Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. I — G. R. S. Mead (1906)

" In the centre of the temple is the Hall of the Altar, with entrances opening east and west ; and beyond it lies the great hall of the temple entitled the Hall of

1 Op. tit., p. 36. a Op. tit., p. 153. 3 Op. cit., p. 37.

the Child in his Cradle, from whence access is obtained to the secret and sealed shrine entered once a year by the high priest, on the night of mid-summer." l

There were also various other halls and chambers each having a distinctive name, " bearing reference, for the most part, to the Mysteries of the light and of a divine Birth." We have such names as : Hall of the Golden Rays, Chamber of Gold, Chamber of Birth, Dwelling of the Golden One, Chamber of Flames.

Now as the famous planisphere of Denderah — a wallpainting transferred bodily from the temple to Paris, early in the last century — " contains the northern and southern points, we are enabled to correlate the parts of that picture with the various parts of the temple, and thereby to discover a striking correspondence between the different parts of the inscription and the titles of the chambers and halls occupying relative positions." 2

Thus we have in the planisphere corresponding to the halls and chambers such names as : Horus, the Entrance of the Golden Heavens, the Golden Heaven of Isis, Horizon of Light, Palace Chamber of Supreme Light, Heavenly Flame of Burning Gold. "And as the chief hall of the temple was the Hall of the Child in his Cradle, so the chief representation on the planisphere is the holy Mother with the divine Child in her arms. "

THE MYSTERY OF THE BIRTH OF HORUS.

Now the great mystery of Egypt was the second birth, the " Birth of Horus." In " The Virgin of the World," a long fragment of the lost Trismegistic treatise, "The Sacred Book," preserved by Stobaeus, Isis says to Horus: I will not tell of this birth; I 1 Op. cit., p. 71. 8 Op. tit., p. 75.

must not, mighty Horus, reveal the origin of thy race, lest men should in the future know the generation of the Gods. Of the nature of this rebirth we are familiar from our treatises. But in spite of such clear indications the mystery of the Golden Horus has not yet been revealed.

In another passage from the same book Isis declares that the sovereignty or kingship of philosophy is in the hands of Harnebeschenis. This transliterated Egyptian name is given by Pietschmann1 as originally either HOT neb en ^ennu (Horus the Lord of Xennu), or as Hor nub en -^ennu (the Golden Horus of Xennu). His hieroglyph was the golden hawk, who flies nearest the sun, and gazes upon it with unwinking eyes, a fit symbol for the new-born, the " man " illuminate.

Indeed, says Adams, " throughout the sacred writings of Egypt, there is no doctrine of which more frequent mention is made than that of a divine birth." z

In what circle of ideas to place the Birth of Horus the theosophical student may perhaps glean by reversing the stages given in the following interesting passage of our author :

" In the Teaching of Egypt, around the radiant being, which in its regenerate life could assimilate itself to the glory of the Godhead, was formed the ' khaibit,' or luminous atmosphere, consisting of a series of ethereal envelopes, at once shading and diffusing its flaming lustre, as the earth's atmosphere shades and diffuses the solar rays. And at each successive transformation (Eitual, IxxviL-lxxxvii.) it descended nearer to the moral [? normal] conditions of humanity. From the form of the golden hawk, the semblance of the absolute divine substance of the one eternal self-existent being, it passes to the ' Lord of Time,' the image of the Creator, 1 Op. tit., p. 44. * Op. tit., p. 89.