Hoerriya
15-11-03, 09:41
Aladdin's Lamp
Marco Polo reported a real-life individual named Aladdin, who was chief of the secret brotherhood of assassins, the hashishim, in the fortified valley of Alamut near Kazvin. Over time, several chieftains in turn adopted the name of Aladdin. This sect worshiped the moon as a symbol of the Goddess, as a Vessel Of Light. The Vessel was simultaneously Aladdin's lamp (source of a genie), and the moon (source of all souls).
All-Seeing Eye
See the entries for Utchat and Eye Of Horus.
Ankh
The ankh was the Egyptian cross of life, representing the union of male and female sexual symbols: a female oval surmounting a male cross. Its other name was Key Of The Nile, because the sacred marriage between God and Goddess was supposed to take place at the source of the Nile each year before the flood. Egyptians regarded the ankh as a universal life-charm. In hieroglyphics, the ankh stood simply for the word "life".
Eye Of Horus
This old Egyptian symbol actually appears on the Great Seal of the United States, and on every United States dollar bill. The reason is because the original designers of the Great Seal were influenced by Freemasonry, which had adopted a number of Egyptian religious symbols, including this one.
The eye within a pyramid originally represented the god enclosed, during his "dead" period, awaiting rebirth. He was entombed in the underworld. Nevertheless, his soul remained alive and watchful, as indicated by the open eye.
See also the entry for the Utchat, another all-seeing eye.
Genie
The word genie came from Arabic djinni, meaning "begetter", an ancestral spirit in the male line. The word "genius" came from this root. In Islam, the djinn were viewed as pagan semi-demons because of their association with the old pre-Islamic religion.
Hand Of Fatima
Fatima was the moon goddess in pre-Islamic Arabia. Her name means The Creatress. She was also known as Source Of The Sun, Tree Of Paradise, the Moon, and Fate. She existed from the beginning of the material world.
Hawk
The god Horus, who was the archetype for the pharaohs, frequently appeared in Egyptian art as either a hawk, or a man with the head of a hawk. The funeral ceremonies of pharaohs often included the release of a live hawk to depict the dead king's soul flying away to the afterlife.
Horus was the god who represented the Pharaohs.
Lotus Flower
The lotus flower appeared in legends originating both from India and from ancient Egypt. Here, on this page, I'll focus on its appearance in ancient Egyptian religion. The lotus flower played a prominent role in the version of the creation story that originated in Heliopolis. Before the universe came into being, there was an infinite ocean of inert water which constituted the primeval being named Nun. Out of Nun emerged a lotus flower, together with a single mound of dry land. The lotus blossoms opened, and out stepped the self-created sun god, Atum, as a child. (See the entry for Utchat for a continuation of this story.)
A slightly different version of the creation story originated in Hermopolis. In that version, the sun god who formed himself from the chaos of Nun and emerged from the lotus petals was Ra. His history went on to say that the petals of the lotus blossom enfolded him when he returned to it each night. The lotus is a flower which opens and closes each day.
The lotus flower has been featured extensively throughout the art of ancient Egypt. In various works of art, you may see it held in the hand of a god or human, serving as a border to outline a section of the artwork, unfolding to reveal various gods or humans, and many other depictions.
In the Near East (Mesopotamia), the lotus was the flower of Lilith, the Sumero-Babylonian goddess that Jews claimed was Adam's first wife.
Phoenix
In the hieroglyphics of ancient Egypt, the phoenix was known as the benu. This word, benu, means "to rise in brilliance".
In one version of the creation myth, Ra rose in the shape of a phoenix from the primordial ocean of Nun and landed on a single mound of dry land, then let the sun's rays shine forth from himself.
Scarab
The Egyptian scarabaeus beetle was the symbol of the god Khepera, a solar deity, said to roll the ball of the sun across the heavens as the beetles roll their balls of dung across the ground. Egyptians believed that these balls of dung contained the fertilized eggs from which the next generation would hatch, and therefore took the scarab as a symbol for the self-regenerative nature of the sun god.
In one version of the creation myth of ancient Egypt, a lotus flower rose out of the primeval waters of Nun, the infinite ocean of chaos. The petals parted to reveal a scarab beetle. The scarab then transformed itself into a boy, who wept. His tears then became humankind.
The sacred beetles were depicted on all kinds of amulets and seals. Carved scarabs replaced hearts within mummies. Including a scarab in the tomb was supposed to ensure the rebirth of the deceased in the afterlife.
To this day, Egyptian and Sudanese women believe that the dried and powdered beetles, ingested in water, act as conception charms.
Shamrock
Huh? What is the shamrock doing on a list of ancient Middle Eastern symbols???
According to the Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths And Secrets, the three-lobed trefoil that we now call a shamrock originated in the East. Pre-Islamic Arabs called it shamrakh, the three-lobed lily or lotus flower of the ancient Moon-goddess’s trinity consisting of Al-Lat, Kore (or Q're) the Virgin, and Al-Uzza, the Powerful One. Together, this triple goddess was known as Manat, the Threefold Moon. To the ancient Arabs, the shamrakh represented a design of three yonis, and it appeared on artifacts of the ancient Indus Valley civilization, as well as on stone, pottery, and woodwork in Mesopotamia, Crete, and Egypt between 2300 and 1300 B.C.
Sistrum
The sistrum was a sacred rattle, used in the worship of the Egyptian goddesses. The sound of its clattering wires was said to dispel evil spirits. Egyptian paintings show the sistrum not only in the hand of the Goddess herself, but also in the hands of her priestesses and other high-ranking women.
The curved top stood for the orbit of the moon, presided over by a figure of Bastet. The four rattles represented the four elements whereby she created the universe. Their sound indicated mingling of the elements in the process of creation.
In the drawing to the right, a woman is holding a sistrum. On her head is a cone of perfumed wax. As the heat of her body and her surroundings cause the wax to melt, the perfume seeps into her hair and scents it.
Sphinx
The image of the sphinx is usually associated with the Egyptian goddess Hathor in her role as the lioness / destroyer.
As the sun god Ra grew older, he became fearful of his enemies and asked Hathor to help him. She took on the job with a vengeance and seemed to enjoy the killing. Ra then worried that she would wipe out the entire human race, so he had red dye mixed in ale and spread about the land. Hathor, thinking it was blood, drank it and became intoxicated. She forgot her assignment and humankind was saved.
Uraeus
The uraeus was the Egyptian cobra symbol of the Goddess as creatress. The symbol was worn on the foreheads of deities and rulers in the position of the "third eye" of insight, and stood for royal spirit, healing, and wisdom. In hieroglyphics, the uraeus was the sign for "Goddess", derived from Uatchet.
Utchat
The word utchat, sometimes spelled udjat, refers to Egypt's sacred eye symbol. The right eye is called the Eye of Ra, symbolizing the sun. The left is called the Eye of Thoth, symbolizing the moon. Both eyes together are the Two Eyes Of Horus The Elder. The eye is the part of the body able to perceive light, and is therefore the symbol for spiritual ability.
In the religious tradition of ancient Heliopolis, the first event of creation was the emergence of the god Atum from the chaotic wastes of Nun. (For more details about this, see the entry for Lotus Flower.) He gave birth to his son Shu by spitting him out, and to his daughter Tefnut by vomiting her forth. Shu and Tefnut were brought up by Nun and looked after by Atum's Eye. Atum had only one eye, and it was physically separable from him and independent in its wishes. Shu and Tefnut became separated from Atum in the dark wastes of the waters of Nun. Atum sent his Eye to look for them and eventually Shu and Tefnut came back with the Eye. While the Eye had been searching for them, Atum had replaced it with another, much brighter one. The original Eye was enraged with Atum when it returned at finding its placed usurped. So Atum took the first Eye and placed it on his forehead where it could rule the whole world he was about to create.
Over time, the stories of Ra and Atum coalesced, and the Eye became associated with Ra. In one such myth, the Eye wandered off on its own. When it failed to return, Ra sent Shu and Tefnut to search for it and bring it back. The Eye resisted, and it shed tears in the ensuing struggle. From these tears sprang human beings.
In another story, when Horus battled Set for the right to the throne, Set snatched away his eye and threw it into the celestial ocean. Thoth then recovered it. It was this eye which Horus used to revive his sleeping father Osiris (whom Set had killed) so that Osiris could be resurrected to rule the underworld. In an alternative version of this story, Horus' eye was torn into fragments by Set, whereupon Thoth restored it completely.
Today's familiar sign for prescription, Rx, derived from the Utchat symbol. In the second century, Galen used mystic symbols to impress his patients, and borrowed one from the Egyptian lore. As a result of the story in which Set tore Horus' eye into fragments, the eye had come to represent wholeness, and was used in hieroglyphic writing to represent wholesomeness and unity. It then gradually evolved into today's Rx sign for prescriptions.
Winged Sun Disk
The winged sun disk is a very ancient symbol. Long before Egyptian civilization flourished, the sun disk appeared in the literature of ancient Sumer, which was the first known civilization.
In ancient Egyptian religion, the sun disk became a primary symbol of Ra, the sun god. He was called the Sun Of Righteousness with healing in his wings," a title which Christians later adopted for their own god.
The sun disk was carved over the doorways of many Egyptian tombs and temples, and it appears on many papyri. In the illustration above, the sun disk is carried on the wings of Horus, and flanked by two uraeus.
Ziggurat
The ziggurat was the Mesopotamian version of the Mountain of Heaven, resembling the pyramids of Egypt and Central America in that its summit was a meeting place between deities and mortals. At the peak of the ziggurat the Goddess came down to mate with the king, or the God to mate with the queen. Sumerian towns featured ziggurats as early as 3500 B.C. In Babylon, the ziggurat was the core of the city. Its seven stages were supposed to represent the seven heavenly spheres.
Bron: http://www.shira.net
Marco Polo reported a real-life individual named Aladdin, who was chief of the secret brotherhood of assassins, the hashishim, in the fortified valley of Alamut near Kazvin. Over time, several chieftains in turn adopted the name of Aladdin. This sect worshiped the moon as a symbol of the Goddess, as a Vessel Of Light. The Vessel was simultaneously Aladdin's lamp (source of a genie), and the moon (source of all souls).
All-Seeing Eye
See the entries for Utchat and Eye Of Horus.
Ankh
The ankh was the Egyptian cross of life, representing the union of male and female sexual symbols: a female oval surmounting a male cross. Its other name was Key Of The Nile, because the sacred marriage between God and Goddess was supposed to take place at the source of the Nile each year before the flood. Egyptians regarded the ankh as a universal life-charm. In hieroglyphics, the ankh stood simply for the word "life".
Eye Of Horus
This old Egyptian symbol actually appears on the Great Seal of the United States, and on every United States dollar bill. The reason is because the original designers of the Great Seal were influenced by Freemasonry, which had adopted a number of Egyptian religious symbols, including this one.
The eye within a pyramid originally represented the god enclosed, during his "dead" period, awaiting rebirth. He was entombed in the underworld. Nevertheless, his soul remained alive and watchful, as indicated by the open eye.
See also the entry for the Utchat, another all-seeing eye.
Genie
The word genie came from Arabic djinni, meaning "begetter", an ancestral spirit in the male line. The word "genius" came from this root. In Islam, the djinn were viewed as pagan semi-demons because of their association with the old pre-Islamic religion.
Hand Of Fatima
Fatima was the moon goddess in pre-Islamic Arabia. Her name means The Creatress. She was also known as Source Of The Sun, Tree Of Paradise, the Moon, and Fate. She existed from the beginning of the material world.
Hawk
The god Horus, who was the archetype for the pharaohs, frequently appeared in Egyptian art as either a hawk, or a man with the head of a hawk. The funeral ceremonies of pharaohs often included the release of a live hawk to depict the dead king's soul flying away to the afterlife.
Horus was the god who represented the Pharaohs.
Lotus Flower
The lotus flower appeared in legends originating both from India and from ancient Egypt. Here, on this page, I'll focus on its appearance in ancient Egyptian religion. The lotus flower played a prominent role in the version of the creation story that originated in Heliopolis. Before the universe came into being, there was an infinite ocean of inert water which constituted the primeval being named Nun. Out of Nun emerged a lotus flower, together with a single mound of dry land. The lotus blossoms opened, and out stepped the self-created sun god, Atum, as a child. (See the entry for Utchat for a continuation of this story.)
A slightly different version of the creation story originated in Hermopolis. In that version, the sun god who formed himself from the chaos of Nun and emerged from the lotus petals was Ra. His history went on to say that the petals of the lotus blossom enfolded him when he returned to it each night. The lotus is a flower which opens and closes each day.
The lotus flower has been featured extensively throughout the art of ancient Egypt. In various works of art, you may see it held in the hand of a god or human, serving as a border to outline a section of the artwork, unfolding to reveal various gods or humans, and many other depictions.
In the Near East (Mesopotamia), the lotus was the flower of Lilith, the Sumero-Babylonian goddess that Jews claimed was Adam's first wife.
Phoenix
In the hieroglyphics of ancient Egypt, the phoenix was known as the benu. This word, benu, means "to rise in brilliance".
In one version of the creation myth, Ra rose in the shape of a phoenix from the primordial ocean of Nun and landed on a single mound of dry land, then let the sun's rays shine forth from himself.
Scarab
The Egyptian scarabaeus beetle was the symbol of the god Khepera, a solar deity, said to roll the ball of the sun across the heavens as the beetles roll their balls of dung across the ground. Egyptians believed that these balls of dung contained the fertilized eggs from which the next generation would hatch, and therefore took the scarab as a symbol for the self-regenerative nature of the sun god.
In one version of the creation myth of ancient Egypt, a lotus flower rose out of the primeval waters of Nun, the infinite ocean of chaos. The petals parted to reveal a scarab beetle. The scarab then transformed itself into a boy, who wept. His tears then became humankind.
The sacred beetles were depicted on all kinds of amulets and seals. Carved scarabs replaced hearts within mummies. Including a scarab in the tomb was supposed to ensure the rebirth of the deceased in the afterlife.
To this day, Egyptian and Sudanese women believe that the dried and powdered beetles, ingested in water, act as conception charms.
Shamrock
Huh? What is the shamrock doing on a list of ancient Middle Eastern symbols???
According to the Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths And Secrets, the three-lobed trefoil that we now call a shamrock originated in the East. Pre-Islamic Arabs called it shamrakh, the three-lobed lily or lotus flower of the ancient Moon-goddess’s trinity consisting of Al-Lat, Kore (or Q're) the Virgin, and Al-Uzza, the Powerful One. Together, this triple goddess was known as Manat, the Threefold Moon. To the ancient Arabs, the shamrakh represented a design of three yonis, and it appeared on artifacts of the ancient Indus Valley civilization, as well as on stone, pottery, and woodwork in Mesopotamia, Crete, and Egypt between 2300 and 1300 B.C.
Sistrum
The sistrum was a sacred rattle, used in the worship of the Egyptian goddesses. The sound of its clattering wires was said to dispel evil spirits. Egyptian paintings show the sistrum not only in the hand of the Goddess herself, but also in the hands of her priestesses and other high-ranking women.
The curved top stood for the orbit of the moon, presided over by a figure of Bastet. The four rattles represented the four elements whereby she created the universe. Their sound indicated mingling of the elements in the process of creation.
In the drawing to the right, a woman is holding a sistrum. On her head is a cone of perfumed wax. As the heat of her body and her surroundings cause the wax to melt, the perfume seeps into her hair and scents it.
Sphinx
The image of the sphinx is usually associated with the Egyptian goddess Hathor in her role as the lioness / destroyer.
As the sun god Ra grew older, he became fearful of his enemies and asked Hathor to help him. She took on the job with a vengeance and seemed to enjoy the killing. Ra then worried that she would wipe out the entire human race, so he had red dye mixed in ale and spread about the land. Hathor, thinking it was blood, drank it and became intoxicated. She forgot her assignment and humankind was saved.
Uraeus
The uraeus was the Egyptian cobra symbol of the Goddess as creatress. The symbol was worn on the foreheads of deities and rulers in the position of the "third eye" of insight, and stood for royal spirit, healing, and wisdom. In hieroglyphics, the uraeus was the sign for "Goddess", derived from Uatchet.
Utchat
The word utchat, sometimes spelled udjat, refers to Egypt's sacred eye symbol. The right eye is called the Eye of Ra, symbolizing the sun. The left is called the Eye of Thoth, symbolizing the moon. Both eyes together are the Two Eyes Of Horus The Elder. The eye is the part of the body able to perceive light, and is therefore the symbol for spiritual ability.
In the religious tradition of ancient Heliopolis, the first event of creation was the emergence of the god Atum from the chaotic wastes of Nun. (For more details about this, see the entry for Lotus Flower.) He gave birth to his son Shu by spitting him out, and to his daughter Tefnut by vomiting her forth. Shu and Tefnut were brought up by Nun and looked after by Atum's Eye. Atum had only one eye, and it was physically separable from him and independent in its wishes. Shu and Tefnut became separated from Atum in the dark wastes of the waters of Nun. Atum sent his Eye to look for them and eventually Shu and Tefnut came back with the Eye. While the Eye had been searching for them, Atum had replaced it with another, much brighter one. The original Eye was enraged with Atum when it returned at finding its placed usurped. So Atum took the first Eye and placed it on his forehead where it could rule the whole world he was about to create.
Over time, the stories of Ra and Atum coalesced, and the Eye became associated with Ra. In one such myth, the Eye wandered off on its own. When it failed to return, Ra sent Shu and Tefnut to search for it and bring it back. The Eye resisted, and it shed tears in the ensuing struggle. From these tears sprang human beings.
In another story, when Horus battled Set for the right to the throne, Set snatched away his eye and threw it into the celestial ocean. Thoth then recovered it. It was this eye which Horus used to revive his sleeping father Osiris (whom Set had killed) so that Osiris could be resurrected to rule the underworld. In an alternative version of this story, Horus' eye was torn into fragments by Set, whereupon Thoth restored it completely.
Today's familiar sign for prescription, Rx, derived from the Utchat symbol. In the second century, Galen used mystic symbols to impress his patients, and borrowed one from the Egyptian lore. As a result of the story in which Set tore Horus' eye into fragments, the eye had come to represent wholeness, and was used in hieroglyphic writing to represent wholesomeness and unity. It then gradually evolved into today's Rx sign for prescriptions.
Winged Sun Disk
The winged sun disk is a very ancient symbol. Long before Egyptian civilization flourished, the sun disk appeared in the literature of ancient Sumer, which was the first known civilization.
In ancient Egyptian religion, the sun disk became a primary symbol of Ra, the sun god. He was called the Sun Of Righteousness with healing in his wings," a title which Christians later adopted for their own god.
The sun disk was carved over the doorways of many Egyptian tombs and temples, and it appears on many papyri. In the illustration above, the sun disk is carried on the wings of Horus, and flanked by two uraeus.
Ziggurat
The ziggurat was the Mesopotamian version of the Mountain of Heaven, resembling the pyramids of Egypt and Central America in that its summit was a meeting place between deities and mortals. At the peak of the ziggurat the Goddess came down to mate with the king, or the God to mate with the queen. Sumerian towns featured ziggurats as early as 3500 B.C. In Babylon, the ziggurat was the core of the city. Its seven stages were supposed to represent the seven heavenly spheres.
Bron: http://www.shira.net