Shamanic Wisdom In The Pyramid Texts

A radical reinterpretation of the Pyramid Texts as shamanic mystical wisdom rather than funerary rituals • Reveals the mystical nature of Egyptian civilization denied by orthodox Egyptologists • Examines the similarity between the pharaoh’s afterlife voyage and shamanic journeying • Shows shamanism to be the foundation of the Egyptian mystical tradition To the Greek philosophers and other peoples of the ancient world, Egypt was regarded as the home of a profound mystical wisdom. While there are many today who still share that view, the consensus of most Egyptologists is that no evidence exists that Egypt possessed any mystical tradition whatsoever. Jeremy Naydler’s radical reinterpretation of the Pyramid Texts--the earliest body of religious literature to have survived from ancient Egypt--places these documents into the ritual context in which they belong. Until now, the Pyramid Texts have been viewed primarily as royal funerary texts that were used in the liturgy of the dead pharaoh or to aid him in his afterlife journey. This emphasis on funerary interpretation has served only to externalize what were actually experiences of the living, not the dead, king. In order to understand the character and significance of the extreme psychological states the pharaoh experienced--states often involving perilous encounters with alternate realities--we need to approach them as spiritual and religious phenomena that reveal the extraordinary possibilities of human consciousness. It is the shamanic spiritual tradition, argues Naydler, that is the undercurrent of the Pyramid Texts and that holds the key to understanding both the true nature of these experiences and the basis of ancient Egyptian mysticism.

Gnostic texts are filled with encounters of strange other worldly beings, journeys to visionary heavenly realms, and encounters with the presence and spirit of the divine. In Gnostic visions, author and Gnostic scholar Luke A. Myers presents evidence demonstrating how Gnostic visions were created and the connection these visions have to naturally occurring visionary compounds that are still in existence today. The culmination of more than ten years of research, Gnostic Visions advances the understanding of classical ethnobotany, Gnosticism, and the genesis of early Christian history. In this book the author discusses the prehistoric foundations of early human religion as well as the visionary religious traditions of the classical Greeks and Egyptians. Using these as a foundation, the book presents new and never before seen research explaining how Gnostic visions were created and what types of compounds were used by these ancient people to create them. Gnostic Visions presents evidence directly linking visionary Ayahuasca analogs with the creation of Gnostic and Hermetic visionary experiences. Gnostic Visions also describes the decline of Gnosticism, other visionary practices used in the Dark Ages and gives a brief tour of the visionary plants of the new world. In Gnostic visions, Myers tells of his personal experience with the divine and includes some of his own reflections of the importance of mankind's relationship to the natural world. He communicates that altered states of consciousness have been responsible for many of the most profound mystical religious experiences in human history.

In this guide to the cosmology of ancient Egypt, Jeremy Naydler recreates the experience of living in another time and place. Temple of the Cosmos explores Egypt's sacred geography and mythology; but more importantly, it reveals with unprecedented clarity an ancient consciousness in tune with the rhythms of the earth. The ancient Egyptians experienced their gods not as remote beings but rather as psychic and natural forces, transpersonal energies that played a part in everyday life. This direct experience of the gods shaped the Egyptian concepts of human development, healing, magic, and the soul's journey through the Underworld as described in the Books of the Dead. While building on the pioneering efforts of R. A. Schwaller de Lubicz and others, Temple of the Cosmos is much more than a recapitulation of previous theories of Egyptian spirituality. Rather, this book breaks new ground by placing the work of other Egyptologists in an original, magical context. The result is a brilliant reimagining of the Egyptian worldview and its sacred path of spiritual unfolding.

Dreaming is vital to the human story. It is essential to our survival and evolution, to creative endeavors in every field, and, quite simply, to getting us through our daily lives. All of us dream. Now Robert Moss shows us how dreams have shaped world events and why deepening our conscious engagement with dreaming is crucial for our future. He traces the strands of dreams through archival records and well-known writings, weaving remarkable yet true accounts of historical figures who were influenced by their dreams. In this wide-ranging, visionary book, Moss creates a new way to explore history and consciousness, combining the storytelling skills of a bestselling novelist with the research acumen of a scholar of ancient history and the personal experience of an active dreamer.

The Pyramid Texts are the oldest body of extant literature from ancient Egypt. First carved on the walls of the burial chambers in the pyramids of kings and queens of the Old Kingdom, they provide the earliest comprehensive view of the way in which the ancient Egyptians understood the structure of the universe, the role of the gods, and the fate of human beings after death. Their importance lies in their antiquity and in their endurance throughout the entire intellectual history of ancient Egypt. This volume contains the complete translation of the Pyramid Texts, including new texts recently discovered and published. It incorporates full restorations and readings indicated by post-Old Kingdom copies of the texts and is the first translation that presents the texts in the order in which they were meant to be read in each of the original sources.

An initiatic guide to temple construction on the spiritual and physical planes • Details the initiations for consecrating yourself as a divine vessel • Guides you in building a sacred inner temple for connecting with the gods of Egypt • Delivers shamanic journeys and initiations on ascension, shamanic death and renewal, soul retrieval and healing, multidimensional realities, and more Deep within each of us lives a primal memory of a time when the natural world was recognized as divine and our temples were built from sacred materials enlivened through magic. Temples were not places you visited once a week; they were centers of community, divine work, healing, and wisdom, places where Heaven and Earth meet. This union of Heaven and Earth--the sacred temple--is also a union of Thoth and Isis: the Egyptian god of wisdom and the creative cosmic force and the Egyptian goddess of civilizing knowledge. Their relationship established the celestial teachings on Earth, for Thoth taught Isis all the mysteries and magic she knows and Isis acted as Thoth’s instrument to deliver the teachings in a form humanity could use. In this initiatic guide to temple building on the spiritual and physical planes, Normandi Ellis and Nicki Scully explain how to create a communal spiritual structure for connecting with the ancient Egyptian pantheon as well as how to consecrate yourself and become a vessel suitable for divine wisdom and a home for your personal gods. The authors detail the construction, shamanic visioning, and ritual consecration of a Moon Temple dedicated to Thoth. They explore teachings that help you develop relationships with the Egyptian neteru and realize your place within the family of the Egyptian pantheon. They guide you as you create your inner heart temple, the adytum, a safe place in which to receive guidance and access your higher spiritual bodies and oracular gifts. They provide shamanic journeys and initiations on ascension, shamanic death and renewal, soul retrieval and healing, multidimensional realities, and more. By creating a sacred temple within and without, we each can take part in the union of Isis and Thoth and restore the magic of the Egyptian mysteries to our time.

Reveals the radical ancient practice of living resurrection, in which initiates ritually died and were reborn into a state of higher consciousness • Explores living resurrection initiation practices from world cultures, including Egyptian, Greek, Gnostic, Chinese, Celtic, and Native American traditions • Describes the secret chambers and temples where Mystery Schools practiced “raising the dead” • Shows why this practice was branded a heresy and suppressed by the Church More than two thousand years before the resurrection of Jesus, initiates from spiritual traditions around the world were already practicing a secret mystical ritual in which they metaphorically died and were reborn into a higher spiritual state. During this living resurrection, they experienced a transformative spiritual awakening that revealed the nature of reality and the purpose of the soul, described as “rising from the dead.” Exploring the practice of living resurrection in ancient Egyptian, Phoenician, Greek, Persian, Indian, Japanese, Chinese, Celtic, and Native American traditions, Freddy Silva explains how resurrection was never meant for the dead, but for the living--a fact supported by the suppressed Gnostic Gospel of Philip: “Those who say they will die first and then rise are in error. If they do not first receive the resurrection while they live, when they die they will receive nothing.” He reveals how these practices were not only common in the ancient world but also shared similar facets in each tradition: initiates were led through a series of challenging ordeals, retreated for a three-day period into a cave or restricted room, often called a “bridal chamber,” and while out-of-body, became fully conscious of travels in the Otherworld. Upon returning to the body, they were led by priests or priestesses to witness the rising of Sirius or the Equinox sunrise. Silva describes some of the secret chambers around the world where the ritual was performed, including the so-called tomb of Thutmosis III in Egypt, which featured an empty sarcophagus and detailed instructions for the living on how to enter the Otherworld and return alive. He reveals why esoteric and Gnostic sects claimed that the literal resurrection of Jesus promoted by the Church was a fraud and how the Church branded all living resurrection practices as a heresy, relentlessly persecuting the Gnostics to suppress knowledge of this self-empowering experience. He shows how the Knights Templar revived these concepts and how they survive to this day within Freemasonry. Exploring the hidden art of living resurrection, Silva shows how this personal experience of the Divine opened the path to self-empowerment and higher consciousness, leading initiates such as Plato to describe it as the pinnacle of spiritual development.