The mystery of the Great pyramid : traditions concerning it and its connection with the Egyptian Book of the dead : with numerous illustrations

MYSTERY OF THE GREAT PYRAMID

Christian gnosticism. The literature of early Christian gnosticism abounds in mystical pyramid figures and associated astronomical conceptions and constellations ” (Davidson).

“The intimate connection,’ writes Marsham Adams, “between the secret doctrine of Egypt’s most venerated books and the secret significance of her most venerable monument seems impossible to dis-sever, and each form illustrates and interpenetrates the other. As we peruse the dark utterances and recognize the mystic allusions of the book, we seem to stand amid the profound darkness enwrapping the whole interior of the building . . . Dimly before our eyes, age after age, the sacred procession of the Egyptian dead moves silently along as they pass to the tribunal of Osiris. In vain do we attempt to trace their footsteps till we enter with them into the Hidden Places and penetrate the secret of the House of Light. But no sooner do we tread the chambers of the mysterious Pyramid than the teaching of the Sacred Books seems lit up as with a tongue of flame.’”’—House of the Hidden Places, p. 246.

Compare also the following from Wiedemann’s Doctrine of Immortality (cited by Petrie in his Descriptive Sociology) *:“To no close student of these doctrines can the fact seem strange that Egypt should have been the first country in which Christianity permeated the whole body of the people. The Egyptian could recognize old beliefs in many a Christian theme, and so much did the figure of Christ remind him of Osiris and his son Horus, that to him Christ became a hero who traversed the Nile valley even as Horus had done, overcoming his enemies, the evil demons and the wicked. In Egypt the Osirian faith and dogma were the precursors of Christianity, the foundation upon

b

1 Quoted by the present writer from Davidson’s Talks on the Great Pyramid (No. 4), p. 24, under the heading ‘‘ Christ and Osiris ”.

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