Apech

from the arse of an antelope?

and the Edwin Smith papyrus

The Egyptian knowledge of physiology was good - although not developed in the way modern science has. They held that the lungs draw in the 'breath of life' (ankh) into the body and feed it to the heart. This is more or less true - as the lungs oxygenate the blood which feeds to the heart to be pumped round the body. The heart was thought of as the central organ which was connected to all other parts of the body by channels called 'metu' which were not arteries, nerves and so on - and have been compared to the nadis of yoga. These channels stimulate activity in the body, such as circulation. They are sometimes given as 22 channels tho' sometimes 46. If the channels were blocked or contained pollutants this was said to cause disease. The liver was said to generate blood. This is not quite true as red blood cells come from the bone marrow - however the liver does produce the nutrients, sugars, amino acids and so on for the blood and regulates the content of the blood, so in a sense it is close to the truth. The stomach was called the 'r-ib' which may be translated as mouth-heart. They recognised its function in taking in food. The intestines were known to absorb food and produce chyle (a white milky lymph fluid) which feeds the heart. This may be part of the reason that the organs stomach and intestines are associated with the white crown. While the liver and lungs with the red (blood).

I like avocado but let’s face it, a cigar is a smoke.

Perhaps stressing about health is an indicator of being unhealthy. For instance I have known a lot of strict vegetarian/ vegans who seem to obsess about health in terms of food. Every one I can think of is either ill or dead from some horrible disease. As you say may be it’s all about attitude.

Could be but I can’t remember lol

@Taomeow this is very good news. I have given up smoking except the occasional one bummed off a friend. But I was intending to start cigars from my 80th and of course I drink red wine almost daily. I may bring the smoking forward on this news. After all one needs an occupation - to misquote Oscar Wilde.

good observation

So now the beginning of the complicated part: The organs placed in the Canopic Jars were the lungs, liver, stomach and intestines. It is not that the Egyptians didn't know about other organs but these were chosen deliberately. Their relative positions in the body are shown as follows: The organs were paired as follows: lungs and liver stomach and intestines Collectively the first two were under the protection of Hapi and Imsety (two of the sons of Horus); and the second two under Duamutef and Quebhsenuef. As pairs these were sometimes known as the Souls of Pe and the Souls of Nekhen. Where Pe and Nekhen are the ancient capitals of Lower and Upper Egypt. Pe (as part of the double town Pe and Dep had the tutelary deity Wadjet ( the cobra goddess ) and in Nekhen - Nekhabet the vulture goddess. They are also related to the two crowns, Red of the North and White for the South. Symbolically the upper part of the body is North and the lower part is South. So liver and lungs related to red and stomach and intestines to white. The task is to unite the two kingdoms north and south into one. So the task in terms of the body is to unite the upper and lower parts into one. NB. there is also the head which we will leave till later.

I didn’t realize you were so young!

Hi, You should be able to continue these conversations in the appropriate sections of Daobums if you wish. Either General discussion or Buddhist or Esoteric and so on. Obviously its up to you how you use the board and engage in discussion - I hope you enjoy the experience and look forward to engaging with you. A. PS. I have some years experience in Karma Kagyu Vajrayana, ngondro and mahamudra and so on.

Hi and welcome.

Well and truly.

I believe the lion is a reference to the two Rekhty - Shu and Tefnut who form the horizon (sometimes).

To the left of the Imy-wt symbol is the mummy on a bier or lion bed being attended to by Anubis. At the head of the bed is Nephthys and at the foot Isis. They are both touching a 'shen' symbol. Below the bed are four canopic jars and then to the left of this are the four sons of Horus which protect those jars. Isis and Nephthys are here representing something specific which can be shown by a quote from the Pyramid Texts: “Isis ascends with the day / is in the light, Nephthys descends with the night / is in the darkness.” So they represent two phases of a circulation. Up into the light (Isis) and down into the dark (Nephthys). The shen symbol confirms this as its meaning is 'to encircle' and has the extended meaning of 'all that is encircled by the sun' i.e. everything and forever i.e. eternity. It was this symbol which was slightly amended to form the cartouche which framed the king's names - and indicated the king was an eternal (non ordinary) being.

I once had Rogerian therapy where they say nothing but let you talk - if they do say something it is just to repeat something you have already said. I found it helpful. But I couldn’t resist playing a game of trying to get them to say something. I succeeded a couple of times. Overall it helped me through a difficult time - so I would say it was useful but a bit limited. The spiritual path is definitely not therapy. In fact if you are stressed it can make you more stressed and the same goes for people with mental health problems. While it is good to help such people, if you can, they should not be encouraged into meditation or yoga etc. ( in my opinion).

Yes a fetish as in a cult object of Anubis. In the funerary cult they used deities and symbols in a special way - all relating to the immortality project (you might call it) (as we mentioned in the Stele thread.). So here I believe it has a specific meaning - while elsewhere it might be used as a general cult object relating to Anubis and so on. When we get to the goddesses Isis and Nephthys you might see this clearly - that while say Isis has a whole form of worship of her own and all sorts of attributes etc. here she is used specifically for a 'technical' reason as part of the funerary process of transformation into an akh and/or 'living after death'.

I think it was more than to remind us of mummification. I think it was a meditative symbol for a certain state of being.

In order to perfect your meditation it is very important to not stop thinking.

Yes it is called Imy-wt which can be translated as 'he who is in his wrappings' or 'one who is in his skin' - although the literal translation which I prefer is just 'in the skin' (imy means 'in, between' and wt means skin or wrappings.) It is also a title of Anubis and a symbol for mummification. It is a pole from which hangs an animal skin which has been stuffed. In my view it is the most important thing in the whole scene as it depicts how we are to view the body.

Yes that an interesting thought that God leads us to temptation and yet we ask that same deity to deliver us from evil. For it is his kingdom.

There’s a lot of wisdom in the body if only we learn to ‘listen’ to it.

you wait for an hour then three cigarettes come by at once!!!

Nuance and sarcasm rule the world!

Hi and welcome. Hope you find some answers here.