There was a goddess named Hathor, the hippo who governed the Nile. You were considered to need to cross the Nile so they invoked the aid of the Bison Goddess by imitating her act of creation. The shaping of human bodies from clay. Except in this case the clay was linked to the spirits of the servants or loved ones by spells carved into the image. So in a sense allowing the living to be with the dead in spirit also.
It’s been found that the mind cannot tell the difference between a real experience and that which you vividly imagine. This is why they began doing elaborate scenes of life in tombs, or on items that were given as “birthday gifts” to the newly departed. It fed their needs, and it was seen that the departed even desired sex. So sexually suggestive material was provided, and is maybe why some of the weird events told about in the movie “The Entity” happened, and gave birth to ideas like sexually motivated demons and such.
I wonder if that validated some necrophilia? Ah no, messing with the transformed body was just vandalism. But Egypt was an African country and does have some links in its faith to voodoo practices, ecstatic dancing and such. If anything Egyptian “empirical society” was an example of how a culture could function without actually abandoning their tribal and shamanistic beliefs. This was one of the criticisms of their culture even in ancient times. They weren’t seen as “respectful”.
Did the Egyptians have oracles or shamans that communicated with the dead directly? Priest maybe? Yes, and this is part of why the Priests of Anubis didn’t actually go hungry. If there was a spiritual disturbance, those who dwelled with the necropolis were the ones believed to know. They would take on the role of Anubis not only as guide of the dead, but as communicators with the dead.
The images of Gods with animal heads were not objects of worship, neither were they literal. They are connected to the same practices that other cultures Shamans had, the wearing of totemic masks to invite the presence of their deity. In the more literal sense, the hippo and the hawk, the snake and the jackal, were the presence of their Gods, and they sought to maintain Ma’at, order/peace. Thus their death rights were not to break the cycle. You couldn’t be allowed to ignore Ma’at.
This bridged the gap between our conscious mind and the spirit world? Yes. They were “walking in the shoes” of those spiritual presences.
Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.
Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~