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Know_files/FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS.pdf - D Ank Unlimited

Know_files/FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS.pdf - D Ank Unlimited

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Graham Hancock – <strong>FINGERPRINTS</strong> <strong>OF</strong> <strong>THE</strong> <strong>GODS</strong><br />

The sky had not been created, the earth had not been created, the children of the<br />

earth and the reptiles had not been fashioned in that place ... I, Atum, was one by<br />

myself ... There existed no other who worked with me ... 6<br />

Conscious of being alone, this blessed and immortal being contrived to<br />

create two divine offspring, Shu, god of the air and dryness, and Tefnut<br />

the goddess of moisture: ‘I thrust my phallus into my closed hand. I made<br />

my seed to enter my hand. I poured it into my own mouth. I evacuated<br />

under the form of Shu, I passed water under the form of Tefnut.’ 7<br />

Despite such apparently inauspicious beginnings, Shu and Tefnut (who<br />

were always described as ‘Twins’ and frequently depicted as lions) grew<br />

to maturity, copulated and produced offspring of their own: Geb the god<br />

of the earth and Nut, the goddess of the sky. These two also mated,<br />

creating Osiris and Isis, Set and Nepthys, and so completed the Ennead,<br />

the full company of the Nine Gods of Heliopolis. Of the nine, Ra, Shu, Geb<br />

and Osiris were said to have ruled in Egypt as kings, followed by Horus,<br />

and lastly—for 3226 years—by the Ibis-headed wisdom god Thoth. 8<br />

Who were these people—or creatures, or beings, or gods? Were they<br />

figments of the priestly imagination, or symbols, or ciphers? Were the<br />

stories told about them vivid myth memories of real events which had<br />

taken place thousands of years previously? Or were they, perhaps, part of<br />

a coded message from the ancients that had been transmitting itself over<br />

and over again down the epochs—a message only now beginning to be<br />

unravelled and understood?<br />

Such notions seemed fanciful. Nevertheless I could hardly forget that<br />

out of this very same Heliopolitan tradition the great myth of Isis and<br />

Osiris had flowed, covertly transmitting an accurate calculus for the rate<br />

of precessional motion. Moreover the priests of Innu, whose<br />

responsibility it had been to guard and nurture such traditions, had been<br />

renowned throughout Egypt for their high wisdom and their proficiency in<br />

prophecy, astronomy, mathematics, architecture and the magic arts. They<br />

were also famous for their possession of a powerful and sacred object<br />

known as the Benben. 9<br />

The Egyptians called Heliopolis Innu, the pillar, because tradition had it<br />

that the Benben had been kept here in remote pre-dynastic times, when it<br />

had balanced on top of a pillar of rough-hewn stone.<br />

The Benben was believed to have fallen from the skies. Unfortunately, it<br />

had been lost so long before that its appearance was no longer<br />

From Fetish to God in Ancient Egypt, p. 140.<br />

6 Papyrus of Nesiamsu, cited in Sacred Science: The King of Pharaonic Theocracy, pp.<br />

188-9; see also From Fetish to God in Ancient Egypt, pp. 141-3.<br />

7 From Fetish to God in Ancient Egypt, p. 142. In other readings Shu and Tefnut were<br />

spat out by Ra-Atum.<br />

8 New Larousse Encyclopaedia of Mythology, p. 27. The figure 3126 is given in some<br />

accounts.<br />

9 The Pyramids: An Enigma Solved, p. 13; C. Jacq, Egyptian Magic, Aris and Phillips,<br />

Warminster, 1985, p. 8; The Death of Gods in Ancient Egypt, p. 36.<br />

348

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