Apech

Fools? No, you are far to generous but thanks for the compliment.

down paradise road we wander into a bar, drinks on us, we cry. hic! drinks on us, we cry, downing a pint of joy and a spirit chaser.

Suggest: If you are sitting in chair or posture you need firm support i.e. not pillow. Try telephone directories or something firm built up to the height of the span of your hand - bound up with tape (or similar) or make yourself a small stool out of wood. Sit close to the edge of it and put your tummy slightly forward to give your spine an s shape.

Darin, You are an inspiration. I wish you total success in your spiritual work and your relationship.

More Buddha-lite than enlightened but I like this tune cos one of my teachers used to chant it - but in a lower voice: Om Mani Padme Hum

Just to cross reference to the etymology thread I thought I better look up the word 'bad'. From Origins by Eric Partridge I find: ME bad, earlier badde: perh. (Webster) from OE baeddel, a hermaphrodite, cf OE baedling, an effeminate; but ? rather from C. *bados ... whence *bassos, the root being *bad, to be wide or open, the basic meaning of the adj. being 'wide open (to all influence, esp. the worst). So it seems that bad either means effeminate or gullible. Not sure where this leaves us but it certainly seems to undermine the sense of just straightforward malevolent. And it does seem to lead towards a judgmental view i.e. I call bad anything which I deem to be not acceptable to me. I await your learned opinion.

critical judgements - the sharpened knives that cut deep leaving beads of blood.

Thanks - very interesting.

Hi I don't have a big problem with Haich's view of the scorpion energy. Certainly there is a scorpion/hawk dynamic because of Serqet/Quebsenuef. If you want to continue the astrology link then you might consider a hawk (possibly air) with a water link (libation) in the West AND an air sign with a water connection in the 'west' on Zodiac (is it?) Aquarius. (?) Also I think healing and illness connotations of Serqet can be translated to fluids that kill ego and so on. yes. Cheers.

I voted normal - but I want to say that this site is great - I love the debate, discussions, disagreements and humour. So when I say normal its cos I think its still great.

I agree there is always a problem with moral absolutes. For instance would killing Hitler have been good or bad? But of course there is a chain of harm or the karma of harmful acts which probably makes Hitler a victim too. I would say harming others is always bad. Maybe if there is no intent or the person doing it is unable to understand the consequences of their acts then this might mitigate in terms of the punishment but it doesn't change the badness of the thing. I am totally with you on state or culturally determined licensing of sexual activity. For instance gay sex is almost universally condemned in religions whose major works were written in ancient (and medieval) times (even Buddhism!) but most peoples view now is entirely different. This because the state (and organised religion) likes to control people and this perhaps is the essence because it is all about power over the other and the abuse of this power - the abuse of this power being 'harm'.

Same here. Thanks.

way of being, now that is a path to follow, you are what you are.

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The crowns:

I've never been a la carte before!

Respect to you Wudang, I totally accept the proposition that desire/lust is a cause of confusion and ignorance and leads to scattering and so on. But I believe in being 'in the world if not of the world'. For some maybe cutting themselves off is a productive and helpful approach but I know that to understand myself and eliminate my faults I need to be in relation to others (not necessarily sexual of course ). I know if I lived a monkish existence there would be blind spots in my experience and ability (even more than there are now!) - even though I often yearn for solitude. Can we transcend lust - yes! but not by pretending it doesn't exist and not without that greater power - love. However, I have to say in humility - what do I know? I just do my best. Cheers, Apepch7.

The first thing to remember when looking at the compass directions and Ancient Egypt is the unusual geography of the country. Essentially there are two types of habitable terrain. The southern part of the country is simply the strip of land formed by the flood plane of the Nile, beyond this both to the East and the West is desert. As the river, flowing South to North, reaches the middle of the country it begins to broaden out into a massive delta of multiple rivulets and wetlands. The delta empties into the Mediterranean Sea. So the northern terrain is very distinct to the southern. The necropolis was sited on the West bank which became associated with death. In ancient times the land was divided in two. Upper Egypt in the South was ruled by kings wearing the tall white crown while the North, or Lower Egypt was ruled by kings wearing the Red Crown. The tutelary goddesses, associated with these crowns were Nekhabet, the vulture in the South and Wadjet the cobra in the North. The gods associated with these ancient kings were Horus in the North and Set in the South. To these we can add Thoth for the West and in the East either another form of Horus called Dwanany or sometimes Min (a fertility god) or An-hur (Onuris) the hunter. Confusion often arises because of the two forms of Horus, one in the North and one in the East. The Northern Horus is sometimes called Horus the Elder. In illustrations of the the royal coronation two gods are shown annointing or libating the king, these are traditionally Horus and Set or later Horus and Thoth (possibly because Set became increasingly associated with destruction or to add an East/West dimension to the scene). The unified kingdom of Egypt (still known as the 'Two Lands or Kingdoms") came about as a result of a struggle between the Southern and Northern kings, the followers of Set and Horus. This was mythologised in the 'Contendings of Horus and Set' in which the two gods were said to battle for 80 years. During this struggle Set was said to injure Horus' eye (in return Horus tore off Set's testicles (ouch!)). This is actually symbolic of a condition of impasse where willful drive and overseeing awareness neutralise each other. In compensation for the loss of his eye Horus (who is the eventual winner of this struggle) is given the four Sons of Horus, two in the North and two in the South. As Horus, the god associated with the 'eye' is all about awareness and when his eye is sound or whole - this is unified awareness, wholeness of being or consciousness, when we are dealing with duality, that is when we don't have this unified consciousness we have four points of view which help us understand and deal with things in the absence of this holistic awareness. These four distinct ways of seeing or experiencing things are the Sons of Horus. The Sons of Horus are present on three levels of existence. In the sky, the god or noumenal realm, as four of the Imperishible Souls - the stars of the Great Bear (Ursa Major) which never set below the horizon and as the Four Rudders of Heaven. In the 'atmosphere' of Shu as the pillars of heaven. In the earth/body as the gods of the Canopic Jars holding the organs of the body removed in mummification. In this last form we can try to understand their function. I'll go through them one by one. Imsety This god protects the liver and is human headed. Its direction is South and it is protected by the goddess Isis. Imsety is said to "make your house flourish and endure" - here 'house' probably means body, the place where your spirit dwells. The Egyptians had good medical knowledge and understood circulation and so on. However its not entirely clear what they thought of the function of the liver. But its not huge step to assume that they intuited the function along the lines of modern knowledge. The liver is a kind of chemical factory for the body which manufactures glycogen and also filters the blood. I am assuming here then that 'making the house flourish and endure' is about manufacturing the chemicals for metabolism and energy. Hapi This god protects the lungs and has the head of an ape or baboon. Its direction is North and it is protected by Nephthys. Hapi is said to "knit together your head and your members (body)...given you your head for ever." The joining of the head to the body was a most significant thing for the Egyptians. Hapi is sometimes called the 'navigator' or 'great runner'. The name of the goddess Nephthys is usually given as 'Lady of the House' - in Egyptian Nebet-hwt. Nebet means Lady and Hwt actually means temple enclosure. So a better translation would be "Mistress of the temple" or High Priestess. The association of 'lungs' with joining the head to the body probably comes from the 'sma' unification symbol where the North and South of Egypt are unitesd together by knotting plants around a lung and trachea symbol. Obviously the lungs are to do with breathing, which again rather like the liver is to do with energy metabolism. Also there are two lungs which are joined so I suppose the symbolism is obvious. Joining the head to the body covers two things really, one is to do with identity. The head is the recognisable person, the face and so without your head you could be any spirit in the underworld. But more importantly the head is exclusively the site of four out of the five senses. So the head is about perception. Joining the head to the body means joining presence and perception. Duamutef This god protects the stomach and has the head of a jackal. Its direction is East and it is protected by the warrior/huntress goddess Neith (or Nit). He is said to "protect you from he who would harm you ...". The name Duamutef means literally "he who praises his mother". The stomach is of course principally about breaking down food in order to digest it using acid. As distinct from the first two organs this is less about energy metabolism but more about the process of assimilation. Quebhsenuef This god protects the intestines and has the head of a hawk. Its direction is West and it is protected by the scorpion goddess Serqet (or Selkis). He is said to "join your bones together for you, collect your members for you, bring your heart for you." The name Quebhsenuef means literally "he who libates his siblings", libate means to cleanse with water. The Scorpion goddess accompanies Isis and is to do with healing. She has the title "Serqet-hetu" which means either reliever or constrictor of the windpipe depending on how you read it. This is likely to be something to do with the use of scorpion venom for healing - a symptom of some scorpion stings was throat restriction. The intestines remove nutrients and water from digested food to feed the body, also about the process of assimilation. There is a lot more to be said on this very important subject but my typing fingers are worn out. Over to you Yoda, to say which of the Sons is which element.

Should number three be 'once a day'? not once a week?

Indiscriminate sexual pleasure seeking ? I think there may be a confusion on this thread between tackling lust as a potentially destructive and selfish act and energy conservation for a 'higher' purpose. I don't think cultivation is about suppressing or stopping sexual feelings, rather it is about using this energy in a different way and not squandering it in a way that harms or disrespects self or others or is just wasteful. Obviously there is a struggle when we start to use this energy differently but I think we have to learn about it first. This means that if we don't understand this energy but simply try to repress it we are storing up problems for the future.

The astronomical north varies with time and in the time of Ancient Egypt there was no star in that position. I believe this led to the importance of non-being or voidity in Egyptian thought because the universe rotated around no-thing! Ok - even though Western Hermetic thought owes its origin to Egypt (and Mesopotamia) one to one crrespondence is difficult - the Egyptians sort of hinted at the elements as such but they were not expressed in the way that we understand today. So while some read across is valuable it can be misleading. For instance using the Kabbalistic Tree of Life with Egyptian deities is something people do - ok fine for them - but doesn't work for me. Its probably best if I give you more on the Sons of Horus and you can draw your own conclusions. Yes - I will give more info on this thread in a while. The Egyptians 'invented' hours using amongst other things the Decanal Stars - so they had a 24 hour day based on sets of twelve stars which 'work' for ten days each. Basically through the night they watched when certain stars rose above the horizon, or reached the mid heaven and this marked the beginning of each hour. because the sky precesses (?), the stars are only in alignment for 10 days after which the next star takes its place. During the day they used water clocks and sun dials. Certain hours were significant eg. midnight when the sun's soul was most at risk. Each hour has characteristics given for instance in the Am Dwat or Book of Gates and the New Kingdom Sky books. Of course in later times, particularly Ptolemaic times astrology as we now know it was used. However it doesn't interest me so I don't know much about it. As the Egyptian religion was still properly understood then I am sure they worked out all the correspondences and I am sure there are excellent books on this - or just start here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dendera_Zodiac More on Sons of Horus etc. in a bit.

The law may be subjective but an act of sexual harm is not. To the victim it is very real. I am of a liberal mind on most things but the limit must come when the will of the perpetrator is inflicted on the victim - that is sexual misconduct and inherently bad. The age of consent may vary with time and history but consent is what it is about. Lust murder in ritual! as normal - maybe to the Aztecs - but come on was it ever really ok?

Hi Yoda, You need more correspondences to understand the Sons of Horus. I will supply tomorrow cos its late here and I'm going to bed. They do have hours and the goddesses go in the nw/ne/se/sw compass points on the canopic jar chest. Thanks for reading my stuff by the way. Cheers.

Stig, Do you have any good etym. dictionaries. I use Bloomsbury Dictionary of Word Origins - John Ayto (basic but interesting) and 'Origins' by Eric Partidge I used to use a dictionary by Wylde but I think its out of print.

I agree with the view that the basis of any practice has to be deep formless meditation but I am with Stig on the purpose of magic. I once discussed the formless/form mediation i.e. just sitting versus mantra, visualization and so on with a Rinpoche and he told me to read "The woman's role in the dharma" from The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa"..."clouds are but manifestations of the sky." I cannot do and have never even tried to perform any siddhi type tricks or demonstrations - so you won't get any vids from me. I am also completely unconvinced by any of the vids I have seen especially as any stage magician could probably reproduce them. I think these things are possible but only come to fruition through forcing that kind of path and/or as an adjunct to real spiritual progress.