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

front, would contemplate the great Osiris, as well when he descended into the darkness of the tomb as when he arose triumphant. The same might be said of the full moon of the equinoxes, when it takes place in this parallel. It would seem that the Egyptians, always grand in their conceptions, had executed a project (the boldest that was ever imagined) of giving a pedestal to the sun and moon, or to Osiris and Isis. The tomb of Osiris was covered with shade nearly six months, after which light surrounded it entirely at mid-day, as soon as he, returning from hades (Tuat, the Egyptian underworld),! regained his empire in passing into the luminous atmosphere. Then he had returned to Isis, and to the god of spring, who had at length conquered the genius of darkness and of winter.”

The other writer quoted is a Mr. Fellows, author of The Mysteries of Freemasonry, one of those, referred to elsewhere, who regarded the Great Pyramid solely as a Temple of Mystery, giving it a solar-worship origin, but at the same time having reference to certain astronomical conceptions as well as to solar myths. Like the writer quoted above, he regarded the pyramid as “a pedestal to the sun and moon, or to Osiris and Isis, at mid-day for the one, and at midnight for the other, when they arrived at that part of the heavens near to which passes the line which separates the northern from the southern hemisphere, the empire of good from that of evil. They wished that the shade should disappear from all the faces of the pyramid at mid-day, during the whole time that the sun sojourned in the luminous atmosphere, and that the northern face should be again covered with shade when Osiris (the sun) descended into the tomb, or hell. The

1 Tuat was the name given to a district or region, neither in heaven, nor upon earth, where the dead dwelt, and through which the sun was supposed to pass during the night.

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