Following Osiris

Download or read book Following Osiris written by Mark Smith and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 666 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Osiris, god of the dead, was one of ancient Egypt's most important deities. The earliest secure evidence for belief in him dates back to the fifth dynasty (c.2494-2345BC), but he continued to be worshipped until the fifth century AD. Following Osiris is concerned with ancient Egyptian conceptions of the relationship between Osiris and the deceased, or what might be called the Osirian afterlife, asking what the nature of this relationship was and what the prerequisites were for enjoying its benefits. It does not seek to provide a continuous or comprehensive account of Egyptian ideas on this subject, but rather focuses on five distinct periods in their development, spread over four millennia. The periods in question are ones in which significant changes in Egyptian ideas about Osiris and the dead are known to have occurred or where it has been argued that they did, as Egyptian aspirations for the Osirian afterlife took time to coalesce and reach their fullest form of expression. An important aim of the book is to investigate when and why such changes happened, treating religious belief as a dynamic rather than a static phenomenon and tracing the key stages in the development of these aspirations, from their origin to their demise, while illustrating how they are reflected in the textual and archaeological records. In doing so, it opens up broader issues for exploration and draws meaningful cross-cultural comparisons to ask, for instance, how different societies regard death and the dead, why people convert from one religion to another, and why they abandon belief in a god or gods altogether.

Download or read book Following Osiris written by Mark Smith and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-02-09 with total page 666 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Osiris, god of the dead, was one of ancient Egypt's most important deities. The earliest secure evidence for belief in him dates back to the fifth dynasty (c.2494-2345BC), but he continued to be worshipped until the fifth century AD. Following Osiris is concerned with ancient Egyptian conceptions of the relationship between Osiris and the deceased, or what might be called the Osirian afterlife, asking what the nature of this relationship was and what the prerequisites were for enjoying its benefits. It does not seek to provide a continuous or comprehensive account of Egyptian ideas on this subject, but rather focuses on five distinct periods in their development, spread over four millennia. The periods in question are ones in which significant changes in Egyptian ideas about Osiris and the dead are known to have occurred or where it has been argued that they did, as Egyptian aspirations for the Osirian afterlife took time to coalesce and reach their fullest form of expression. An important aim of the book is to investigate when and why such changes happened, treating religious belief as a dynamic rather than a static phenomenon and tracing the key stages in the development of these aspirations, from their origin to their demise, while illustrating how they are reflected in the textual and archaeological records. In doing so, it opens up broader issues for exploration and draws meaningful cross-cultural comparisons to ask, for instance, how different societies regard death and the dead, why people convert from one religion to another, and why they abandon belief in a god or gods altogether.

Download or read book Osiris written by Bojana Mojsov and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2008-04-15 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bojana Mojsov tells the story of the cult of Osiris from beginning to end, sketching its development throughout 3,000 years of Egyptian history. Draws together the numerous records about Osiris from the third millennium B.C. to the Roman conquest of Egypt. Demonstrates that the cult of Osiris was the most popular and enduring of the ancient religions. Shows how the cult provided direct antecedents for many ideas, traits and customs in Christianity, including the concept of the trinity, baptism in the sacred river, and the sacrament of the Eucharist. Reveals the cult’s influence on other western mystical traditions and groups, such as the Alchemists, Rosicrucians and Freemasons. Written for a general, as well as a scholarly audience.

Download or read book Embodying Osiris written by Thom F Cavalli and published by Quest Books. This book was released on 2013-08-15 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The modern Western movement to embrace Eastern spiritual traditions usually stops with India and the Orient. Westerners have yet to discover the wisdom that dates back even further to ancient Egypt. With a Jungian perspective, clinical psychologist Dr. Thom F. Cavalli plumbs that wisdom through the myth of Osiris, the green-skinned Egyptian god of vegetation and the Underworld. As no one else has done, Cavalli draws on Osiris’s death and resurrection as a guide to spiritual transformation. The myth represents the joining of the conscious and the unconscious, the light and the dark, life and death, and shows how to live our temporal existence in service to and anticipation of eternal life. Cavalli sees the ancient art of alchemy — which attempted to turn lead into gold — as the key. The alchemical recipe "solve et coagula" (solution and coagulation) encoded in the myth describes the integration of all parts of a person and the method for achieving an experience of immortality in life and eternal life after death. The Osiris myth thus provides a model for the contemporary quest for individuation, the Jungian term for integrating ego and self, body and soul, in the process of becoming whole.

Download or read book Book of the Dead written by Foy Scalf and published by Oriental Institute Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discover how the ancient Egyptians controlled their immortal destiny! This book, edited by Foy Scalf, explores what the Book of the Dead was believed to do, how it worked, how it was made, and what happened to it.

Download or read book The Land of Osiris written by Stephen S. Mehler and published by Adventures Unlimited Press. This book was released on 2002-03 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Was there a advanced prehistoric civilization in ancient Egypt? Who were the people who built the great pyramids and carved the Great Sphinx? Did the pyramids serve as energy devices and not as tombs for kings? Independent Egyptologist Stephen S. Mehler has spent over 30 years researching the answers to these questions and believes the answers are "Yes!" An indigenous oral tradition still exists in Egypt, and Mehler has been able to uncover and study it with the help of a living master of this tradition, Abd1El Hakim Awyan. He has also been given permission to share these teachings—presented heretofore in fragments by other researchers—to the Western World, teachings that unfold a whole new understanding of ancient Egypt"--Publisher's description.

Download or read book After Tutankhamun written by C.N. Reeves and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-10-28 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1992. This book includes research and excavation in the Royal Necropolis at Thebes presented a meeting to mark seventy fifth anniversary of 1915 when the Earl of Carnarvon and Howard Carter had embarked upon their search for Tut'ankhamiin, a search destined to be crowned with such stunning success eight years later. What has happened in the Valley of the Kings since that discovery was the theme of our meeting, a theme addressed over the following two days by an international panel of leading Egyptologists.