by Jean-Jacques COURTEY, Doctor in Economic Geography, Ph. D
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This new article of one of our mascot series, "Just science-fiction", is dedicated to the alien God Râ, and the strange manifestations of his supreme power throughout centuries till now. Of course, as usually you can take it as a masterpiece of imagination, and nothing else.
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At the time of Pharaoh Snefru (circa 2670 BC ? - c. 2589 BC ?), Ist Pharaoh of the IVth dynasty, Râ wasn't yet the supreme God of the Egyptian pantheon : the dominant clergy was still the one of Ptah ("the one who created") in Memphis, from which is deriving the very name of Egypt. One event, seemingly of small importance, changed everything for centuries and centuries...till now. And that's the most astonishing, when you think about it !
One day Snefru was terribly bored, and he asked an adviser what to do. This adviser was a famous Egyptian magician called Djedjaemonkh. The latter just suggested him to have a little cruise on the Nile river with twenty pretty girls. This didn't seem especially magical, but it became so because of an incident : one of the young women playing around suddenly dropped her hair-jewel in the Nile, and it seemed lost for ever.
She was so sad, that Snefru asked for the help of Djedjaemonkh to recover it. The magician did it. He just invoked an alien God, Râ (still a challenger of God Ptah at that time), and did something incredible : he was able to open the Nile in two where the loss had happened, and on the over suddenly dried part, he could easily find the precious hair-jewel of the pretty young woman in front of Snefru, his son Souphis-Chembes (future Pharaoh Khufu, Kheops in Greek), and the twenty pretty girls, among other witnesses !
This apparently anecdotal event impressed a lot the future Pharaoh Kheops, who changed wholly the hierarchy of Gods when he came to power : he made Râ, God of the Sun with a head of Falcon, the supreme God of the Egyptian pantheon, and then sidelined the previously dominant clergy of Ptah in Memphis. Hence, he encouraged the quick development of Râ's clergy by writing the "Holy Books" (according to Manetho, IVth century - IIIrd century BC). And it became the dominant one radiating from Heliopolis about it, till...nowadays for ancient Egypt !
Râ is noticeably associated with the personal protection of Pharaohs. His efficiency has always been recalled through the persistent enigma of the curse of Pharaohs ! This curse has become particularly famous, after the spectacular discovery of Tutankhamun's magnificent tumb by Howard Carter (1874 - 1939) and Lord George Herbert Carnavon (1866 - 1923) in 1922. Tutankhamun was an enigmatic Pharaoh of the end of the XVIIIth dynasty (c. 1345 - c. 1327 BC), who died around 18 in very unclear circumstances. Anecdotally, his dagger which was recovered with his rich treasure was made of a strange unknown alloy on Earth !
Nowadays, cartesians and debunkers are easily negating this curse, which was precisely the following : "Death will fall with its wings on whoever disturbs Pharaoh's rest !" This heavy sentence was found on a tablet disposed beside Pharaoh Tutankhamun, as a warning of God Râ ! And in spite of the long sequence of suprising and fateful deaths which happened after the opening of Tutankhamun's tumb as far as London or anywhere else, their logic has been to treat them as mere coincidences. And when Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859 - 1930), was attributed the origin of the "legend" of the malediction of Pharaohs, a lot of people were quoting he was just a famous novelist ("Sherlock Holmes"...). But they had forgotten his original job was to be a Doctor in medicine ! And as a Doctor, he just wanted to point out strange and common anomalies in the numerous and successive deaths registered : all of them affected invariably the respiratory system !
To conclude, the God Râ is straightly associated with the possibility of life on Earth, as the Sun is in itself the source of every life. And the teachings of Râ are recalling human beings their fragility in front of him. The Sun has always been stronger than human creatures to allow life on Earth, plants included. And whatever their technology or bad use of modernity could be, Râ (meaning directly "the Sun" in old Egyptian) is remaining so ! If entire civilisations were disappearing over suddenly due to the imminent IIIrd World War, or in terrible civil wars - because of an unwise stubborness as well as a worrysome and encouraged community spirit -, the Sun otherly called Râ would remain in the Sky with his power unchanged !
Coming back to the curse of Pharaohs, observers noticed that Howard Carter, the co-discoverer of Tutankhmun's tumb (KV62) with Lord Carnavon, didn't die from lungs sudden illness about him. At the difference of so many people connected to their discovery in the Valley of Kings, he survived without any problem. And to them, it's an evidence the malediction of Pharaohs is a complete invention. Of course, they are forgetting he did something special when he discovered Tutankhamun's mummy : he took out his ring and put it on one of his finger... and kept it this way. This ring which happened to be protective was called "the ring of Râ" !
A lot of sensational pictures of Hollywood have been made about Pharaohs and their mummies. In the ancient Egyptian beliefs, those Pharaohs under this form...are not really dead. If they survive in the Amenti (Occident), they can surprisingly come back to life under unusual circumstances involving an ancestral religious process. But another thing is sure, they don't like to be touched by impure hands : for example, at the unwrapping of the shroud surrounding the mummy of another famous Pharaoh, Ramses II (1304 - 1213 BC), one of his arm suddenly rose by hitting the face of the unwelcome ! Scientists explained the mystery with a trick involving a ray of the Sun provoking a sudden reflex movement : it wasn't stupid knowing the Sun was justly called Râ by ancient Egyptians !
