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'THE MIDNIGHT
SUN'
CONTENTS
PREFACE
(click here to read the full text: Preface)
CHAPTER
1: COSMIC TIME
In this opening chapter, Alford draws upon the pioneering work
of Egyptologist Jan Assmann to describe the aims of Egyptian religion
and the principles by which those aims were achieved. The Egyptian
cosmos, he explains, was a perpetual motion machine, designed to
function for 'millions upon millions of years'. The central
idea was that the sun-god and the pharaoh would maintain the cosmic
order (maat) by re-enacting the events of creation that took place
at the first time (zep tepi). Eternal repetition (neheh) of these
magical events would result in the eternal endurance (djet) of
the cosmos.
CHAPTER
2: THE COSMOS
The aim of the book is to decipher the origins of the Egyptian
cosmos. But a necessary first step is to describe that cosmos.
In this chapter, Alford draws
upon the oldest texts to build up an unusually detailed picture of the cosmos,
emphasising its geocentric nature and the earth-like landscapes of its mysterious
realms. The realms studied comprise the earth, the primeval ocean, the duat,
the akhet, the field of reeds, the field of offerings, the sky-ocean, the sun,
moon, and stars, and the milky way. An overview is provided by way of diagrams
which illustrate how the sun-god and the transfigured kings circulated through
the sky and the netherworld.
CHAPTER
3: THE CREATION
The Egyptians had many different creator-gods and several different
versions of the creation myth. In this chapter, Alford provides
an overview of all the
creation myths, including the rarely reported account of the Primeval Ones
and the Great Lotus from the temple of Edfu, and discusses the common themes,
the
apparent inconsistencies, and the gaps in the narrative. Most importantly,
he challenges the solar interpretation that has been placed upon the creation
myths.
The supreme god of Egypt, he argues, was not the sun-god but the creator-god.
CHAPTER
4: POWER IN THE EARTH
Egyptology asserts that the myths of creation by an earth-god,
e.g. Ptah, were the exception, not the rule. However, in this
chapter Alford proposes
that
the opposite was true. Atum and Kheprer, he argues, were chthonian powers,
while
Geb the earth-god was also a creator-god. In addition, the Edfu tradition
placed the earth and the earth-god at the centre of creation. Drawing on
Eve Reymond's
study of the Edfu texts ('The Mythical Origin of the Egyptian Temple'),
Alford argues that the earth and the earth-god experienced a traumatic
crisis from which it and he recovered, and that this 'death and rebirth'
triggered the creation of the cosmos. Taking Reymond's thesis a step further,
he proposes
that Osiris personified this process, as did earlier forms of this dying-and-rising
god. The enduring myth of Osiris's dismemberment and reassembly would therefore
be an allegory for the death and rebirth of the primeval world. Alford
closes the chapter with a masterly reinterpretation of the union of Re
and Osiris in
the netherworld - the mystery of 'the midnight sun'.
CHAPTER
5: GOD
AND THE GODS
One of the great mysteries of ancient Egypt was the relationship between
God and the gods. While God was held to have created the gods, they in
turn were
held to have created him! In this chapter, Alford introduces us to the
principle of body-soul duality and argues that the reciprocal relationship
between
God and the gods makes sense when viewed as an allegory for the death
and rebirth
of the cosmos.
CHAPTER
6: RAISING THE SKY
How did the sky and the celestial bodies come into being? In
this chapter, Alford argues that contrary to the consensus
view (championed by James
P. Allen in 'Genesis
in Egypt') creation was an expansive process, centred on the earth
and its chthonian waters. The sky-ocean, the sun, the moon, and the
stars were all created by a
process of separation from a terrestrial centre.
CHAPTER
7: KING
OF CREATION
The pharaoh was an embodiment of the creator-god and his primary
task was to re-enact the events of creation in order to rejuvenate
the cosmos.
This
much
is well known. But Alford goes further, arguing that when the pharaoh
died and 'became
Osiris' he re-enacted the death and rebirth of the creator-god, and
that when he asended from the netherworld to the sun, the moon, and
the stars he re-enacted
the god's creation of the cosmos. In this chapter, Alford demonstrates
how the rituals and myths described in the Pyramid Texts make perfect
sense when viewed
as a re-enactment of creation. By reconstructing the king's journey
from the earth to the celestial fields, it becomes possible to fill
in the gaps that have
hindered our understanding of the creation myth.
CHAPTER
8: OPENING
THE MOUTH
One of the most important rituals in ancient Egypt was the opening
of the mouth, which was performed upon the statue of the creator-god
and
the mummy
of the
deceased king. In this chapter, Alford argues that this splitting
open of the mouth re-enacted
the splitting open of the primeval earth at the time of creation.
He also suggests that the various myths of the creator-god creating
the
cosmos
by means of his
mouth - by speaking, spitting, or sneezing - reflected the same
idea.
CHAPTER
9: THE DAY OF THE STORM
The spirit of the reborn king often ascended to the sky amidst
an earthquake and a storm, and a storm also features in the myths
of
the wars of
the gods. In this chapter, Alford argues that this was no ordinary
storm
but a storm
of creation. The quaking of the earth and the trembling of the
sky signified the
moment when the sky was forcefully separated from the earth.
CHAPTER
10: SPLITTING THE IRON
The king's ascent into the sky involved a splitting and traversing
of iron, while he also came to sit upon an iron throne. In
addition, the
sky was
said to contain
iron and the mouth of the king's mummy was opened by an adze
of iron, which was made in the image of the northern stars.
In this
chapter,
Alford examines
these
and other references to iron and concludes that iron was blasted
from the earth into the sky at the time of creation. In an
addendum, he
suggests that iron
meteorites were worshipped in Egypt because they were regarded
as remnants of the material
of creation.
CHAPTER
11: THE BULL OF THE SKY
The king's emergence from the netherworld into the sky was
sometimes compared to the charge of a bull, and it was even
suggested that
he had raped his
own mother Nut, who took the form of a cow. The bull was
also connected with the
erect pillar, which had phallic symbolism. In this chapter,
Alford decodes various bull-related myths and mysteries:
the so-called
Cannibal Hymn;
the cult of the
ka-mut.ef (the bull who raped his mother); the conjugations
of Geb and Nut; Atum's emergence in the form of the high
hill and
the benben
stone;
and Atum's
emission
of Shu and Tefnut. In so doing, he provides further evidence
for the cataclysm at the heart of the Egyptian creation myth.
CHAPTER
12: THE FIERY EYE
One of the most important icons in Egyptian mythology was
the fiery Eye - the so-called Eye of Re, or Eye of Horus.
In this
chapter,
Alford demonstrates
how the myths of the Eye fit the template of a geocentric,
expansive, cataclysmic process of creation. He distinguishes
clearly between
the Sole Eye - an
epithet
of the Great Goddess - and the two eyes - the sun and the
moon, and reconstructs the myth by which the former gave
birth to
the latter
in a cataclysm.
There are
intriguing hints, he suggests, of a physical process behind
the appearance of the sun and the moon in the sky.
CHAPTER
13: HORUS AND SETH
One of the most important dualities in Egyptian civilisation
was that of Horus and Seth, the rivals who fought for
control of the
Two Lands.
Modern
theories
abound as to the significance of this conflict, but it
most likely allegorized the emergence of order from chaos
at the
beginning
of time. In this chapter,
Alford explains how the battle of Horus and Seth erupted
from the netherworld into the sky in line with the process
of creation,
how their sexual
union led to the birth of the sun and the moon, and how
their ultimate
reconciliation
was designed to maintain the order of the cosmos for
ever. He also proposes an innovative
theory for the unification of the Two Lands.
CHAPTER
14: THE
ONE AND THE OTHER
In this chapter, Alford offers a definitive solution
to the thorny issue of whether Egyptian religion was
a monotheism
or a polytheism.
He also
offers insights into
how the Egyptians understood the first cause, or divine
spark,
of creation.
CHAPTER
15: PYRAMIDS AND TEMPLES
Egyptology has never been able to agree upon the symbolism
of the true pyramid, although it has identified the
divine temple
(in
the late
period) as a simulacrum
of the creation. In this penultimate chapter, Alford
makes a compelling case that the pyramid too was
a simulacrum of creation,
but of
the cosmos in its
initial stage of coming-into-being (as opposed to
the temple
which symbolised the cosmos
in its final stage of coming-into-being). He also
explains how the rituals performed at the pyramids and in the
temples were
designed to rejuvenate
the cosmos and
cause it to endure for ever. The creational symbolism
of these buildings,
together with the restorative nature of the rituals,
explains for the first time, from
an orthodox perspective, why the pyramids and temples
of Egypt were endowed with extraordinary scale and
precision.
CHAPTER
16: THE TOMB OF KHUFU
The Great Pyramid contains several unusual chambers,
the purpose of which has long been the subject
of controversy. Egyptologists
believe
that
the uppermost
chamber was the tomb of Khufu, and that his mummy
was stolen
from the granite sarcophagus which still remains
in that room. Alford,
however,
rejects
the idea that the king was buried at a height of
140 feet in his pyramid, since
it would
have contradicted the fundamental rule 'the body
to earth, the spirit to the sky'. Applying his new creational interpretation
to the Great Pyramid, Alford
argues that the sarcophagus contained iron meteorites
- the seed of the creator-god - and that Khufu's tomb was concealed
beneath the monument in a secret network
of caves, where it remains undiscovered to this
day. He urges the authorities to open the secret entrance which
he has found.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
NOTES (47
pages)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
DETAILED
ANALYTICAL INDEX (20 pages) |
