I don’t know if anyone actually closely follows my blog, but if you do, I want to say a few things. First, I apologize I haven’t been writing these past few days, and it’s not because I didn’t have anything to write about, but rather, I didn’t yet know how I wanted to write it. In truth, I still don’t feel I’ve collected my thoughts enough, but I’m going to try to anyway.
Secondly, I’m still continuing the book The Origins and History of Consciousness by Erich Neumann. It’s actually not too long of a book, only around 412 pages, and I’m not entirely sure why it’s taking me so long to finish. There’s such a huge amount of information packed into this single book, though it’s more like a collection of books.
So then, that brings me to the topic of today’s post: The Hero and his transformation, specifically about the Egyptian myth of Horus, Osiris, Isis, and Set and how it ties into Christianity so well.
Surprisingly, or not so surprisingly, not a lot of people know about the Egyptian stories, and they’re certainly not taught in Christian communities, and the Egyptians are usually framed as the bad guys within the Bible, loosely speaking. I myself had never had them properly articulated to me, that is, until I came across Jordan Peterson’s lectures.
But Peterson himself is a bit rusty on the stories, and only tells a brief overview of them. Neumann, in his book, goes into excruciatingly deep detail, most of which I can’t even fathom, at times, which completely blows apart the level at which Peterson talks in his lectures.
And, for the most part, that level of understanding on the Egyptian myths are not necessary for the average person, but, I do think, for Christians in particular, it would be beneficial to familiarize themselves with these stories in how they are so closely related.
Anyways, going on, I want to start with the Christian myth and one of its underlying themes. I’m also not sure how familiar people reading this are with the Christian story, so you’ll just have to take my word on it, and if anyone believes I’m wrong, please comment down below.
So, in the New Testament, Jesus claims that “I and the Father are one – John 10:30”. And, from that verse, along with the verse “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. – John 1:1”.
Then, other verses suggest that the holy word lives within us, “Or do you not realize about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you? – 2 Corinthians 13:5″.
Therefore, the conclusion can be made if the Jesus and the Father are one, and “The Father” refers to God, and God and the word are one, and if Jesus Christ is in us, then, therefore, the holy word lives within us.
But people seem to take this all as fact and don’t even question it. They just assume “because the Bible says so, it must be true”. And, for the most part, it is “true”. It’s a common motif found in many, many stories and movies. The motif, in a single sentence, is, the son and the father are same.
I think though I’m not sure, that most Christians believe that this is the only religion that lays out this motif as explicitly as it does. The Hindu religion has a similar idea in that they believe the Brahmin (God), or the cow head, is in all of us, therefore, the Brahmin and Human are synonymous. Obviously, an over-generalization, but as you can see, it has similar tie-ins with Christianity.
In the Egyptian myth, Osiris, god of fertility, sometimes referred to as the corn god, is the one who gives life. He the one that makes the crops grow, the trees rise up, and from him, life is possible. This was solidified when Ra, the Sun god, was unified with Osiris and they became one.
Yesterday is Osiris and Today is Ra on the day when he shall destroy the enemies of Osiris and when he shall establish as prince and ruler his son Horus.
I know the god who dwelleth therein. Who then is this? It is Osiris or (as others say) Ra is his, or it is the Phallus of Ra, wherewith he was united to himself.
– Book of the Dead
This can be interpreted as Osiris being Ra, or, in Christian myth, God is the Word.
Osiris was tricked and put in a coffin and sent to the underworld by Set, his evil brother. Horus, son of Isis, must rescue his father, his “Divine father” from the underworld, and bring new order to the tyranny that Set has created, or, archetypally speaking, the “Devouring Mother” archetype embodied in the form of the male uncle.
So, the whole story plays out like this. Horus (or the hero), must fight Set (the Dragon), and rescue Osiris (The Divine father). But he can only do this if he initially listens to his “calling” or his “journey”.
It sounds crazy to some when you put it in mythological terms, but we all implicitly believe this story, and even think it’s valid! For example, take the Harry Potter, an extremely successful and well-received saga.
Harry has two, arguably, three, sets of parents. First, are the Dursleys, which he regards them as “muggles”, or, “those without magical abilities”. Then he has his “real parents”, those that died in a fight against the Dragon (Voldemort). Then he has Dumbledore, who silently leads and helps him fulfill his fight against the “Dark Lord”. And, at the end of the movie series, in the final scene, he “reincarnates” his “magical parents” to help his fight, and a bit later, “reincarnates” Dumbledore to give him wisdom on how to fight Voldemort.
It’s the same story.
Now, take the Christian story. Jesus Christ was born of two sets of parents. First, were his “earthly parents”, Joseph and Mary. Then, were his “Heavenly Parents”, God and The Word, which Sophia is the “divine figure” represented by the word. This can be found in Proverbs 8:22.
So Christ has his divine and earthly parents, but he does not listen (roughly speaking) to his earthly parents, but rather, follows upon the call of his “heavenly mission”. He must “spread the word” by interacting with all the people are stuck in their “old ways” worshipping old gods, which this can be seen as revivifying the dead father, or the dead culture, and bringing in the “new word”, the new father.
But, before he could do that, he must face the tyrannical element of the old, dead, culture, that is, in the Christian stories, the Romans. They are the ones who “killed” him, but, as the story goes, he was resurrected, born again. And, like the Apostles Creed states, He descended into Hell and ascended into Heaven. That is, again, synonymous with Horus going into the Underworld and then ascending and becoming one with his Father, Osiris.
Then, as the Egyptian myth continues, it is said that every pharaoh is Horus that becomes Osiris. That’s where we get the story of The word is God the father, and God the father is also God the son, and the son, Jesus Christ, lives in all of us.
And there you have it. The Egyptian myth, passed down and revised over time, eventually becomes the modern day Christian story we have today.
It blows my mind why Christians don’t teach this to us.
Thanks for reading,
cory
I love your work, my friend. I have only just stumbled upon it.
I’m relatively new to all of this, following Jordan Peterson’s work and now diversifying into Jung, Freud, Nietzsche, Carl Rogers, Erich Neumann. For whatever reason, I am fascinated by the archetypes, narratives and common motifs we see in almost everything. I am trying to understand it so that I may conceptualise why I am the way I am and why my life has played out the way it has outside of my choices and actions. I want to comprehend why I made these choices in the first place. I have my interpretation (bare with me, it is very rough, and lots of pieces are missing) on:
“Horus–the hero, must fight set–the dragon, and rescue Osiris–the Divine Father. He can only do this if he initially listens to his calling or his journey.”
“You (the hero) must fight your own malevolence (the devil/the innate destructive nature of the devouring mother/unconsciousness itself) and rescue your potential (everything that you could be if you orientate yourself to a higher good/cause and slay the dragons in front of you, or in this case, within you.”
The decent to revive and or rescue the divine Father, I want to ask you why? What is the significance to rescue the Father? Isn’t the Divine Father the tyrannical element of the old, dead, culture or am I getting this misconstrued? I see a correlation between ourselves (hero), the devil being our destructive nature (set), and I am trying to make sense of what the Father represents in this analogy. In our world, the significance of not having the approval of our real fathers can have a detrimental effect on a human being and also lacking a father figure from one’s life completely. I see us as the hero of our own journey’s, becoming the Father, or succumbing to the same fate as our cultural past.
I still do not yet grasp the motif and archetypal stories playing out in Christianity. What is the Word, God, The Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit? It makes more sense from the Egyptian stories, and still, I don’t yet understand the sacrifice of the Father and hero.
I like the way you write and explain things and maybe you could elaborate further?
Best regards,
Ban Liodas.
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