On the Origins of Christianity
evolaasheis
Christianity certainly owes a lot to the myth of Osiris as told in Plutarch ('Isis and Osiris', 12-20) and elaborated by Diodorus Siculus ('Library of History', I, 11-27). Osiris, as any Semitic god, is "essentially (a god) that (changes), (experiences) birth and passion, (...) (is) subject to the law of death and rebirth", as opposed to the "'Olympian' ideal of unchanging, perfect essences, removed from the lower world of destiny" ('Three Aspects of the Jewish Problem' - we have quoted so many excerpts of this book for a few months, relevant as it is to the some of the matters we have dealt with, that it is actually superfluous, not to say useless, to order it, since, in a few months, quotations after quotations, anyone good at puzzles will be able to piece together the whole text in its English edition). Therefore, if Christianity contains a solar element, it is not to be sought, as showed in the previous post, in what it owes to the myth of Osiris, a god which, in Egypt, was conceived of as "the protector of the rich and of the poor". The cult of Osiris is in stark contrast with that of Tem (or Ra), the god of the early Egyptians, who are supposed to descend from Atlanteans, at least as far as Egyptian aristocracy is concerned. While Osiris fulfilled the need of any Egyptian for personal immortality, which developed at the time its cult appeared, immortality was a privilege of the Pharaoh in pre-Osirian times. We witness here a beginning of democratisation of early Egyptian religion, at least on the doctrinal plane, since, as far as rituals were concerned, if there were public celebrations of the Osirian cult, the ceremonials performed by the priests within the temples could be attended only by the initiates.

Sometime before 3000 B. C., storming out of Mesopotamia, tribes of light-skinned Sumerians invaded Egypt, conquered it, and imposed on them their own culture. Along with their culture, those newcomers established their religion and engrafted new gods upon the older pantheon. Osiris is thought to be one of them, and, actually, the main one. Osiris soon became identified with almost every other Egyptian god and was on the way to absorbing them all. He was the pattern for all god-men : "From first to last, Osiris was to the Egyptians the god-man who suffered, and died, and rose again, and reigned eternally in heaven. They believed that they would inherit eternal life, just as he had done." (Budge : 'Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection') Osiris' advent was announced by Three Wise Men : the three stars Mintaka, Anilam, and Alnitak in the constellation Orion ; his flesh was eaten as communion cakes of wheat called the "plant of Truth." Osiris was Truth, and those who ate him, as the Osiris Eucharist, became Truth also, each of them another Osiris, a Son of God, a "Light-god". Seder, the Jews' Passover, is thought to have descended from the Egyptian Sed, the oldest festival of Osirian regeneration and fertility. These are just three examples among many others of the influence of Osiris both on the Bible and on the figure of Jesus-Christ. There is, however, one revealing difference between Osiris and Jesus-Christ : the former was restored to life, not by his divine father, but by his divine mother, who was also his bride, Isis. But, just as, in the Osiris' cult, Ra was called Osiris' father, and Osiris was called Ra's father, so, in Christianity, the Father and the Son are declared identical, and the Mother of God the same individual as God's bride.

Interestingly enough, especially with respect to the Aesir, as indicated by a scholar, "Primitive elements in Osirian myth show its extreme antiquity, dating back to Neolithic Egypt. Before re- conceiving Osiris, the Goddess apparently devoured him as she hovered over his corpse in the guise of the archaic Vulture-mother. Like similar images of devouring Kali, this points to an age predating even the discovery of fatherhood, when reincarnations were believed to be brought about by cannibalism (in this instance pre- Eucharist...yet the eating of a god). Indeed, Osiris may have begun as one of the numerous forms of Shiva, for his name came from Ausar or Asar, meaning "the Asian" just like the Aesir or "Asian" gods of northern Europe."

In relation to the "Semitic deviation of virile spirituality" which was brought to light by Evola in 'Three Aspects of the Jewish problem', what follows is particularly significant : "About 4000 years ago, Osiris' cult was established at Abydos, where he was called Osiris Khenti-Amenti, Lord of Death or Lord of the Westerners, meaning those who had "gone west" into death's sunset land. He was incarnate in a succession of sacred kings who seem to have served as sacrificial victims". As explained by L.F. Clauss, each race has its own way of conceiving of and of experiencing every human tendency and every value, according to its own nature. Evola, who realised this perfectly, stated, still in 'Three Aspects of the Jewish Problem' : "Among Semites, we see an affirmation of the virile principle that is (...) either coarsely material and sensual, or uncouth and ferociously warlike (Assyria)." It seems to us that this is a clue to understand the "patriarchal-tyrannical side of Jehovah".

Just as Semitic virility is not to be confused with Aryan virility, in another respect, the 'sun-god' as symbol of the ungenerate principle of the universe, of the origin of everything which exists, of the principle and the end of any manifestation, is not to be mistaken either for the 'sun-god' as cosmic intelligence, manifestation of the divinity, or, on an even lower plane, for a deity as such, seen as provider of abundant life and natural vitality in all their aspects, whether astronomical, sexual or agricultural. It is in this sense that the sun was often identified with Osiris and the moon with Isis in Diodorus (I, 11) - in Plutarch, there are also plenty of data which confirm this interpretation. For ancient Egyptians, Osiris, along with Isis, was essentially the heavenly power which regulated the seasons, caused the Nile to inundate the fields, made the grain to grow, and so on.

Osiris is also identified with the bull. When the Osirian cult was first established, five thousand years ago, the precession of the equinoxes during the zodiacal year had reached the point at which the sun passes through the Sign of the Bull, at the summer solstice, when the Nile was in spate and, therefore, the land which produced the food of the Egyptians was watered and fertilised. Hence the importance of Taurus and the sun as linked to 'salvation'. The bull, along with the cow, one of the symbols of Isis, was believed to cause the Nile floods and was seen as sacred and worshipped as gods. Four thousand years ago, this precession had altered the position of the zodiac, so that the sun passed through the Ram at the summer solstice ; and then this animal, or the lamb, became gradually sacred ('Lamb of God'), even though the change was neither immediate nor uniform everywhere. Moses is thought to have been in favour of changing the worship of Egypt from 'bull' to 'lamb' worship. Interestingly enough, in the exodus, Akhenaton's 'followers' came out of Egypt under the sign of the lamb, but, having reached Mount Sinai, built there a golden calf to worship, which angered Moses.
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Oct 26, 2019 at 12:31pm
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Post by Evola As He Is on Oct 26, 2019 at 12:31pm
It's Schwaller de Lubicz, who also saw what the "pharaonic Great Work" and the Christian revelation had in common from a symbolic point of view, to whom we may owe the most accurate definition of the Neter, the five functional principles of Nature : Osiris, Isis, Seth, and Nephtys are representations of the immanent functions, or characteristics, of the four elements, while Horus is the quintessence, the active and immaterial fire. In the well- documented 'The King of Pharaonic Theocracy', two paths are distinguished, that of Osiris, the karmic one, that of rebirths, and the Horian path, also called "the roads of Râ", the solar path. Shemsou-Hor "applied to the superior beings who gave birth to the race of the Pharaohs, in opposition with the mass of the people, which followed the common path, that of Osiris"

How does this fit what we know of Horus and of Osiris in the Osirian myth? "There in the papyrus she [Isis] brought forth Horus, and there she
unknown to anyone. During her absence one scorpion stung the child, and he died. When Isis returned and found Horus lying dead, she rent with her cries of grief, and made bitter lament. Her sister Nephthys appeared, and made so fervent an appeal to the god in the Boat of Millions of Years, the Boat stopped, and Thoth came down and provided Isis with the words of power which restored Horus to life" (Diodorus, Book 1)

In all the various Osirian myths which have been handed down to us, whether in the version of Diodorus, in that of Plutarch or in that of other authors, both gods died.

There are two main things to bear in mind in this connection : first, Egyptian mythology was not unchanging ; as a matter of fact, it varied quite a lot from the Old kingdom to the New kingdom, which is often taken as reference by "orthodox" Egyptologists. Second, the Osirian myth is a popular myth ; it marks the democratisation of the after-life. It is not by chance that the Osirian cult became popular, especially outside of Egypt, in the Greek and Roman worlds, in which no god, unlike Osiris, could promise eternal afterlife, and that it was especially popular with women and individuals of foreign and lower birth. In short, among classes of people at the bottom of Roman society and of Greek society, in which "the ferment of national decomposition and of cosmopolitanism which Judaism is" (Mommsen, quoted by Evola in 'L'Ebraismo nel mondo antico') was already at work.

We may thus wonder whether Horus as depicted in the Osirian myth corresponds to Horus as conceived of in early Egyptian mythology. "The name "Horus" is a general catchall for multiple deities, the most famous of whom is Harseisis (Heru-sa-Aset) or Horus- son-of-Isis (sometimes called Horus the Younger) who was conceived after the death of his father, and who later avenged him. In all the Horus deities the traits of kingship, sky and solar symbology, and victory reoccur. As the prototype of the earthly king, there were as many Horus gods as there were rulers of Egypt, if not more.

The oldest of the Horus gods is appropriately named Horus the Elder (Heru-ur), and was especially venerated in pre-Dynastic Upper Egypt along with. In this very ancient form, Horus is also a creator god, the falcon who flew up at the beginning of time. The pre-Pharaohnic rulers of Upper Egypt were considered "shemsu-Heru" or "followers of Horus", and the original Horus is himself considered in some myths to be the brother of Seth and Osiris, second-born of the five children of Geb and Nut (Osiris, Horus, Seth, Nephthys). Horus the Elder's city was Letopolis, and his eyes were thought to be the sun and moon. When these two heavenly bodies are invisible (as on the night of the new moon) he goes blind and takes the name Mekhenty-er-irty, "He who has no eyes". When he recovers them, he becomes Khenty-irty, "He who has eyes". A warrior-god armed with a sword, Horus could be especially dangerous to those around him in his vision-deprived state, and during one battle in particular he managed to not only knock off the heads of his enemies but of the other deities fighting alongside him, thus plunging the world into immediate confusion that was only relieved when his eyes returned.

Other notable Horus gods are the previously mentioned Harseisis, as well as Horus of Behdet (sometimes called simply Behdety) who was represented as a winged sun disk, Anhur (a form of Horus the Elder and Shu), Horakhety (Ra-Heru-akhety) who was a syncretism of Ra and Horus, and Harpokrates (Heru-pa-khered) or Horus the Child. In the form of Harpokrates, Horus is the danger-beset son of Isis with one finger to his lips, signifying his childish nature (also evident in his princely sidelock and naked status). Harpokrates represented not only the royal heir, but also the newborn sun.

Horus deities are frequently depicted as hawks or hawk-headed men, though some are represented as fully human. The pharaoh was considered to be the Living Horus, the temporal stand-in for Horus in the earthly domain. As the opponent of Seth (who, though initially an Upper Egyptian deity himself, later came to represent not only Lower Egypt but the desert surrounding Egypt), Horus is alternately a brother vying for the throne and unification of Egypt (Horus the Elder), or a royal heir come to reclaim his inheritance (Horus the Younger). ("Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egypt", R.T. Rundle Clark).

Let's go deeper into this, with another scholar, to realise that the original Horus has nothing to do with the later Horus.

"Egyptologists have shown that the underlying concept of Ancient Egyptian theocracy was that while the king was alive he was a reincarnation of Horus, the first man-god king of Egypt, and was hailed as the son of Osiris and Isis."

We remember: Horus appears in the Osiris myth as child of Isis and Osiris. On the other hand we know that in earliest dynastic times, and even before, the pharaoh was identified with Horus. Even the oldest known name form of an Egyptian king is the so-called Horus- name. If Horus is the child if Isis and Osiris, and Horus is even older than ancient, Osiris MUST be as ancient, too.

The Osiris-myth starts even in Plutarchs retelling earlier. It begins with the creation of the earth by Geb and Nut. At that time the prominent gods were born: Isis, Osiris, Seth, Nephtys - and Horus!

But Horus is, as we read above, the child of Isis and Osiris? Yes, Plutarch was aware of the fact that there was a mix-up. He lived about 2500 years after the earliest mentioning of the myth, and there was a lot of change in the mean time and he was confronted with many pieces not fitting together. So he used a trick and declared Horus to be the brother AND son of Osiris:

"Isis and Osiris were so in love even before their birth, so that they went together in the darkness of the womb of Nut. Some claim that Haroeris was conceived that way, and he was called "the older Horus" (Horsemsu) by the Egyptians, and Apollo by the Greek." This explanation doesn't work with other parts of the myth, where for example the already dead and resurrected Osiris has intercourse with Isis or her representation (like a bird). But if Horus was at least brother of Osiris since oldest times, this would still be acceptable to demonstrate an early Osiris.

But unfortunately even this part of the legend, the birth of the 5 Epagomes (that's the greek name for the children of Geb and Nut; Isis, Osiris, Seth, Nephtys and Horus) is not very old either. The first mentioning of the Epagomes is in the very late pyramid texts, in one single instance in a queen's pyramid in PT § 1963 c. By the way: the situation of an early Isis as lover of Osiris has a similar bad evidence situation.

Horus is an old god. But the old falcon god we know from the earliest periods of Egypt has nothing to do with the later Horus.

The old falcon god (Hr Smsw or Hor semsu, - Horus the older, as he was called by the Egyptians to distinct him from Horus, son of Isis, Harsiese), is a sky god, who is called "Lord of the sky" in the pyramid texts. It is this god who is depicted in the early falcon representations (and in the titularies of the pharaohs). His mother is according to the pyramid texts Hathor, only later she is replaced by Geb and Nut.

We even have utterance 534 in the pyramid texts, which defines the difference between Horus the older and the gods of the Osiris circle, including Horus the younger: starting in § 1264 Horus the older starts a speech, during which he advises the Pharaoh not to open his arms to Horus the younger and his "bad things".(§ 1268)

"A" horus came relatively late into the Osiris myth. As early as 1934 Adolf Erman wrote:

"The real home of Horus might have been in the Delta region; we can conclude that from the fact alone that he was the national god of this part of the country, whereas upper Egypt belonged to Seth. Both gods together were the rulers of Egypt."

Ups, Horus and Seth? Not Osiris and Seth? Right, the "dynamic duo" of old times consisted of Horus and Seth - and therefore an early existence of Seth is also no evidence for an earlier Osiris. Erman continues:

"Horus became particularly popular, when he was integrated into the Osiris myth, where he aroused sympathy as poor orphan Horus, son of Isis, Harsiesis."

Although Erman was follower of the then popular "ancient Osiris" thesis he could not help to notice, that there were many parts in the Osiris myth which couldn't have been there from the beginning, like the Eye of Horus or the antagonists Horus and Seth His analyses of the Pyramid Texts showed similar results, I will deal with them later.

Bonnet writes about the development of Horus: "As far as we can see the great falcon god Horus is the first of the local gods who gained a country wide dominance. He acquired this in prehistoric times. Even the two kingdoms, the predecessors of the unified Egypt of historic times, honor him in heir capitals .. as their main god.

His largest role is that of the king's god. In this role he exists in the prehistoric kingdoms besides the goddesses Nebchet and Uto."

So Horus did exist even before the rest of the Egyptian pantheon was fully formed! Therefore any claim of a "natural connection" between Horus and Osiris is invalid. Bonnet continues: "The kingship of Horus is as much the basis for the dogma of the king as it is the gestalt of Horus himself. ... Now and then similar claims from other gods like Seth, lord of Ombos, appeared. But they didn't succeed in overthrowing him, the leading role of Horus stays undisturbed. ... The rivalry between Horus and Seth did not end in a fight which lead to the total destruction of one side; it ends in the typical Egyptian way of a fair compensation. ... Each of the two gods got one half of Egypt as a domain. ..."

So Seth arrived on the stage much later than Horus. And not as the enemy to the death he was in later texts. Bonnet continues: "The fighting myth comes in a third circle Horus is integrated into. He becomes son of Isis... and becomes member of the Osiris circle. ... Initially Horus had nothing to do with the gods of Busiris. In fact his introduction lead to major problems in the genealogy of these gods which lead to an artificial split of Horus in two entities, in special to the creation of "Horus the older".

This makes clear that Horus as son of Isis is an artificial product, a result of the syncretism of Egyptian religion in the time of the Old Kingdom. And it's also clear that the original Horus has nothing to do with Horus the son of Isis. And therefore we can conclude that the early Horus is no evidence whatsoever for an early Osiris.

Another symbol for an early Osiris does not come from Bauval himself, but several defenders of his thesis used it to strengthen the case. But the case with this symbol is pretty much similar to Horus."

Traditional writings must be discriminated. To quote Evola, it is not because a teaching is traditional that it is true, it is because it is true that it is traditional.