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All Revelations
guide man to believe |
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The Ancient Egyptians realized that there is an Order in the world. That
realization came from their contemplation upon the natural world. The lesson they had
learnt in cultivating the land, led them to cultivate themselves in accordance to
the Law of Life. Their faith that there is an Order that governs the whole universe opened
for them avenues to learn about their far-reaching future. When they realized that death
is not an end of human life, they became aware that there is an unseen aspect to
every visible thing. Their perception of Order and their awareness of the unseen
aspects formed the base of their belief in the divinity of everything.
"To the great and supreme power which made the earth, the heavens, the sea, the sky, men and women, animals, birds, and creeping things, all that is and that shall be, the Egyptians gave the name neter." (Budge:Ixxxii) |
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Divine, might, sacred, holy are but some inferred meanings that were denoted by the word neter. Another definition of neter is that of an "active power which produces and creates things in regular recurrence; which bestows new life upon them, and gives back to them their youthful vigor"(Budge). The word netru which is usually translated as the plural of neter was not used, as commonly understood, to refer to multiple powers and forces in the cosmos. Rather, this word means the manifestation of the one, or the attributes of the hidden and unseen power. Each neter represents an aspect of the Order or the Eternal Law. There are some texts that emphasize the oneness of the Origin of Existence  such as the following passage.
"God is one and alone and none other existeth with Him. God is the one who hath made all things. God is a spirit, a hidden spirit, the spirit of spirits of Egyptians, the divine spirit. God is from the beginning, and He has been from the beginning, he hath existed from old and was when nothing else had being. He existed when nothing else existed, and what existeth He created after He has come into being, He is forever. His name remains hidden; his name is a mystery unto His children. His names are innumerable, they are manifold and none knoweth their number. God is truth and he liveth by truth and He feedeth thereon. He is the king of truth, and He hath established the earth thereupon- God is life and through Him only man liveth. He giveth life to man, He breatheth the breath of life into his nostrils-He begat himself and produced himself. He createth, but was never created." (Mentioned in Budge: xcii) |
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Egyptians attributed the perfect order of the universe to the power of Ma’at. Ma’at has many different connotations. It means "truth", "perfect justice", "the Divine Law". Ma’at refers to the law according to which everything was created, and ordered. Ma’at as an aspect of divinity, not only represents the order of the physical world, but also and more importantly, Ma’at defines how man can develop spiritually. For the Egyptian, to be free means to live according to the ethical law of Ma’at. This development is conditioned by the ethical principles that man on earth should conform to. Egyptians then realized the oneness of the origin of existence, not as a mental conclusion of observation but as living experience where all their deeds were meant to relate them to the Divine, the Supreme Power, and their earthly activities were meant to prepare them for the afterlife. It was believed that if man succeeded in his earthly life to follow the ethical code, he would undergo a spiritual transformation where he would turn into part of the cosmos, "a star of gold". "He will join Ra, and sail with him across the sky in his boat of millions of years". This represents complete freedom. |
