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The City Of Thebes
A capital of ancient Egypt, Thebes rose in importance
as the home of several royal families from the 11th dynasty (established
c.2133 BC). Kings of the 12th dynasty lived near Memphis but honored the
Theban god Amon, and under the 17th and 18th dynasties Thebes became the
capital of the Egyptian empire. Kings of the 19th and 20th dynasties lived
in the north but lavished attention on Thebes. As the empire began to
decline (c.1200 BC), Thebes was controlled by militaristic high priests;
in 661 the city was sacked by the Assyrians.
Thebes continued to be an important center during
Ptolemaic times (304-30 BC), but it declined thereafter and now consists
of the villages of Luxor and Karnak. Some Theban monuments are very well
preserved. On the east bank of the Nile the principal ancient town site is
covered by modern settlements, but two great temple complexes remain.
Amon's temple at Karnak is the larger, covering more than 54 ha (133
acres) and representing almost 2,000 years of building activity (from 2000
BC). The other temple, at LUXOR, was begun in 1417 BC. On the west bank
are tombs of 11th- and 17th- to 20th-dynasty royalty. The New Kingdom
burial grounds are in the remote valley where TUTANKHAMEN's tomb was
found. Several large royal funerary temples survive at the edge of the
river, and the desert foothills are filled with tombs of nobles who lived
during the New Kingdom and later. Many of the temples are decorated with
paintings that are masterpieces of Egyptian art. Several west-bank towns
were important, particularly the palace-city of Amenhotep III at Malkata
and the town of Medinet Habu
For two thousand years Egyptian civilisation had been
pre-eminent, indeed, Egypt had enjoyed a prestige throughout the know
world second to none. By the time of Rameses III, however, the world was
going through great upheavals. That long period of stability in the Middle
East brought about by Thutmose III and continued by Rameses II's treaties
with the Hittites was about to come to an end. This was the time of the
Trojan Wars and the fall of Mycenae. A time when age-old empires were
weakened by complacent rulers and failed harvests.
It is recorded in the longest know papyrus, the Great
Harris Papyrus, that many people throughout the region were made homeless.
'The foreign countries plotted on their Islands and the people were
scattered by battle all at one time and no land could stand before their
arms.' This great movement of people was well armed and desperate. Known
as the Sea Peoples, they obliterated the Hittite Empire and for a while
threatened Egypt with extinction also.
But Egypt was not about to give up and sink into
oblivion, not yet anyway. There was still one more moment of glory for
these most ancient of ancients.
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The Luxor area of Upper Egypt was the Thebes of the ancient
Egyptians - the capital of Egypt during the Middle and New Kingdoms. Today
it is famous for its temples and the nearby
Valley of the
Kings.
On the east bank is the modern town of Luxor. Running alongside part
of the river bank and separated from it by the corniche is
Luxor Temple.
Modified over many centuries, its main pylons, or gates, are on the
northern end. In front of them is one obelisk - its companion was given to
France and taken to Paris where it was erected in Place de la Concorde on
25 October 1836.
Just south of the temple is the Old Winter Palace Hotel - used early
this century by Lord Carnarvon as work proceeded on West Bank excavations
and preliminary work on the tomb of Tutankhamun.
At the northern end of town is the sprawling Karnak complex of
temples built over a span of about 1,500 years. It is famous for its main
Hypostyle Hall with 134 massive columns. One can wander for hours amongst
the ruins. Starting at the first pylon, one walks back through time to the
earlier constructions toward the rear.
About halfway between Luxor and Karnak temples is located the
Luxor Museum
- one of the best in Egypt.
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The West Bank was the domain of the deceased and it is
dominated by mortuary temples and hundreds of tombs. |
The major temples include the Ramesseum - the famous mortuary
temple of 19th-dynasty pharaoh Ramesses II. Walking amongst its ruins
evokes a special feeling and the fallen colossus shows how even the mighty
have fallen. This was the site from which Belzoni removed the famous bust
now in the British Museum. Belzoni's signature can still be found carved
in stone in a couple of places within the Ramesseum, along with those of
other well-known personalities of 19th-century Egypt.
Stories of the Ramesseum and the display of the enormous bust of
Ramesses II in the British Museum moved the 19th-century English poet
Shelley to write "Ozymandias":
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I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert... Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
and wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on those lifeless
things, The hand that mocked them, and the heart that
fed: And on the pedestal these words appear: 'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!' Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away. |
Medinet Habu was Ramesses III's attempt to copy his ancestor.
The complex was added to over the centuries following, but it is most
impressive and shouldn't be missed. The artisans from the nearby town of
Deir el-Medina
moved in to the compound when things got unsafe and the construction of
Royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings came to a halt.
The mortuary temple of 18th-dynasty Queen Hatshepsut is a
masterpiece of design and has been under restoration for about a century.
It is built into a natural amphitheatre in the cliffs and does not look
out of place in the 20th century, even though it was constructed during
the early 15th century BC.
| The mortuary temple of 18th-dynasty Queen
Hatshepsut is a masterpiece of design and has been under restoration
for about a century.
It is built into a natural amphitheatre in the cliffs and does
not look out of place in the 20th century, even though it was
constructed during the early 15th century BC. |
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Most famous of all on the West Bank is the
Valley of the
Kings. Although its modern paths detract a little from its atmosphere,
it is still possible to feel the link to the distant past - especially
when most of the tourists have left earlier in the day.
Tutankhamun's tomb is one everyone wants to visit - and should if
possible - just to appreciate how small was the area that contained the
riches now partly on show at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
However, there are many other more impressive tombs. There is no
guarantee which ones will be open during a visit, but try to see those
belonging to Thutmose III (the Napoleon of Ancient Egypt), Ramesses III,
IV and VI, and Horemheb. That of Horemheb contains examples of how workmen
created wall reliefs. The tomb of Seti I is a masterpiece, but structural
problems keep it closed these days.
FROM:
http://homepage.powerup.com.au/~ancient/luxor.htm
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The Temple of Luxor
The modern town of Luxor is the site of the famous city of
Thebes, (Waset in ancient Egyptian) the city of a hundred gates.
It was the capital of Egypt from the 12th dynasty (1991 BC) and
reached its zenith during the New Kingdom. It was from here that
Thutmose III planned his campaigns.
Akhenaten
first contemplated the nature of god and Rameses II set out his
ambitious building program. Only Memphis could compare in size and
wealth, but Memphis was pillaged of its masonry to build new
cities and little remains. Although the mud brick palaces of
Thebes have disappeared the stone built temples have survived.
The temple of Luxor is close to the Nile and parallel with the
riverbank. King Amenhotep III who reigned 1390-53 BC built this
beautiful temple and dedicated it to Amon-Re, king of the gods,
his consort Mut, and their son Khons.
This temple has been in almost continuous use as a place of
worship right up to the present day. It was completed by
Tutankhamun and Horemheb and added to by Ramses II. Towards the
rear is a granite shrine dedicated to Alexander the Great.
During the Christian era the temple's hypostyle hall was converted
into a Christian church, and the remains of another Coptic church
can be seen to the west.
Then for thousands of years, the temple was buried beneath the
streets and houses of the town of Luxor. Eventually the mosque of
Sufi Shaykh Yusuf Abu al-Hajjaj was built over it. This mosque was
preserved when the temple was uncovered and forms an integral part
of the site today.
Mauric Chatelain tells us this about Luxor:
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There are ancient Greek
temples and cities that have been submerged by the
Mediterranean. Today nobody has a right to doubt that reality.
Aerial photography has rediscovered what old Aegean fishermen
found thousands of year ago - sunken temples, villages, and
streets. Just outside the small port of Halieis, between Mycenae
and Tiryns, there reposes under many feet of water a former
temple of Zeus built in 780 B.C. Just like the Karnak temple
near Luxor, it was rebuilt several times, with new additions
reoriented at angles up to 40 degrees from the origin,
representing a time span of 2,880 years, or 10 times 288 years,
the Tiahuanaco number. That means the oldest part of this temple
was constructed 5,600 years ago. The building at Halieis is
constructed in Mycenean feet of 0.277 m, which for all practical
purposes equals the foot of the Celts, or 0.276 m. This same
measure was employed in the megalithic sites of England, France,
and Spain, which according to the latest estimates date back
10,000 years or more, preceding the ziggurats of Mesopotamia and
the Egyptian pyramids.
[End of excerpt]
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 Serapis Bey - Chohan of the Fourth Ray
Serapis
Bey is Chohan of the Fourth Ray, the white ray. Some fourth-ray
qualities are purity, discipline, joy, hope and excellence.
Serapis works with students to help them develop these qualities,
gain mastery in the base-of-the-spine chakra and gradually and
safely raise the kundalini fire that is stored in that chakra. He
is a great devotee of the Divine Mother and of her light and fire
within all souls.
Sometimes called “the disciplinarian” because of his fierce
determination to save souls from self-indulgence and to move them
along the most efficient path to their ascension, Serapis can help
people prepare to receive the Holy Spirit’s gift of the working of
miracles.
Serapis spent many lifetimes along the Nile, and as the
Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep III he constructed the physical temple
at Luxor. His most familiar incarnation was Leonidas, the great
warrior who led the Spartans in the famous battle at Thermopylae,
Greece.
Serapis ascended around 400 B.C. His etheric retreat is
located over Luxor, Egypt.
The Holy Spirit's Fourth Ray gift of the working of miracles
is focused through the base-of-the-spine chakra.
The Ascended Master Serapis Bey is the Lord (Chohan) of the
Fourth Ray and Hierarch of the Ascension Temple at Luxor, Egypt.
Known as the great disciplinarian, he reviews and trains
candidates for the ascension.
In the nineteenth century, Serapis Bey worked closely with
El Morya, Kuthumi, Djwal Kul and other
Masters
to found the Theosophical Society.
The musical keynote of Serapis Bey is "Celeste Aďda" by
Verdi and the keynote of his etheric retreat is "Liebestraum" by
Liszt.
Serapis was embodied as a high priest in the ascension
temple on Atlantis more than 11,500 years ago.
He was the Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep III, c. 1417-1379
b.c., called "the Magnificent." He brought Egypt to its height of
diplomatic prestige, prosperity and peace. His extensive building
of monuments, palaces and temples included construction of the
temple of Luxor, which was built to correspond to the outline of
the human skeletal framework. Careful studies of its architecture
have revealed that the entire temple explains many secret
functions of the organs and nerve centers.
Serapis was also embodied as Leonidas, king of Sparta. In
about 480 b.c., with only three hundred soldiers, he resisted the
advance of Xerxes' vast Persian army in a herculean effort at
Thermopylae. Though finally defeated, their fight to the last man
is celebrated in literature as the epitome of heroism in the face
of overwhelming odds.
Serapis Bey ascended in about 400 b.c.
In 1967, the Ascended Master Serapis Bey dictated the book
Dossier on the Ascension: The Story of the Soul's Acceleration
into Higher Consciousness on the Path of Initiation, which was
recorded by the Messenger Mark L. Prophet.
Serapis offers profound answers to the
questions of life after death. He outlines step by step how to
follow the adepts of East and West, including Jesus Christ, who
have been candidates at the mystery school of Luxor, Egypt,
submitting to the initiations of the Sphinx and the Great Pyramid.
Serapis teaches how to live life to its fullest in the here and
now and how to consciously ascend (accelerate) into that higher
reality which is the eternal abode of the soul.
FROM:
http://www.greatdreams.com/masters/Serapis-Bey.htm
Serapis Bey, an ascended master associated with
Luxor in Egypt, who holds open the Temple doors on the etheric
level, and is one of the great teachers of ascension on the
planet. Serapis Bey originally came from Venus and is the Keeper
of the White flame. He works with Archangel Chamuel on the ray of
compassion and is the only Ascended Master who works with the
Seraphim. He has an ascension seat Luxor. In past incarnations he
was a priest in Atlantis and was the Pharaoh Akhenaton !V and also
Amenophis. He is the master of the third ray, the yellow ray of
active, creative intelligence, helping to bring perfection, focus
and independence to artists, musicians, peacemakers, philosophers
and metaphysicians. He works to balance and activate artistic
beauty in all areas of life. He helps with personal initiations.
Serapis Bey
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Red Ray - Root Chakra
From:
http://www.greatdreams.com/masters/ascended-masters.htm |
The Goddess Sekhmet
Sekhmet's name means 'powerful',
and like Bast, she also has several variations of it, such as Sekhet
or Sakhmet. She too was seen as the daughter of the sun God, Ra, and
myth tells us that she was placed in the uraeus on his brow from where
she would spit flames at his enemies. Her main temple was at Memphis
in the south. She was the consort of the God, Ptah, and the mother of
Nefertum.
Unlike Bast,
Sekhmet does have a specific myth related to her, as follows:
Ra feared that
humanity was plotting against him, having come to the conclusion that
he was too old and frail to govern them any more. The other Gods
encouraged Ra to punish the ungrateful humans by unleashing the power,
or fire, of his avenging Eye upon them. Hathor, Sekhmet and Bast were
all known as the 'Eyes Of Ra'. The God sent Hathor into Egypt to exact
retribution from the people, and here she transformed into a lioness
and became Sekhmet.
 The Goddess
slew everyone she came across, and the land became red with their
blood. By nightfall, she left the land to sleep, but would return the
following day to finish her bloody work. Ra realized that Sekhmet had
got a taste for blood and had become unstoppable. It was all going too
far; a full-scale massacre would take place. He needed to stop the
slaughter, and devised a plan, whereby he instructed the high priest
at Heliopolis to obtain red ochre from Elephantine and mix it with
seven thousand jars of beer to create a red liquid that looked like
blood, but had rather different properties. The priest spread the
mixture over the land. In the morning, Sekhmet returned to Egypt to
finish off what remained of the people there, and lapped up what she
assumed was their blood on the ground. The beer made her drunk, which
effectively ended her rampage of bloodlust.
However, the
lioness Goddess was not just seen as a war-monger and vengeful eye of
the sun God. Because she was believed to bring plagues, the priests
performed a kind of sympathetic magic to ward off and heal infections
and illness. In this role, Sekhmet was known as the 'Lady of Life',
and many of her priests were also physicians. In times of plague, they
might perform huge, large-scale rituals. During the reign of Amenhotep
III, hundreds of larger than life statues of Sekhmet were created,
thirty of which are now in the British Museum. It seems conceivable
that such a massive display of respect and veneration to the Goddess
might have been to avert and drive out a particularly virulent plague.
Sekhmet also had a
male form, when she known as Sekhmet Min. There is a representation of
her in this aspect in the Temple of Khonsu at Karnak, Luxor, which
shows the king standing before her to invoke her mighty strength in
Min form.
Sekhmet seems more
complex than Bast, but probably only because more material survives
about her. To the pharaohs, she was seen as a symbol of their prowess
as warriors and their ability to succeed in battle. On one limestone
fragment, she is shown apparently breathing her divine life force into
the mouth of the pharaoh Sneferu of the Fourth Dynasty.
As with the Goddess Isis, Sekhmet seems to have been reinvented in the
twentieth century. Although she is still regarded as a powerful force,
to be approached with respect and caution, we can perceive a 'watering
down' of her aspects. In Ancient Egypt she was dangerous and
ferocious, the bringer of plagues and retribution, the fire of the sun
God's eye. This was no benign figure, who could be adored and
worshipped as a gentle mother. Nowadays, many women (in particular)
view Sekhmet as a source of strength, independence and assertiveness,
and commune with her frequency when these attributes need to be
augmented or instilled. In many ways, we could say that Sekhmet has
become the symbol of the modern woman. She is still approached as a
healer, bringer of justice and as a guardian or protector, but the
emphasis has shifted. If any system is to survive, it has to move with
the times and adjust itself to suit the sensibilities of those who
adhere to it. It seems a natural progression that Sekhmet has
transformed from what was almost a force of chaos into an icon of
immanent female power.
This is an extract from the chapter
The Goddess Sekhmet
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A famous visitor to Luxor:
H.P. Blavatsky (The founder of the Theosophical Society.
She referred to herself as HPB. She was initiated by Illuminatus Mazzini
into Carbonarism, a form of Freemasonry, illumined by the Great White
Lodge in 1856, was part of the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor, and spent
lots of time with the Eddy Illuminati family in Vermont, who were well
known mediums. She also was a member of the occult fraternities the Order
of the Druses, the Adoptive branch of the Ancient & Primitive Rite of
Freemasonry, & the hermetic Masonic rites of Memphis and Mizraim. She was
trained to handle live snakes by Sheik Yusuf ben Makerzi, the chief of the
Serpent Handlers, and she was hypnotized by occultist Victor Michal and to
some degree from 1866 under his influence).
For more of this, see:
http://www.greatdreams.com/reptlan/grand_dame.htm
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Another visitor to Luxor:
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death, the major factor behind the rise of Saddam Hussein is
hidden. Exiled from Iraq in Luxor, Egypt, the young Saddam walked
the mighty temples. He heard a voice that tempted him to power,
real power.
Saddam thought he was Nebuchadnezzar, the biblical King of
Babylon who rebuilt Babylon, the ancient home of the Bab-Ili or
‘Gate of the Illi”, the Illumined ones. Known as the Gate to God
in the Bible, this huge tower, called in Sumerian Etemenenanki
(‘House of the Foundation of Heaven and Earth’) stood upon the
central temple-complex called Esagila or ‘House that Lifts Up the
Head’ (of God).
Saddam did not take the ancient stories of Nebuchadnezzar
and the Head of God as mere mythology. Just as Joshua became Jesus
in the Jewish tradition, and their feats were considered mutual,
Saddam affixed his tyrannical actions to Nebuchadnezzar’s.
To honor his previous incarnation, Saddam rebuilt Babylon.
In 2002 he sought the return of the Ish-tara Gate from Berlin to
Iraq, along with copies of thousands of ancient Sumerian tablets
from the British Museum. He aimed to turn Babylon into a
“Disneyland for the ancient gods” in the style of Nebuchadnezzar
and his forerunner, Nimrod, who built the Tower of Babel. Like
Saddam, Nimrod was a terrorist. He threatened and murdered
innocents.
Nimrod is the Egyptian Osiris, who was decapitated by his
half brother, Set. A serpent hanging from a pillar symbolized this
god’s head or ‘skull’. Osiris is the Egyptian equivalent of the
serpent of Eden.
Herein lies a key to the untold story of Saddam.
Sir E.A. Wallis Budge, the British Museum’s curator of
Egyptian antiquities at the turn of the twentieth century, was one
of the first scholars to notice the relationship between Egyptian
and Su-Merian mythology and to refer to its influence on Jewish
and Gnostic symbolism.
In 576 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar looted and leveled the Temple of
Solomon and transported the Jews to Babylon.
The Old Testament and Jewish mystic system known as
Kaballism (‘to receive’) flourished during his reign when he
merged the Jewish and Babylonian cultures. In addition,
Nebuchadnezzar opened the ‘fiery furnace’ out of which the Son of
God emerged.
In the old times it was the Israelite god, Yahweh, who
ordered the death of Nebuchadnezzar. This was in retaliation for
his deliverance of the secrets of the enigmatic ‘fiery furnace’,
which behaves like a modern stargate or wormhole. Saddam may have
been on the verge of reopening the Gate to God.
More at:
http://www.greatdreams.com/political/whirlwind.htm
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| The Rosicrucian Connection
According to the Supreme Grand Lodge of the Ancient and Mystical Order
Rosae Crucis, there were 39 men and women on the High Council of the
Brotherhood, who sat at the Temple of Karnak in Luxor. A branch of this
Order became more generally known as the Egyptian Therapeutate, who, in
Heliopolis and Judaea, were identified as the Essenes."
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