The Song of Meri-Khem A Pilgrim’s Journey to find Set amazon.co.uk/Song-Meri-Khem-A-Pilgrims-Journey/dp/1869928997 In 2005 I wrote a poem for my dear late friend, Billie Walker-John; who’s magickal name was Meri-Khem. Billie was an extraordinary person, whose passing in the year 2000 affected me deeply. Although originally from America, she spent the last part of her life in Gwent, South Wales, with her husband Nigel and 10 cats. Towards the end of her life she never ventured beyond the shores of Britain. When she stayed with me in London she would tell me how her spirit continuously ventured to the ancient realms of Egypt. In 1990 Billie co-wrote Inner Guide to Egypt with Alan Richardson. The book was, for her, the culmination of thirty years of fascination with, and devotion to, Pharaonic Egypt. It also marked the end of her magickal apprenticeship. Owing to the limitations she had to conform to regarding the above publication, a great deal of the work she had envisaged was left out. In order to finish off the work she started in her own short lifetime, in a sense I write this with her and, through her. The plan and the outline are both from her, as she visits seven specific centres in ancient Egypt in order to touch upon the essence of that most slandered, feared and criticized of all the gods, Set, Prince of Darkness. This is not just a journey that she always wanted to do in life, but also a piece of magick that can now be achieved after her death. Through Billie, I will attempt to cut through so much of what we now think of as Ancient Egypt, and only the bare bones will remain. Symbolic figureheads such as Osiris and Amon will be discussed, but not elevated, and favoured centres of apparent importance or popularity will be by-passed. This will not be a book for those who wish to play tourist, dropping off here for a quick sensation, or stopping there for an imagined photo-shoot, it will be an experience for all those who wish to embrace the origin and notion of Set, and Set’s values. This poem is also written for and about Set, as a stand against such dogmatic philosophies of religious history. Protest is needed: since the middle to late kingdom this emphasis of Set and his influence has passed from histiography into our culture at large. So much of our current literature and thought rejects the role of the scapegoat in mythology denies the importance of his individual genius in social change, refuses to recognise his superiority, and has a fear of uniqueness and discord. In recording the mythical life of Set, we have applauded him. The strength and warmth of his intellect demand similar warmth in his dramatic performance throughout ancient Egyptian history. To adopt an attitude of detachment, particularly towards the ancient and unknown, can bar from sight those many scenes glimpsed by the historian who approaches the role of reconstructing an era with sympathy, insight and understanding. Neither the truth nor the equilibrium of scholarship is disturbed by controlled imagination and honest praise of this much-maligned Egyptian god. The fatalistic approach that informed authoritarian(s) have taken regarding the Set figure, has received increasingly influential support, while the various concepts of him have appeared in varied guises. It is quite apt to quote A L Kroeber’s ‘deep-seated, blind and intricate forces that shape culture’. The hero is a particle caught in the drift of religious and cosmic history, a mere by - product and what happened, had to happen. We are portraying the mythological concept and personality of Set not in order to worship a hero, but to recognise him as a leader and a hero. Set strives to take his stand against 5,000 years of a ‘drift of history’ with the introduction of Osirion and Amonite tradition, and a preconditioning before being replaced by Christianity. In this Ur-Egypt, it is the Pantheon group of Osiris, Re and all the other ‘good’ Gods of Egypt who are the usurpers, the intruders. It is the sovereignty of Set they seek to overthrow, not the other way around; an eldritch worship they must overturn and vanquish. This they do to become the victors, the ‘Good Guys’ of a sun-lit Egypt filled with their worship. The stellar darkness of the oldest Egypt is overturned, demonised and rejected - but not forgotten. The worship of Set, his liturgies and images, seep through into the religions of the solar gods - the old ways always remain in Egypt. In this regard, they act as the backdrop against which the victors develop. It is my intent in this book to return the backdrop to its original primacy, to reveal what came before the victors, to provide the inner guide to Set. We tend today, due to our Western Judeo-Christian conditioning, to see this older Set and his landscape as stereotyped ‘evil’ that is always destined to be overcome by the equally stereotyped ‘good’. This conditioning usually tends to narrow its focus on the viewpoint of the ‘good guys’, the winners. Only rarely do we consider the viewpoint of the ‘bad guys’, the demonised or conquered. Maybe we do not want to hear what it will tell us about ourselves. In this book we let Set figuratively speak for himself. We feel it is time to hear his side of the story. He has only had to wait 5,000 years for it to be told. Set has become a controversial figure in recent historical researches and discussion, but all the facts are not being disclosed. Scholars have attempted to strip him of his reputation for originality and genius, harmony and pure brotherly love by maintaining that his chaotic actions universally were something to be highlighted and condemned. They have called attention to his murderous ways and continued alienation of all things harmonious. Whoever delves into the fathomless secrets of the land of the Nile, or is held captive by the fascination of the five millennia of history before the Christian era, cannot help but admire the great kings of ancient Egypt who worshipped and fought under the name of Set and continued to bring both fame and fortune to this black land. Whatever the true judgement of Set’s personality and forbearing as the first son of Nut is discussed in this poem and will help to provide a more valid interpretation of his true nature. The Song of Meri-Khem - A Pilgrim’s Journey is intended to act as a guidebook on more than one level. In material terms any intrepid traveller should be able to use this as an adjunct to the official guidebooks, and find unusual, unexpected insights into the particular places that are so relevant to the Set of myth and history. In spiritual, magickal terms, the reader who will make the quality effort needed will find his unconscious resonating to awakening energies that have been ignored too long. The illustrations, the maps and the imagery will have the effect of keys that will enable them to access and explore new realms. We will need a map, and a simple route to take us from Nekhen to Thebes, and Naqada/Ombos to Abydos, Fayum, and Memphis. Finally, the move will be from Saqara to Giza, also known as Rostau. We will explore these places, while also being aware that we are following the shapes that are echoed in the asterisms, or star groups that are to be found in the constellations of Ursa Major. I am not suggesting that the people of Khemit placed these particular sites in an order to echo a stellar configuration. However, the ancient Egyptians had stellar knowledge when they built the Pyramids that accurately aligned them towards the north, and their sides deviate from true north by less than three arc minutes, less than a twentieth of a degree. That is extremely accurate in terms of orientation. We will look at how the seven stars within Ursa Major played their part in ancient Egypt. We know this constellation as the Plough, or the Great Bear, known to the people of Khemit as Mesxet, and was originally seen as the Thigh of the Bull. The mighty bull itself was always known as one of the sacred animals of Set. Ursa Minor whose star pattern echoes the other almost exactly, and whose tip is actually the present day Pole Star. The Egyptians associated this with the Dog of Set, the jackal god Anubis, who was the originator of embalming, his task being to glorify and preserve all the dead in order to live again. In fact we cannot really avoid them, for they are eternally above the head of every Pilgrim who seeks to travel in the land of Khemit. Ursa Major also resembles the adze used for the supremely important ritual known as the Opening of the Mouth ceremony. According to those who have made an intensive study of ancient Egyptian medicine, the device was used is different ways: for opening of the trachea when someone was bitten by a snake or stung by a scorpion, or for clearing out the mouth of newborn babes, to help their breathing. But to the star watchers and stellar magickians of Egypt the important thing about the adze was that it could, magickally, bestow ‘Eternal Life’, as a symbol of Ursa Major and, Ursa Minor that never sinks below the horizon. Although eight places will be visited in total, these will still correspond with the constellation of Ursa Major in as much as the stars Alcor and Mizar are grouped together. Apart from the Pilgrim following this constellation route of eight places, she will also be beginning her journey at a point in Egypt called Nekhen that was the very foundation of civilisation of this land, and a personal awareness of her being. The places she chooses are not only popular ancient territories of worship of the god Set, but will also correspond to man’s seven subtle bodies as the etheric is the blueprint upon which the physical is built. This includes the various systems, the nervous system, the circulatory system, the brain and the heart. The ancients considered that the organization of the universe corresponded with the structure of the human body. The universe was the ‘macrocosm’ and the body was the ‘microcosm’. Hence the top of the head corresponded to the top of the universe, the North Star. Ascension macrocosmically through the heavens (often numbered as seven) to the highest heaven corresponded to ascension microcosmically of the fire-snake (Kundalini), the primal source or power that is usually lays dormant in the non-initiate. Macrocosm = great world, universe Microcosm = man viewed as the epitome of the universe in miniature As our Pilgrim honours the god Set, she must visit Naqada also known as Ombos or Nubty meaning gold. This is true Setian territory where Set was supposedly born or rather fell to earth after bursting from his starry mother’s side. This particular place was a real melting pot and a crossroad where peoples from all over the known world gathered to either share new innovative ideas, or continued with their own particular primitive lifestyle. This cross-section of citizens varied not only in ethnic groupings, but also in social strata. Thebes (Waset) will be her next destination after Naqada where she will be visit the awe-inspiring monument of Karnak. This is the city of cities, a place of sunlight and shadow. The Pilgrim will experience the notion of initiation as she explores the innermost depths of this great temple of hidden stairways, and underground caverns. She will be plunged into the darker side of Karnak, as she ‘comes into her being’. She will also be introduced to Kha’emwaset, Sem priest to his father Rameses II, another true Setian. He was no ordinary priest, but also Egypt’s first archaeologist. Together they will explore the many sites chosen for Meri-Khem’s initiation. Sometimes the constellation of Ursa Major will take on a symbolic monumental form as she treads the age-worn paving slabs of the Temple of Luxor (Ipet resyt), embodying the true cosmic form of the god Set, thus helping the land and the psyche of the Pilgrim to resonate. She will look upon the plan of this temple as the microcosm working her way through it as we would our body. Her journey to Abydos (Abju) will be to reveal how the introduction of Osiris into the frame is a later interpolation, and indicates how completely the Osirian cult had usurped the original state of affairs showing Osiris for what he really is. Meri-Khem’s experience in the great labyrinth at Fayum teaches her to explore all those untapped and unvisited areas of her psyche. Each part of the brain is like a room with many windows. Some people live their entire life in one room. They leave this earth plane having experienced little, and questioning nothing. The journey to Memphis (Men-nefer) will be made by the mysterious Henu Boat, purportedly fuelled by light,) perhaps an echo of solar power. It is on this boat that Kha’emwaset tells the intrigued Meri-Khem more about himself, and his duty to his father, as High Priest. From the Temple of Ptah in Memphis Meri-Khem is taken to see the mysterious Serapeum, the final resting place of the Apis bull. In the latter part of the twentieth century a team of Japanese Egyptologists unearthed a hidden chamber. Within this chamber a golden mask was discovered and believed to be that of the famed Kha’emwaset himself, but this is only speculation. Her next visit is to the fields of Saqqara where she will witness the ordeal Pharaoh has to endure in order to prove his strength and courage to continue his reign as king of Egypt. In a secret location of a chosen site beneath Saqqara the pilgrim is privy to a wondrous sight, the enactment of the Opening of Mouth Ceremony that was usually carried out on the recently departed king. But in some cases a live Pharaoh was subjected to this ordeal. This is truly a Setian practice. Finally, she will go on to experience a cognitive awakening as she travels on to her final destination, Giza, also known in ancient times as Rostau. Here she will realize her eventual ‘coming into being’. This will be her ultimate goal and re-birth in the inner sanctum of the Great Pyramid of Khufu. For all those pilgrims out there who are searching for Set I strongly urge you to read this account. Paperback: 186 pages Publisher: Mandrake of Oxford (12 Jun 2007) Language: English ISBN-10: 1869928997 ISBN-13: 978-1869928995 Product Dimensions: 21.5 x 1 x 14 cm
Posted on: Fri, 05 Dec 2014 15:31:30 +0000
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