Product Description

A radical reinterpretation of the Pyramid Texts as shamanic mystical wisdom rather than funerary rituals.

• Reveals the mystical nature of Egyptian civilization denied by orthodox Egyptologists.

• Examines the similarity between the pharaoh's afterlife voyage and shamanic journeying.

• Shows shamanism to be the foundation of the Egyptian mystical tradition.

To the Greek philosophers and other peoples of the ancient world, Egypt was regarded as the home of a profound mystical wisdom. While there are many today who still share that view, the consensus of most Egyptologists is that no evidence exists that Egypt possessed any mystical tradition whatsoever. Jeremy Naydler's radical reinterpretation of the Pyramid Texts--the earliest body of religious literature to have survived from ancient Egypt--places these documents into the ritual context in which they belong.

Until now, the Pyramid Texts have been viewed primarily as royal funerary texts that were used in the liturgy of the dead pharaoh or to aid him in his afterlife journey. This emphasis on funerary interpretation has served only to externalize what were actually experiences of the living, not the dead, king. In order to understand the character and significance of the extreme psychological states the pharaoh experienced--states often involving perilous encounters with alternate realities--we need to approach them as spiritual and religious phenomena that reveal the extraordinary possibilities of human consciousness. It is the shamanic spiritual tradition, argues Naydler, that is the undercurrent of the Pyramid Texts and that holds the key to understanding both the true nature of these experiences and the basis of ancient Egyptian mysticism.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #260586 in Books
• Published on: 2004-12-09
• Released on: 2004-12-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 480 pages

Review
“Erudite, rigorously developed, impeccably supported, observing all scholarly ground rules, yet revolutionary in its implications. This book should engage serious readers the world over.”
(John Anthony West, author of The Serpent in the Sky: The High Wisdom of Ancient Egypt
)

“A splendid melding of fine scholarship and passionate engagement with themes that are vitally important to us today. It is must reading not only for lovers of Egypt, students of shamanism and religion, and modern practitioners of soul travel, but for all of us who hunger for the real history of humanity’s encounters with the more-than-human.”
(Robert Moss, author of Dreamgates: An Explorer’s Guide to the Worlds of Soul, Imagination, and Life Beyond Death
)

“A fabulously convincing piece of work.”
(Normandi Ellis, author of Awakening Osiris
)

“This is an important book for it places our focus for understanding these ancient texts where it should be, upon profound human experience.”
(Michael Baigent, Caduceus, Issue #66 )

". . . the Pyramid texts are revealed as initiatory texts that give voice to a potent shamanic wisdom, which provides the key to understanding both the true nature of these experiences and the basis of ancient Egyptan mysticism."
(The Journal of Esoterica, July 2006 )

“A model of how to engage with religious literature and, still more widely, with the sacred dimension of life. . . . Serves as a mirror to our own consciousness, reflecting back to us objective spiritual realities which have fallen out of contemporary discourse, and waking us up to deeper layers of our own humanity. . . . An essential book for all of us who long to experience the greater possibilities of the human psyche.”
(Jules Cashford, Temenos Academy Review )

“An invaluable contribution to the dialogue about the mysteries of ancient Egypt.”
(Rosicrucian Digest )

From the Back Cover
EGYPT / MYSTICISM

“Erudite, rigorously developed, impeccably supported, observing all scholarly ground rules, yet revolutionary in its implications. This book should engage serious readers the world over.”
John Anthony West, author of The Serpent in the Sky: The High Wisdom of Ancient Egypt

“A splendid melding of fine scholarship and passionate engagement with themes that are vitally important to us today. It is must reading not only for lovers of Egypt, students of shamanism and religion, and modern practitioners of soul travel, but for all of us who hunger for the real history of humanity’s encounters with the more-than-human.”
Robert Moss, author of Dreamgates: An Explorer’s Guide to the Worlds of Soul, Imagination, and Life Beyond Death

“A fabulously convincing piece of work.”
Normandi Ellis, author of Awakening Osiris

To the Greek philosophers and other peoples of the ancient world, Egypt was regarded as the home of a profound mystical wisdom. While there are many today who still share that view, the consensus of most Egyptologists is that there is no evidence that a mystical tradition existed in ancient Egypt. This book presents the evidence by radically reinterpreting the Pyramid Texts--the earliest body of religious literature that has survived from ancient Egypt--and the ritual context to which these texts belonged.

Until now, the Pyramid Texts have been viewed primarily as royal funerary texts that were used in the liturgy of the dead pharaoh or to aid him in his afterlife journey. Jeremy Naydler argues that they are mystical texts that speak of the experiences not of the dead but of the living king. Thrust into extreme psychological and existential predicaments, and undergoing perilous encounters with alternate realities, the experiences of the king are remarkably similar to those described in the literature of shamanism. Far from expressing ancient Egyptian funerary beliefs, the Pyramid Texts are revealed as initiatory texts that give voice to a potent shamanic wisdom, which provides the key to understanding both the true nature of these experiences and the basis of ancient Egyptian mysticism.

JEREMY NAYDLER, Ph.D., is a philosopher who has for many years been interested in the religious life of ancient cultures, receiving his doctorate in religious studies at the University of Kent, Canterbury. He is the author of Temple of the Cosmos: The Ancient Egyptian Experience of the Sacred and Goethe on Science. He lives in Oxford, England.

About the Author
Jeremy Naydler, is a philosopher and cultural historian. He is author of Temple of the Cosmos and Goethe on Science. He lives in Oxford, England.

Customer Reviews

Traveling through the gates of death for superbundant life
Jeremy Naydler has rescued the deep wisdom of Egypt - experiential insight into the deeper reality and how we can travel there for initiation and empowerment - from the Egyptologists. For all of us who have long suspected, or remembered, that the palace tombs and pyramid texts of Egypt are about much, much more than funerary arrangements, here is ringing confirmation that the Egyptians traveled beyond the gates of death while very much alive, not only to bring back first-hand knowledge of the afterlife, but to enter into sacred union with the gods and enthrone their power in the body, and so acquire the spiritual and sexual potency to marry the worlds. Shamanic Wisdom of the Pyramid Texts is a splendid melding of fine scholarship and passionate engagement with themes that are vitally important to us today. It is must reading not only for lovers of Egypt, students of shamanism and religion, and modern practitioners of soul travel, but for all of us who hunger for the real history of humanity's encounters with the more-than-human

Hopefully Naydler has hit the button of Egyptology
First of all, Naydler's book is an outstandingly thorough and convincing argument that the Ancient Egyptian religion was a shamanic practice designed to bring on mystical experiences.

After several trips to Egypt and many hours spent inside of the ancient culture's temples and tombs, I was overwhelmed with the grandeur, scale, scope, artistry and FEELING of these sacred places. It was obvious to me that these folks were deeply steeped in mystical tradition. So I came back to the States seeking as much information as possible about ancient Egyptian religion. After many months of exploring the continuum of possibilities, I have to confess that I was very disappointed. On one side of the continuum were the extraordinarily dry and uninteresting and disconnected books such as "Religion and Magic in Ancient Egypt" by Rosalie David; and on the other end of the continuum were the strange, seemingly unfounded and ungrounded books such as "Initiation in the Great Pyramid" by Earlyne Chaney. I was NOT looking for a book that simply confirmed my assumptions, instead I was looking for a book by a scholarly enthusiast. Naydler has fit the bill. His work uses as its source material the ancient Egyptians' own writings - the Pyramid Texts - so his work is grounded in reality. Yet, Naydler is also clearly a true believer in mystical experience as brought on by shamanic practice. Thus, his work has reinserted some of the passion into the scholarly landscape that clearly drove the Egyptians to erect such magnificent monuments. Bravo Jeremy Naydler.

I must also tell you that I was initially disappointed to discover that this book does not contain a full translation of the Pyramid Texts. After discovering this fact I bought my own copy of a full translation of the Pyramid Texts, as translated by R.O. Faulkner. Then as I would read a passage in Naydler I would go to the source material. What I was very pleased to discover is that while Naydler has not translated every passage for us, he has paraphrased all of the information where a direct translation was not provided. What is more, in his interpretations he often includes much background material on ancient Egyptian religion or on shamanic practice that is extremely helpful. So, in other words, Naydler's approach is a net win for the reader. My appreciation for Naydler was certainly enhanced by having Faulkner's translation of the Pyramid Texts right next to me at all times. Incidentally, I chose Faulker because of Robert Bauval's whole-hearted endorsement of him due to Faulkner's interpretation that the ancient Egyptians were more a star cult than a sun cult. Any time spent at all in the temples and tombs of ancient Egypt clearly demonstrates their obsession with stars much more so than the sun (also a star, by the way).

In addition to the above praise I must state that I very much appreciated that Naydler included a 3-D rendering of King Unas's pyramid and indicated always where a certain passage was written relative to the architecture of the Pyramid.

It is my sincere hope that this book hits the button on mainline Egyptologists and gets them to rethink the thinking and beliefs of the ancient Egyptians.

One Facet of the Mysticism of Ancient Egypt and Its Cover Up/Misinterpretation of Modern Western "Science"
Originally published in 2005, this book is some 480 pages thick. Some 330 pages are filled with regular text (including 131 figures), 85 pages with small print footnotes (including 4 figures). That makes the footnotes equalling more than a fourth of the regular text, part of them may be forgiven...

The author is taking neither the pyramids nor their texts as funerary or funerary only respectively. The focus is on the pyramid of Unas, with many references to other pyramids as well. He is not alone in the knowledge that the pyramids were used primarily/only for spiritual purposes, not tombs or referring solely to the afterlife. Instead as an initiation or renewal of initiation of a pharao for the well being of the entire kingdom. Hence, the hyroglyphs and vignettes are not describing the so-called afterlife of the pharao, but induced "near death" experiences of very much alive pharaos.

For a better overstanding of ancient Egyptian religion, Jeremy Naydler reasons to take the learning on ancient Egypt away from the realm of Egyptologists with their modern scientific attitude of culture references and give it to the mystics. Of any ages, as the Europeans of classic, medievil and later Imes up to the end of the 18th century hadn't been conditioned yet to belittle the ancient Egyptian religion and the knowledge of the latter representing the very roots of all the "world religions". The way of overstanding is the phenomenological approach, already taught by early 19th century Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

The (universal) mystical message being: "Unless you make yourself equal to God, you cannot understand Him." Naydler goes further by suggesting the shamanic roots of the ancient Egyptian religion. Which makes perfect sense, I may say, as in: How else than ancient Egypt representing the "missing link" between shamanic religion and organised/world religion? Also the related so-called Egyptian Book of the Dead and Coffin Texts are to be seen in the light of this mystical reading of the pyramid texts.

In reading this book and the pyramid texts with it, Naydler invites us to actually learn from the Egyptians. For example that they considered a progression of Imes (time) a degeneration of history and human society. Considering the loss of a large section of society of mystic knowledge, but ever more constructs of separations ever more severely persecuted, they were perfectly right. As were the ancients from Mesopotamia, India, Persia and Greece who all adopted this view until the modern global society reversed that philosophy, bribed by technical advancement in most areas.

The author is only slightly repetitive. He obviously uses the progressive Imes frame of ancient Egypt without diving into that issue. Yet, he uses the Western rendered versions of ancient Egyptian names other than Khufu ("Cheops"). Likewise he provides occasional references only to modern Western derivations of ancient Egyptian sources such as the Christian concept of the ladder of virtues into heaven. Other references he leaves out, obviously not to overstrain the reader. (Some 150 pages are devoted to disconnecting old synapse links of faulty believes about the pyramid( text)s, before even starting with them.) For example he mentions the "running with the bull" by the pharao, but doesn't reference the later Spanish tradition of this. (Read about the connection in Egyptian Romany: The Essence of Hispania.)

Definitely too much would have been the gender concept. Mystics eliminate all constructs of separations, all dualisms. The gender construct is no exception. Yet, today's mainstream is blinding it this intensely that Naydler would have lost the very most readers. Many references to gender bending are still included, some of them unavoidably so as they are part of the pyramid texts. We hear about the male pharao drinking the milk from the nipples of "Isis" (female) and Horus (male). Even though metaphorical, there is such a thing as male lactation. The pharao's bones transform into ones of falcon godDESSES. In spiritual and sexual prowess, we are told, he merges with Min (male), depicted with an erection. A godDESS named Mowe is defined as possibly being the personification of semen, while Atum (male god) takes the form of Mafdet (female). And the pharao says to Ra (male, as much as "he" may be male with no concept of gender): "I will love you with my body."

I concur with Naydler that the pyramid texts have to be seen as mystical for the LIVING pharao, not funerary. Yet, he fails to mention that mystics do not believe in the construct of death anyway. In other words, when the pharao really passes on, the texts are largely valid the same way, other than that certain rituals to be performed by a BODILY living pharao cannot be performed anymore. This train of thought would probably have confused the non-mystic reader too much, who has to get convinced that the ancient Egyptians didn't "deny death" in these supposed funerary texts. As the thought behind this current orthodox Egyptologists' approach is wrong indeed.

The upper line is: This is a very good, in fact a very informative and important book. Be sure not to leave it at that, but to read further progressive/mystic/African centered books on ancient Egypt, her strong influence on the later ancient and the modern world, as well as books on mysticism in general and Egypt specifically. A good start is The Mystical Journey from Jesus to Christ, but also other books by Muata Ashby, such as Egyptian Yoga Vol. 1:: The Philosophy of Enlightenment which references e.g. Ani's Book of the Dead in a mystical context.