I woke with a vivid recollection of a dream … or perhaps it was an aha moment when the veils between our deep unconscious parts enough for our subconscious to grasp an understanding.
Whatever … I know that the dream sequence I had so many years ago in Peru while on pilgrimage to my benefactor mountain Apu Ausangate set the stage for me to be here in Egypt. In those lucid dreams I saw myself for three consecutive nights walk up to that mountain, have it yawn open for me to enter, transform into a large bird and fly on a thermal breeze higher and higher inside the inverted ice cream cone-shaped mountain’s interior. On the third night, the mountain top opened and as I fly out transformed into in to a girl-child, then a man, a wo(man) — half male and half female, then into a rainbow of color, then as the colors braided in to a single strand of pure white light. |
Those dreams signaled to me a new map for my healing journey that required learning how to step beyond dualistic thinking and forge a path based on the marriage of complementary opposites. Now, I also knew a larger meaning behind having been called to southern India serval years ago, and my attraction to Shiva and Parvati depicted as Ardhanarishvara — half-male and half-female. At that time, I was being given a glimpse of my Becoming and a prelude of my call to Egypt. So far, this had been especially true within the Bent Pyramid. Andean medicine people have cautioned about being seduced by premature evaluation ... rather the need to nurture these collective experiences in my unconsciousness until they are strong enough to break through and subsequently embody completely. |
The first leg of our trip is to the Dendara Temple complex at Qena, about a 90 minute drive, and just about mid-way between Abydos and Luxor.
A quick recap … Hathor was the Egyptian sky goddess of sexual love / fertility / music and dancing / birth and motherhood, and daughter of Ra, the sun god. She is often depicted as a cow and her job description also included nurturing the living, and carrying the dead to the underworld. Horus was Hathor's consort and god of the sky. He was often depicted as a falcon or with a falcon’s head. Horus became ruler after avenging his father Osiris’ death at the hand of his uncle Seth, and ruled peacefully. Ihy was Hathor and Osiris' son, and god of music. He is often depicted with a rattle-like instrument called a sistrum. | The Temple of Hathor, the most prominent structure at the Dendera complex was constructed in 54BC. Built primarily during the Ptolemaic Dynasty, which was a period of Greek rule in Egypt, it was completed by the first Roman emperor, Augustus I. Designed in the Pharaohic architecture style, it is dedicated to the Egyptian goddess Hathor. It is here that Hathor gave birth to Horus’ child Ihy. Dating back to the very foundation of the Egyptian state, in 3000BC, Hathor had been worshipped as the king’s divine mother, a protector deity in bovine form who suckled and nurtured the land and its rulers. But even Hathor could not save Egypt from the clutches of Rome. |
Further still is the Hall of Ennead Gods, which was a group of nine deities in Egyptian mythology — the sun god Ra-Atum (supreme god); his children whom he "sneezed" into the world Shu (god of air) and his sister / consort Tefnut (goddess of moisture), who together were the first divine couple; their children Geb (god of the earth) and Nut (goddess of the sky; and their children Osiris, Isis, Seth (brother of Osiris) and Nephthys. At the center is Hathor's Temple Sanctuary.
Along the outer walls of the Sanctuary are various chapels to Ihy (see above), Menat (goddess of pre-Islamic Arabia who was believed to be of Allah's three daughters), Isis (Egyptian mother goddess who was the consort of Osiris and mother of Horus), and others.
The original Dendara Zodiac was cut out of the ceiling by a French engineer, in 1821, and with the permission of Mohamed Ali Pasha, who was the Turkish viceroy of Egypt at that time, transported to France and is now part of the Louvre’s Egyptian collection. The sandstone mandala was dedicated to the goddesses Hathor and Isis. Heaven is represented as a disc that is held up by four goddesses assisted by falcon-headed spirits. Around the circumference are 36 spirits symbolizing the 360 days of the Egyptian year. The constellation shown inside the mandala include the signs of the zodiac. |
Since then, it has been verified that the particular configuration of the planets among the constellations illustrated in the mandala only occur about once every thousand years — it has been dated to between June 15 and August 15 50BC. Further, two eclipses are represented exactly where they occurred and the solar eclipse of 7 March 51BC is depicted as the goddess Isis holding a baboon (the god Thoth) by its tail to signify her attempt to stop the moon from hiding the sun.
Working my way back downstairs via the "descending" staircase, which is narrow and straight, I headed to the New Year Chapel where ceremony was conducted on the Egyptian New Year’s Eve.
In the chapel ceiling is a gorgeous polychrome bas-relief of the goddess Nut, whose body made a protective layer over the Earth. Her job description included swallowing the sun (Ra) up every night and giving birth to him again in the morning. She was also the mother of heavenly bodies and whose laughter was thunder and tears were rain. Nut was the goddess of the sky, and sister / wife of the Geb (god of the Earth). She was also the mother (with the god Ra) of Osiris, Isis, Nephthys and Seth. She was grand mother to Horus. |
Luxor is a bustling city with lots of traffic from vehicles, horse-drawn carriages and pedestrians. Amazing to see that the Luxor Temple is right alongside the main road that separates it from the Nile. Even more incredible is that our Sofitel Winter Palace Hotel is an easy walk away and directly across from the Nile River … and quite a number of Nile River boats — wonder if one of those will be ours in a few days!
Across from the hotel on the other side of the Nile is the west bank necropolis. During WWI, it was temporarily transformed into a hospice convalescing soldiers. One of its regular hotel guests was Lord Carnarvon, who was the patron of Egyptologist Howard Carter, who discovered the intact tomb of Tutankhamun, in 1922. |
When we arrived, at the Central Park Bar, we learned that our guides didn’t check about reservations at "El Tarboush", which was fully booked. Instead, Freddy told us that there were some “fast food” types of restaurants within walking distance. No way! Resourceful as ever, Gypsy called the hotel concierge and was able to secure our reservation back at La Corniche — yippee! — and let the others know that a few more tables were available. |