Black African mythology is very much a part of our everyday lives. In church realms, Osiris, Isis, and Horus represent the original Trinity; Isis and Horus are the original Madonna and Child; and Osiris and Horus were the originators of Judgement Day and Hell.
In the marketplace, the Eye of Horus is seen on the back of a dollar bill. The “golden age” for myths of the world was between 2800-1800 B.C., with the best documented being those of Egypt. The universe was formed, according to Egyptian cosmogony, by chaotic uncreated matter -- the primitive Nun (i.e. “nothingness”). This primitive matter contained, in the form of principles, all possible beings as well as the god of potential development, Khepru.
As soon as the “primitive nothingness” created Ra, the demiurge (the creator of the world but who was subordinate to the one high God), its role ended. Nun also created evil in the form of Seth (Set), the brother of Osiris, and the snake of the underworld, Apap (or Apophis). From Ra, there were successive incarnations until the Trinity of the Father, the Son and the Black Virgin Mother (later replaced by the Holy Spirit). They appeared as Osiris, Horus, and Isis (Diop, African Origins, P. 109, 194).
Meanwhile, never having been created, the Great Goddess Hathor, Queen of Heaven, brought forth herself in primeval times and every other deity except the Trinity. In relation to the life cycle of birth-death-rebirth, Isis represented the “Bright Mother” and Hather, the “Dark Mother” (later called Nephthys, the sister wife of Seth of the underworld).
The purpose of rebirth was to reach Paradise (i.e. the kingdom of Osiris). In this subterranean world, Ra, the principle of the Good, would fight Apap, the principle of Evil who presided over Hell (the place reserved for punishment of the impious). Tortures were conducted under the orders of Horus (Diop, Civilization or Barbarism, p. 331).
But to understand how this came about, we must step back to the birth of the Divine Child Horus. He was the reincarnation of Asar (Osiris), his father. In turn, Osiris was an incarnation of the High God Ra. From this mythical dogma, the idea of divine kingship became established (c 5500 B.C.?). This meant that each king was a symbol literally of the mythical and mystically Hermetic order and a reflection of the original all-pervasive light -- known as the Horian logos.
This light contained universal energy coming from God’s mind and divine intelligence. In other words, it was about divine consciousness embodied in a perfected (Enlightened) human being (Ashby, African Origins, p. 408) who was thereafter immortal (Bynum, African Unconscious, p 140, 290). Such rebirth into a “new order of the world” through innumerable “points of light” is symbolized on the back of a dollar bill by the all-seeing eye of God at the top of a Kemetic (Egyptian) pyramid.
The upper black capstone containing the Eye of Horus is separated to indicate that it takes a liberated, luminous spirit to see in all directions as a visionary. The lower pyramid base represents the material human body whose aspects flow upward into its Holy Spirit source. This and other symbols on the dollar bill and the Great Seal of the USA are clearly of African lineage (Campbell, Inner Reaches of Outer Space, p. 97).
Now to return to the cosmic story of Good vs. Evil. The envious and wicked Seth (Set) plotted to betray and murder his brother Osiris. After enticing Osiris into a coffin-like chest, Seth immediately shut it. Then he cut up Osiris’ body and threw the parts into the Nile River. Either Isis or Horus, according to different versions of the myth, recovered the parts and restored Osiris to life. Once alive again, Osiris went to the underworld to preside as judge of the souls of humans on Judgment Day (Diop, African Origins, p. 149) and ruler of the dead.
Meanwhile, Horus killed Seth as an act of punishing Evil (despite a long hard fought battle) and avenging his father, the Good Being. Horus then succeeded Osiris as King on earth. After Horus’ death, each succeeding king was looked on as the god Horus. In analyzing this, the most popular of Egyptian myths, Bynum (p. 155) suggested all Egyptians wanted to become Horus after death so as to achieve immortality. The idea of immortality was at the core of cults that spread “everywhere” outside of Africa.
Joseph A. Bailey, II, M.D
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