Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Puke and Rally


Here's an excerpt from The Book of Overthrowing Apophis on the Primitives to Zen site:

Mircea Eliade "From Primitives to Zen": EGYPTIAN COSMOGONY AND THEOGONY

The Lord of All, after having come into being, says: I am he who came into being as Khepri (i.e., the Becoming One). When I came into being, the beings came into being, all the beings came into being after I became. Numerous are those who became, who came out of my mouth, before heaven ever existed, nor earth came into being, nor the worms, nor snakes were created in this place. 1, being in weariness, was bound to them in the Watery Abyss. I found no place to stand. I thought in my heart, I planned in myself, I made all forms being alone, before I ejected Shu, before I spat out Tefnut 1 before any other who was in me had become. Then I planned in my own heart, and many forms of beings came into being as forms of children, as forms of their children. I conceived by my hand, I united myself with my hand, I poured out of my own mouth. I ejected Shu, I spat out Tefnut. It was my father the Watery Abyss who brought them up, and my eye followed them (?) while they became far from me. After having become one god, there were (now) three gods in me. When I came into being in this land, Shu and Tefnut jubilated in the Watery Abyss in which they were. Then they brought with them my eye. After I had joined together my members, I wept over them, and men came into being out of the tears which came out of my eyes.2 Then she (the eye) became enraged3 after she came back and had found that I had placed another in her place, that she had been replaced by the Brilliant One. Then I found a higher place for her on my brow4 and when she began to rule over the whole land her fury fell down on the flowering (?) and I replaced what she had ravished. I came out of the flowering (?), I created all snakes, and all that came into being with them. Shu and Tefnut produced Geb and Nut; Geb and Nut produced out of a single body Osiris, Horus the Eyeless one 5 Seth, Isis, and Nephthys, one after the other among them. Their children are numerous in this land.


Notes

1 Shu the air, Tefnut the moist.
2 Same myth in the Book of Gates, division 4 (The Tomb of Ramesses VI, P. 169).
3 An allusion to the myth of the Eye of the sun god which departs into a foreign land and is brought back by Shu and Tefnut. Another aspect. of this myth is to be found in the Book of the Divine Cow.
4 The fire-spitting snake, the uraeus on the head of the god.
5 The Elder Horus of Letopolis.

For those who are keeping track at home, mark this origin myth in the "bodily fluids category". I particularly found the "conceiving by hand" and the ejection of Gods from the mouth. For some reason, I have a picture in my head of Khepri literally giving birth to men via a birth canal sprouting from the palm. I searched online for a visual representation of such, but alas I could not find one. In many of the origins discussed in class, it is established that man is created in God's image. In this Egyptian myth, man is a descendant of God's mucus.

Once again, the snake theme stays consistent throughout thus creation myth. It shows how unoriginal these religions are if they steal the same animal examples from all of the other religions. C'mon Christianity! Let's use some scorpion analogies! "...And then the evil scorpion tempted Adam with the forbidden fruit by waving it back and forth....little did Adam know that the apple was attached to the scorpion's stinger! And that's the story of how God gave man canker-sores.


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