Month: May 2016

intaier:

booksandtails:

Inspired by a certain beaky someone who seems to tell me one of the above every time I use divination for him lately. I have a feeling I’m not the only beakling that gets this message from him, and considering the perfect image courtesy Marvel comics, I couldn’t help but make a little motivational poster of Mr. Djehuty himself for us to be inspired into doing the task.

Oh, someone is clearly doing archeological digging on tumblr 🙂
* go with it, #Djehuty tag is good looking through up to the beginnings of Tumblr

Thoth is the Greek rendering of the Egyptian name Djehuty or Tahuti. Thoth was also identified by the Greeks with their god Hermes and was called Hermes Trismegistus to distinguish him from the Greek form of Hermes. The title Trismegistus, meaning “three times great,” is a Greek translation of the Egyptian expression, pa aa, pa aa, pa aa, meaning “the great, the great, the great,” which was often applied to Thoth. He was also sometimes called “twice- great” […] There are even texts that describe him as “eight times great” or “nine times great” The main cult center of Thoth was Hermopolis, which is now called el-Ashmunein. His totem animals are the baboon and the ibis and he is often represented as a man with the head of an ibis.
One of the most important deities of ancient Egypt, he was credited with being a creator god […].
Thoth is the god of wisdom, “lord of the divine words,” and patron of scribes and physicians. […] It is Thoth who is said to have devised hieroglyphic writing, but his role as lord of the divine words probably means more than this: It was Thoth who prescribed the correct practices and appropriate forms of ritual to be carried out in all the temples and the sacred texts used there were written by him. In discussing the importance of Thoth’s writing, Patrick Boylan […] quotes from a hymn that describes Thoth as “he who has given words and script, who makes the temples to prosper, who founds shrines, and who makes the gods to know what is needful (i.e., sacrifice and ritual).”
Thoth is one of several deities to whom special magical powers are attributed; the source of his magic is his great knowledge and his command of words – how to use and pronounce words with magical effectiveness. His medical knowledge is closely connected to his magical abilities.  […]
As god of justice, reason, and balance, Thoth has an important role in the judgment hall of Osiris – where the heart of the deceased is weighed in the scales of Maat to see if he or she is of sufficient moral integrity to be allowed into the blessed afterlife, to live with the gods. He helps Anubis weigh the hearts and carefully records the verdict on his scroll. The text also shows that Thoth “doeth away with opposition and fighting” in that he resolved the dispute between Horus and Set. […] All scientific learning and sacred wisdom was attributed to Thoth, so in principle he was regarded as the author of the great books of knowledge, medicine, sacred texts, and spells that were collected in the temples and handed down for generations. In much later times, the Greek Hermetica were attributed to him under his name of Hermes Trismegistus […]

“Egyptian paganism for beginners”, by J.Almond & K.Seddon, 2004 (via intaier)

crimson-house:

Reconstructions of ancient Egyptian tattoos found on the mummified bodies of women.Original image source unknown.

Originally, these mummies were thought to have been concubines or lower-standing women, slaves or harems to the Pharaohs and royalty they were buried near. However, further study and re-evaluation of what these tattoos meant points towards them acting as talismans to protect mothers during birth. Their discovery during the Victorian era led to the more sexist, puritanical attitudes of the time being projected onto them, with archaeologists dismissing them as dancers, prostitutes or concubines due to the apparent eroticism of the placement of said tattoos around the thighs and vagina.

But attempts to recontextualise the meaning or purpose of these tattoos, combined with our furthered understanding of Egyptian mysticism and symbology (particularly of the god Bes, who was also found tattooed on certain women), what may be a closer picture of what these tattoos meant to the people with them can be drawn; they were not erotic or purely hedonistic, but maternal and reproductive. While still inherently sexual, how you interpret what “sexual” meant in times and cultures since past is best informed by those same people you study. To understand how an ancient culture thought is to think like that ancient culture.

Further reading on Egyptian and other ancient tattoo traditions.

Daily adoration of Thoth

O ye gods that are in heaven, O ye gods that are (on earth)! (Ye southerners, northerners, westerners), easterners, come and behold Thoth, how he shineth forth in his crown, which the two lords in Hermopolis have set in place for him, in order that he may execute the governance of mankind. Exult in the hall of Keb over what he hath done. Adore him, extol him, give him praise. He is the lord of kindliness, the leader of the entire multitude.

Then follow a promise that for all gods and goddesses who will thus praise him Thoth will furnish their chapels and their altars (?) in their temples, and a prayer of the writer that Thoth may give him an house and possessions and sustenance; he is to cause that he be loved and praised… and pleasant and protected with all people, and that his enemies be overthrown.

“Ancient Egyptian Poetry and Prose”, By Adolf Erman, Aylward Manley Blackman;
this is one of the old translations of the writing tablet, British Museum EA5646
(via intaier)

crimson-house:

Magical Egyptian amulets in the Louvre. Called “hypocephalus”, they were placed under the heads of the deceased in order to protect them on their journeys into the afterlife. Instructions on their creation are included in the Book of the Dead and each is unique to the person it was buried with.