Jasnow, Richard / Zauzich, Karl-Theodor,  Wiesbaden 2005.

For some time past I have been exploring the ancient Egyptian 'Chamber of

Darkness' which was known to have been used by Prophets and Priests of Thoth and

(his closely related Goddess), Seshat.

 

The Chamber of Darkness (a room inside an AE House of Life) works like a sensory

deprivation tank and seemingly was combined with Kemetic 'seed-yantras,' the one

I use is Khephera/ scarab.

 

Seshat is said to be the founder of the Chamber of Darkness. Also,

she-who-is-wise (probably Seshat) is associated with prophecy. In procession

Seshat may well have carried the 'lamp of phophecy'.

 

B04, 7/22, She-who-is-wise, this one who first established (the) chamber (of

Darkness), she being ... a lamp of prophecy.

 

'Chamber of Darkness' has Seshat "closely associated with it" according to

Jasnow and Zauzich who also think it might also denote a particular part of the

underworld, a "darkness" at the edge of the universe" BoT p. 37

 

Steve

 

 

The 19th preliminary essay in the Book of Thoth covers the topic of Initiation.

The scholar states that specialists in Egyptian religion are divided on this

issue. Hornung denies it. The knowledge in the Book of Thoth would have been

quite profound. The idea of a god instructing a mortal does evoke the idea of

mysticism and initiation. The Book of Thoth is not very illuminating about the

purpose it served. Who were the participants and what were the circumstances for

the recitation? It is easy to imagine the Book of Thoth staged as a drama. The

mortal and divine participants could have been assumed by priestly actors.

 

There does not seem to be a merging of the mortal with the divine. The initiate

participates or hopes to with events of the divine world.

 

B02, 8/6 I am with you as an heir like a son of the land of the fathers. May

your teaching act as a nursemaid to me.

 

The person instructed is called a 'youth', such as one at the brink of an

initiation ceremony like circumcision.

 

It is fair to think the 'lover of knowledge' undergoes spiritual rebirth like in

Apulieus. The initiate confronts the divine. There are also similarities with

TIP 'priestly initiation' texts published by Krutchen.

 

Lucius was an outsider though while Egyptian texts seem restricted to the

highest elite.

 

The disciple's rebirth perhaps is equivalent to the Opening of the Mouth

ceremony (see B02 7,8-10). The composition implies entrance to a sacred

locality. Jack

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