The Myths of Ancient Egypt

BY DAVE RANKIN

To understand the people of ancient Egypt/Kemet, we must understand how important their spirituality was to them. The Egyptians were keen observers of nature, and it was nature that served as a foundation for their spiritual beliefs. For instance, the Nile River overflowed its banks from July to October every year, thus alerting the people when to plant crops. However, due to the Egyptians being spiritually attuned, they wanted to understand more about this cycle that provided them with food after the Nile’s flooding waters. So they would create myths that would center on the Nile.

These myths, or stories were developed to provide some explanation to the mysteries of life and its creation, death, and rebirth. The famed historian Dr. Charles Finch M.D. stated in his book, Echoes of the Old Dark Land, “Through myth archaic, humanity sought to make tangible the imaginary; to create order from chaos, to give form to the unclear.” Dr. Finch has a flair for explaining very complex stories into layman’s terms.

One particular myth, which has stood the test of time, is the Ausarian Drama. This story was about Ausar (Osiris), and how his brother Sutekh (pronounced soo-tek) murdered him by chopping him up into 14 pieces. Ausar was then brought back to life by his devoted wife Auset (Isis), and her loyal sister Neb-het. Could you imagine being told this story of a man being dismembered by his brother, only to be restored by his wife and sister? Such a story could rival any modern day soap opera on prime time television.

This story was told to explain the mysteries that revolved around nature. Ausar was revered as a god and represents the cyclical aspect that happened in nature every year. The Egyptian author Moustafa Gadalla explains it as, “The physical creation and its cycles of becoming and returning.” This historian has dedicated his life to ensure that the culture is represented in the manner that it needs to be. He explains Sutekh’s role as the opposition; in this case the force in nature, which causes decay or death. Auset (Isis) happens to represent this force in nature that allows pieces to be put back together in order for production to once again occur.

For the purpose of this article we are paraphrasing this beautiful African myth. Nonetheless, there are countless authors who elucidate on this further. One that comes to mind is Dr. Muata Ashby. Dr. Ashby has written numerous books on this myth, its connection to nature and how it relates to the human spirit. Another stalwart in this area is the respected Dr. Yosef ben Jochannan; every family looking to build their personal library should own his works.

There are a few European scholars that I must add to this list. The first is Gerald Massey and his book, “Ancient Egypt Light of the World,” which was originally printed in 1907. This mammoth piece of literature is a two-volume work that assisted in carefully dissecting Egyptian spirituality and has been used by African scholars all over the world. The British Egyptologist Sir E. A. Wallis Budge, and his work, “The Legends of the Egyptians Gods,” contain nine interesting stories or myths, along with their hieroglyphs and translations.

Egyptians have an endless reservoir of stories that contain the knowledge of our fore-parents. As the world-renowned mythologist Joseph Campbell says, ”Myths are stories of our search through the ages for truth, for meaning, for significance.” It is these myths that allow us to “nehast” or to awaken to the higher existence that we can all achieve.