Chemi (Egypt, Egyptian). The ancient name of Egypt.

(See also: Chemi, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )

Mizraim (Egypt, Egyptian). The name of Egypt in very ancient times, This name is now connected with Freemasonry. See the rite of Mizraim and the rite of Memphis in Masonic Cyclopedias.

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Psylli (Ancient Greek). Serpent-charmers of Africa and Egypt.

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Khamism. A name given by the Egyptologists to the ancient language of Egypt. Khami, also.

(See also: Khamism, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )

Phile (Ancient Greek). An island in Upper Egypt where a famous temple of that name was situated, the ruins of which may be seen to this day by travellers.

(See also: Phile, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )

Rajarshis (Sanskrit). The King-Rishis or King-Adepts, one of the three classes of Rishis in India; the same as the King-Hierophants of ancient Egypt.

(See also: Rajarshis, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )

Koinobi (Ancient Greek). A sect which lived in Egypt in the early part of the first Christian century; usually confounded with the Therapeute. They passed for magicians.

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Harviri (Egypt, Egyptian) Horns, the elder: the ancient name of a solar god: the rising sun represented as a god reclining on a full-blown lotus, the symbol of the Universe.

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CHURCH OF THE ETERNAL SOURCE: A Neo-Pagan religion founded by Don Harrison in 1970 and based on a reconstruction of the Mysteries of ancient Egypt and the worship of the Egyptian Gods and Goddesses.

(See also: CHURCH OF THE ETERNAL SOURCE, Magickal Traditions, Magickal Paths, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

Hierogrammatists (from Greek hierogrammateus from hieros sacred + grammateus scribe)

Applied by Greek writers to the sacred scribes of ancient Egypt, who wrote and read the sacred records, and among whose functions was that of the instruction of initiants or neophytes preparing for initiation.

(See also: Hierogrammatists, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Copts (from Arab from Greek Aigyptioi)

The early native Christians of Egypt and their successors of the Monophysite sect, and now racially the closest representatives of the population of ancient Egypt. The Coptic language is a mixture of ancient Egyptian with Semitic and Greek borrowings; in the inscriptions the older demotic characters were replaced by a Greek alphabet with supplementary letters from the Demotic. The Pistis Sophia was originally discovered as a Coptic manuscript.

(See also: Copts, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Pastophori (Greek) Shrine-bearers; a class of candidates for initiation, especially in ancient Egypt, who bore the coffin containing the defunct -- the sun god killed and resurrected -- in the ceremony at which a candidate for higher initiation has to pass through the portals of death.

(See also: Pastophori, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Hierogrammatists (from Greek hierogrammateus from hieros sacred + grammateus scribe)

Applied by Greek writers to the sacred scribes of ancient Egypt, who wrote and read the sacred records, and among whose functions was that of the instruction of initiants or neophytes preparing for initiation.

(See also: Hierarchy of Compassion, Spiritual-psychological Hierarchy, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Ark of Isis In ancient Egypt deities were frequently associated with a boat in the temple ceremonies. "At the great Egyptian annual ceremony, which took place in the month of Athyr, the boat of Isis was borne in procession by the priests . . . This was in commemoration of the weeping of Isis for the loss of Osiris . . ." (TG 30).

See also ARK

(See also: Ark of Isis, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Chemi or Kemi Black land; the native name of Egypt in ancient times, so called because of the blackness of its soil due to the deposits made by the river Nile. In some poetical inscriptions Kemi is placed in contrast to Toshri (the red land) -- referring to the suggestive color of the sandy deserts.

(See also: Chemi, Kemi, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Chemis chemmis, chemi (Greek) "According to the Greeks, the phantom form of the Chemis (Chemi, ancient Egypt) which floats on the ethereal waves of the Empyrean Sphere, was called into being by Horus-Apollo, the Sun god, who caused it to evolve out of the Mundane egg" (SD 1:367).

(See also: Chemis, chemmis, chemi, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Phoenix

(Egyptian-House of Enoch) Egyptian mythological bird of gorgeous plumage, sacred to the sun, reborn from the ashes of the funeral pyre which it made for itself when each life span of 500 or 600 years was over.

"At the top of a palm tree a bird's nest catches fire. It has been ignited by a spark struck from the hooves of celestial steeds drawing the chariot of Ra, the Egyptian sun god. Amid the flames a beautiful Arabian bird extends its golden neck and purple wings, but instead of flying off, it dances. Eventually, it is consumed by the fire and reduced to ashes. but this is not the end. Indeed, it is only the beginning - for 500 years later a new bird is reborn from the ashes. It seals the remains of the nest in myrrh, wraps it in aromatic leaves, and molds it into the shape of an egg. This it carries as a sacred offering to the temple of the sun at Heliopolis, then flies away to paradise. Five hundred years later it returns to earth, where it begins again the cycle of selfimmolation and resurrection - a process that continues forever. "

The phoenix, originating in the mythology of ancient Egypt, has become a universal symbol of rebirth and the most famous of all fabulous birds. Clad in feathers of red and gold, the color of the rising sun, it had a melodious voice that became mournful with approuching death. Other creatures were then so overcome by its beauty and sadness that they themselves fell dead.

According to legend, only one phoenix could live at a time. The Greek poet Hesiod, writing in the 8th century BC, said that the phoenix lived nine times the lifespan of the long-living raven. Other estimates went up to 97,200 years. When the bird felt death approaching, it built itself a pyre of wild cinnamon and died in the flames. But from the ashes there then arose a new phoenix, which tenderly encased its parent's remains in an egg of myrrh and flew with them to the Egyptian city of Heliopolis, where it laid them on the Altar of the Sun. These ashes were said to have the power of bringing a dead man back to life.

The profligate Roman Emperor Elagabalus (AD 205-22) decided to eat phoenix meat in order to achieve immortality. He dined off a bird of paradise, sent in place of a phoenix, but the substitute did not work. He was then murdered shortly afterward.

Scholars now think that the germ of the legend came from the Orient and was adopted by the sun-worshipping priests of Heliopolis as an allegory of the sun's daily setting and rebirth.

Like all great myths, it stirs deep chords in man. In Christian art the resurrected phoenix became a popular symbol of Christ risen from the grave. Strangely, its name may come from a misunderstanding by Herodotus, the Greek historian of the 5th century BC. In his account of the bird he may have mistakenly given it the name "phoenix" because of the palm tree (Greek: phoinix) on which it was customarily pictured sitting in those days. In their attempts to identify the gorgeously plumed phoenix of Egyptian myth with a real bird, scientists tended to discount New Guinea's birds of paradise otherwise likely candidates because of the island's great distance from Egypt. In 1957, however, Australian zoologists discovered that New Guinea tribes had exported bird of paradise plumed skins for centuries and that among those visiting the island, as long ago as 1000 BC, had been traders from Phoenicia in the Middle East.

Another significant discovery was that the tribespeople used to preserve the skins for export by sealing them in myrrh, molding them into an egg shape, and wrapping this in burned banana skins - a procedure that tallies almost exactly with the mythical bird's reputed treatment of its destroyed nest. Perhaps most significant of all is the fact that the brilliantly colored males of Count Raggi's bird of paradise are adorned with cascades of scarlet feathers that, during their courtship dance, they repeatedly raise aloft, while quivering intensely - a spectacle reminiscent of the phoenix dancing in its burning nest. On reaching the Middle East, descriptions of this spectacle, combined with the egg-like parcels of skins, may well have been sufficient to inspire the myth of the phoenix.

(See also: Phoenix, New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Azazel (Hebrew, Jewish) "God of Victory"; the scape-goat for the sins of Israel. He who comprehends the mystery of Azazel, says Aben-Ezra, "will learn the mystery of God’s name", and truly. See "Typhon" and the scape-goat made sacred to him in ancient Egypt.

(See also: Azazel, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )

Per-M-Rhu (Egypt, Egyptian). This name is the recognised pronunciation of the ancient title of the collection of mystical lectures, called in English The Book of the Dead. Several almost complete papyri have been found, and there are numberless extant copies of portions of the work.

(See also: Per-M-Rhu, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )

Eye of Horus. A very sacred symbol in ancient Egypt. It was called the outa the right eye represented the sun, the left, the moon. Says Macrobius: " The outo (or uta) is it not the emblem of the sun, king of the world, who from his elevated throne sees all the Universe below him"?

(See also: Eye of Horus, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )