physical body experiences. The final half dekan of 5 days takes one out
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of the crown chakra into the spiritual realm.
The feather is an Egyptian symbol for thought. The icon thus depicts a meditation
process in which the thoughts extend from the gross physical body to subtler and
subtler, higher and higher levels of consciousness until they reach heaven and merge
into pure undefined awareness that is compared to the sky that stretches overhead.
The king offers pujah to Amen and the kundalini cobra (emerging from the king’s
brow) opens his Eye of Wisdom. Amen’s image is alternately tantric (ithyphallic)
and conventional. The photo shows him in conventional mode.
Schwaller further points out (Temple of Man, v. 2, p. 940 et al.) that the central axis
of the temple extends from the center of the Inner Sanctum (Room I) and passes:
Through the center of the Solar Journey room (Room XII with 12 pillars, one for
each month);
Through the center of the Inner Amen Boat chapel (Room VI);
Through the offering room of the four elements (4 columns as the 4 Sons of
Horus);
Through the room of Thoth’s 8 Primordial Trigram Transformations (8 columns);
Through the Hypostyle Room XVI with its two sets of 16 columns;
Through the Peristyle transept court of Amenhotep with its 64 “hexagram”
pillars arranged in pairs just like the sequence of hexagrams in the traditional
Chinese Book of Changes;
Through the gigantic colonnade (nave) of the 7 chakras;
Through the Courtyard of Rameses with its 78 Tarok Pillars;
Through the door of the Temple of Thutmose into the Chapel of Amen’s Boat.
There the Axis of Amen perfectly bisects the inner wall of that chapel. The path in
the aerial photo shown above has deviated slightly from the axis in order to parallel
the colonnade, which is already slightly skewed and does not show the actual Axis of
Amen. If we extend the axis through the Rameses Pylon, it then passes through the
interior of the chapel of Isis in the Nectanebo yard to a point where a statue of Isis
was recovered in the 1950’s.
If we reflect the Axis of Amen from the inner wall of the Thutmose Bark Chapel as if
from a mirror, then the axis goes right down the skewed center of the Thutmose
chapel, out the door, then and along a line diagonal to the main temple. If we extend
it in a straight line until it passes outside the Inner Boat Chapel of Amen that was
renovated by Alexander, a right angle drawn from the location of the boat in the
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chapel to the reflected line and a line drawn perpendicular to the main temple Axis of
Amen and extended to the point intersected by the perpendicular from the boat to the
reflected line, gives us a triangle that is similar to the large triangle formed by the
Axis of Amen and its reflection. The ratio of the short leg to the hypotenuse for
these triangles is 1/7 with an angle of 8º 8´.
Aerial View of Rameses II Courtyard, Luxor
(Columns in northeast corner are obscured by Abu el Haggag Mosque erected over them.
Notice how the Courtyard is deliberately skewed from the main axis of the temple.
The white arrow indicates the Axis of Amen, marked by the architects on the inner boat chapel floor.)
In this diagram the red arrow proceeds in a straight line from the center of the naos (8)
to the center of the Amen Boat Chapel built by Thutmose (upper right corner of 2).
That red arrow marks the Axis of Amen. The inner Boat Chapel (7) forms a mirror
image of the outer Boat Chapel. Thus Thutmose placed his chapel geomantically,
and Rameses had to skew his courtyard (2) in order to align it and its entry pylons
with the important Thutmose structure that he wished to honor and preserve. The
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blue arrow is the axis reflecting off the back wall of the Thutmose Boat Chapel. The
green arrow connects the red arrow to the blue arrow from the Inner Boat parking spot,
perpendicular to the blue arrow. The orange arrow is a perpendicular erected from
the same parking spot to intersect the blue arrow. The little right triangle
(green/blue/orange) is similar to the big right triangle (blue/green/red), but rotated 90
degrees. The big right triangle is also similar to another big right triangle
(red/orange/green) but flipped as a mirror image. Schwaller describes in his
monumental work the details of the fascinating long-distance mirror image reflection
between the inner and outer Amen Boat Chapels in the iconography.
Above is a drawing by Lucie Lamy, who assisted de Lubicz in his analysis of Luxor
Temple. Her sketch reveals the mathematics of the Naos Inner Shrine.
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The pink arrows I have added represent the crossed scepters of the shepherd’s crook
and the farmer’s flail in the mind of pharaoh. Each arrow is √10 units based on the
unit defined by the distance from the center of room I (the central shrine) to the center
of room VII (or room V), the two adjacent shrine rooms with pairs of pillars. Of
course it is also the product of the diagonals of the two integer length rectangles.
√2 × √5 = √10
The square root of 10 is the key to physics and geometry, and of course contains the
number phi that governs the natural evolution of structures, as √5 does.
φ = [(√5 + 1) / 2]
In modern science √10 governs the scale at which attention perceives phenomena and
is reflected in the product of ħ (h-bar, the reduced Planck constant and signature of the
very smallest scale) and c (the speed of light and signature of the very largest scale) –
a constant that permeates quantum physics. Scientific notation makes use of powers
of 10 as a means of expressing values at very large and very small scales.
Reference Materials for Further Study:
Other surviving kings lists include the Palermo Stone, the Turin Papyrus, the Karnak
Tablet of Thutmose III in the Louvre (model for Sety I and Rameses II?), the Thunery
Tablet (modeled after Sety I and Rameses II?), and Manetho’s List.
Mudloff, Thomas F.
I”.
“The Royal Tradition in Upper Egypt from Menes to Sety
Available for download at http://www.ancientegyptandtheneareast.com/.
Schwaller de Lubicz, R. A. The Temple of Man: Apet of the South at Luxor.
Translated from the French by Deborah Lawlor and Robert Lawlor with illustrations
by Lucie Lamy. 2 Vols. Rochester, VT; Inner Traditions, 1998.
White, Douglass A. The Pyramid Texts: Avatar Wizards of Eternity. Vols. I-XI
currently available cover hymns 1-531.
An introduction with a detailed
transliteration, translation, and commentary.
Available at Amazon.com or
Dpedtech.com.
White, Douglass A.
The Senet Tarot Oracle Deck of Ancient Egypt. A Tarot
deck based on Dr. White’s reconstruction of the Tarot tradition in ancient Egypt.
Available at Dpedtech.com.
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White, Douglass A. The Senet Game Text of Ancient Egypt. The hieroglyphic
text plus a transcription, translation and detailed commentary on the classical
Egyptian poetic text on the game of Senet.
Dpedtech.com.
Available at Amazon.com and
White, Douglass A. The Litany of Ra (Tarok Naipe). The hieroglyphic text plus
a transliteration, translation, and detailed commentary with copious illustrations of the
earliest text that defined the 78 cards of the Tarot/Tarok deck. Available at
Amazon.com or Dpedtech.com.
White, Douglass A. A Tour of Atlantis or What Happens in the Astral Realm
(the Egyptian Amduat). Hieroglyphic text, translation, and detailed commentary
with copious illustrations based on the original drawings of all 12 Hours. Available
for free download at Dpedtech.com.
White, Douglass A. The Book of Changes (Holistic Change Maker). 2 Vols.
Contains an in-depth introduction, the original Chinese text, plus a new translation
with detailed commentary, many fascinating illustrations, exercises, and discussions.
The Internet has many excellent websites that present material about ancient Egypt.
Gradually the Egyptian records are becoming available, as well as quality visual
documentation with digital photography and virtual computer restorations of the
artifacts and architecture. This is a very exciting time in the development of
Egyptology with new archaeological finds and scholarly discoveries occurring
regularly.
This article has a version number that begins with V1012.21.
(December 21, 2010)
Watch for future updates.