The Mysteries of Master Mahan

[_Kishkumen]

Thank you for your kind words, Kish, and for your time, effort and research on this issue.

When you get to Margaret Barker, you may find she writes (as do others) of a time when the brazen serpent was placed in the Jewish temple as an object of adoration.

Barker links this object with the female divinity, Wisdom, and writes that it was taken out of the temple by reformers, likely around Josiah's time, who wanted to purify the temple and focus it strictly on the worship of Elohim/Jehovah.

The link of a (the) serpent with Wisdom seems easy enough to make from the Genesis story of the Garden of Eden where it is the serpent who tempts Eve with knowledge.

I hope you continue to engage in this discussion, consiglieri. You have a lot of study under your belt that I have not undertaken yet. Your contributions are highly valuable. I do need to look at Margaret Barker, no doubt.

By the way, the wonders of modern surveillance have turned me onto a sort of New-Age, Jewish discussion of these issues. During a recent trip to Amazon, a strangely apropos book was recommended to me: The Secret Doctrine of Gaon of Vilna, Volume II: The Josephic Messiah, Leviathan, Metatron, and the Sacred Serpent.

Needless to say, I am eager to read it. I do know from the peek I was allowed by Amazon that the book links Leviathan to Wisdom as Barker does (but probably through different connections).

[_Kishkumen]

A big thank you to Kish for starting this extremely interesting thread. I don't have anything to add, but I'm sure enjoying reading. I think this should be nominated for best thread of 2015!

Thanks, Jesse. I think there will be stiff competition for that prize, but I appreciate your support.

[_Kishkumen]

Before I turn in for the night, I would like to share with all of you a passage of ancient Egyptian literature that connects some interesting dots in the current discussion of the mysteries of Mehen. The passages come from the early Hellenistic Demotic romance entitled, Setna Khaemuas and the Mummies:

As Naneferkaptah went into a temple to pray, it happened that he went behind this priest, and was reading the inscriptions that were on the chapels of the gods. And the priest mocked him and laughed. So Naneferkaptah said to him, 'Why are you laughing at me?' And he replied, ' I was not laughing at you, or if I happened to do so, it was at your reading writings that are worthless. If you wish so much to read writings, come to me, and I will bring you to the place where the book is which Thoth himself wrote with his own hand, and which will bring you to the gods. When you read but two pages in this you will enchant the heaven, the earth, the abyss, the mountains, and the sea; you shall know what the birds of the sky and the crawling things are saying; you shall see the fishes of the deep, for a divine power is there to bring them up out of the depth. And when you read the second page, if you are in the world of ghosts, you will become again in the shape you were in on earth. You will see the sun shining in the sky, with all the gods, and the full moon.'

"And Naneferkaptah said, ' By the life of the king! Tell me of anything you want done and I'll do it for you, if you will only send me where this book is.' And the priest answered Naneferkaptah, ' lf you want to go to the place where the book is, you must give me a hundred pieces of silver for my funeral, and provide that they shall bury me as a rich priest.' So Naneferkaptah called his lad and told him to give the priest a hundred pieces of silver; and he made them do as he wished, even everything that he asked for. Then the priest said to Naneferkaptah,'. This book is in the middle of the river at Koptos, in an iron box; in the iron box is a bronze box; in the bronze box is a sycamore box; in the sycamore box is an ivory and ebony box; in the ivory and ebony box is a silver box; in the silver box is a golden box, and in that is the book. It is twisted all round with snakes and scorpions and all the other crawling things around the box in which the book is; and there is a deathless snake by the box.' And when the priest told Naneferkaptah, he did not know where on earth he was, he was so much delighted.

Workmen, work for me, even at the place where the book is.' And they toiled by night and by day; and when they had reached it in three days, he threw the sand out, and made a shoal in the river. And then he found on it entwined serpents and scorpions and all kinds of crawling things around the box in which the book was; and by it he found a deathless snake around the box. And he laid the spell upon the entwined serpents and scorpions and all kinds of crawling things which were around the box, that they should not come out. And he went to the deathless snake, and fought with him, and killed him; but he came to life again, and took a new form. He then fought again with him a second time; but he came to life again, and took a third form. He then cut him in two parts, and put sand between the parts, that he should not appear again.

" Naneferkaptah then went to the place where he found the box. He uncovered a box of iron, and opened it; he found then a box of bronze, and opened that; then he found a box of sycamore wood, and opened that; again, he found a box of ivory and ebony, and opened that; yet, he found a box of silver, and opened that; and then he found a box of gold; he opened that, and found the book in it. He took the book from the golden box, and read a page of spells from it. He enchanted the heaven and the earth, the abyss, the mountains, and the sea; he knew what the birds of the sky, the fish of the deep, and the beasts of the hills all said. He read another page of the spells, and saw the sun shining in the sky, with all the gods, the full moon, and the stars in their shapes; he saw the fishes of the deep, for a divine power was present that brought them up from the water.

There is much of interest in this novel. At some point, I hope to get around to writing about it.

[_consiglieri]

A fascinating story, though I had mistakenly believed Setna Khaemuas and the Mummies to be an ancient Hellenistic Demotic rock group.

The appearance of the sequentially resurrecting serpent in different "forms" is reminiscent of Gnostic literature.

Bringing it into Christian times is the low-hanging fruit of the Acts of Thomas, in which is embedded the famous Hymn of the Pearl.

Of course, the youth is sent by his parents from the East to retrieve the Pearl guarded by the Serpent "under the sea."

And with me They [then] made a compact;
In my heart wrote it, not to forget it:

"If thou goest down into Egypt,
And thence thou bring’st the one Pearl –

"[The Pearl] that lies in the Sea,
Hard by the loud-breathing Serpent –

"[Then] shalt Thou put on thy Robe
And thy Mantle that goeth upon it,

"And with thy Brother, Our Second,
Shalt thou be Heir in our Kingdom."

http://www.gnosis.org/library/hymnpearl.htm

Ultimately, the youth does obtain the Pearl from the Serpent by enchanting the Serpent by chanting over it the names of Father, Mother and elder Brother.

And I began [then] to charm him,
The terrible loud-breathing Serpent.

I lulled him to sleep and to slumber,
Chanting o’er him the Name of my Father,

The Name of our Second, [my Brother],
And [Name] of my Mother, the East-Queen.

XIII.

And [thereon] I snatched up the Pearl,
And turned to the House of my Father.

Keep up the great work, Kish.

I believe I see a Nibley Fellowship on your horizon . . .

[_Kishkumen]

Ah, wonderful, you beat me to the punch! Yes, the Hymn of the Pearl. I had actually forgotten that the serpent in this narrative was under the sea. Yep, just one more bulls-eye. I really need to sit down to start systematically bringing this material together into one coherent whole.

The thing that is interesting here is that one would expect the use of magic to charm Mehen in order to retrieve the pearl. These would've course be the signs and tokens that allow the initiate to pass the angels who stand as sentinels of whom Brother Brigham spoke.

I have always loved the Hymn of the Pearl. But I never could have anticipated that it would tie together so well with these earth-shaking, bone-rattling, shocking new discoveries.

[_Kishkumen]

I am pleased to note that others have been laboring away at this line of research on Mehen. For your edification, I refer you to the work of Ed Goble on the Book of Abraham and the Mysteries of Mehen. Ed is to be commended mightily for pursuing this first:

http://egyptianalphabetandgrammar.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-egyptian-games-of-senet-and-mehen.html

http://egyptianalphabetandgrammar.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-phaistos-disk-as-game-connected-to.html

http://egyptianalphabetandgrammar.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-connection-of-mehen-and-phaistos.html

http://egyptianalphabetandgrammar.blogspot.com/2015/02/more-on-connection-between-game-mehen.html

I recommend to all those who are interested in the Mysteries of Mehen a close study of these articles.

[_mentalgymnast]

This is one of most fascinating threads I've read in a long time.

Same here.

Thanks,
MG