Religion & Spirituality >
Religious Concepts (Other)
Get a Widget for this title
RSS FeedIs the eye of Horus the same thing as the eye of Ra?
Results so far:
| Yes | 36% | 21 votes | Total: 59 votes | |
| No | 64% | 38 votes |
Yes
Write now
Print
Invite a writer™
Add to FavoritesIt is true, that in the Egyptian pantheon there are a variety of Gods and Goddesses. Yet, in ancient times there was often a belief that the distinct Gods were a manifestation of One (e.g., John Anthony West whose book I don't have readily available). This idea is evident in Hebrew Kabbalah where the Godhead is "broken" into 10 characteristics emanating from Ayin / Ein Soph, or Nothing and All respectively. In 19th century India, a similar idea was espoused by Ramakrishna regarding the Hindu deities. For this saint (some would say incarnation of God), all the Goddesses and Gods were manifestations of Brahman. Hence, I would say that Horus and Ra are manifestations of Amen - Ra or Nuit. Regardless of names, all Goddesses and Gods are manifestations and reflections of the Unmanifest and speak to the essence of Her/Him. I would further say that each of us are manifestations of the same unspeakable reality. In quantum physics, this idea is espoused by David Bohm who describes creation as akin to a holograph where everything mirrors and contains everything else (see Talbot's "The Holographic Universe", or my manuscript of "Sophia's Web: Reclaiming our Wholeness in a Divided World").
This idea of one or nothing being all is a common mystical theme. There truly is much wisdom in the Three Musketeers' "Its all for one and one for all!" This idea operates in all of our lives as much as it does in the life of the Gods. Indeed, if you can empty yourself of yourself you will find yourself transcending and becoming all. Or, more concretely, if we look at history, we will find recurring events that reflect a common theme. Since the time of the stone age, we have had an emphasis on empires, wars, Patriarchal thinking, and a worship of overinflated egos, or a sense of a separate "I". In this state, we have neglected our unity and disallowed potential to unfold from within an individual. Instead, we have focused on brow beating the individual into succumbing to the ways of the Empire or society.
There may indeed be no difference between the Roman empire and its fall, the development of feudal societies, the rise and fall of the British Empire, or that of the Nazis, and todays rise and ultimate fall of what is called globalization. These are all one movement eminent in what the Hindus call the "Kali Yuga," or the dark ages. If we were truly in the arms of Enlightenment, we would find ourselves sisters and brothers reflecting each other and, even more so, are at our physical level cells emanations of one living Being created "Male and Female" in His / Her Image (Genesis 1:27). At our deepest level, we embark on the Infinity of our Mother/Father. What is true on Earth is true in Heaven. It is for this reason that I say Ra and Horus are ultimately one. In saying this, I'm also saying that Isis and Nuit (Infinite Space, the Sky) are one and are united to their Husband/Son. It is only our divisive minds that see this otherwise.
Learn more about this author, Burl Hall.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.
No
The Eye of Ra and the Eye of Horus are literally as different as the sun and moon. They pertain to deities with similarities in their iconography and a certain overlap in their roles and attributes, but the eyes in question have very clear and distinct meanings; when capitalized, it is in fact one eye only for each god that is intended.
Horus was the first chief god and royal patron in Egyptian history, both protecting the king and being incarnated in him for several centuries before Ra-Atum, the sun god of Heliopolis, became the focal point of the royal cult. Unsurprisingly for a god typically represented as a falcon, Horus was a sky god. His right eye (the senior and more important one) was the sun, and his left was the moon.
When we speak of the Eye of Horus, however, it is the left eye that we mean. The left eye was injured during one of his battles with Set, and it fell to Thoth to heal the eye. The consequences of these acts are complex in Egyptian thought and magic. Firstly, it explains the waxing and the waning of the moon. The full moon represents the healthy eye, and the partial phases the injured eye; after the New Moon, however, it begins to heal under Thoth's influence, and returns in time to the full state. Secondly, this myth accounts for the fact that the moon is an attribute both of Horus (as his left eye) and of Thoth. Finally and most importantly, the healed left Eye of Horus (or Wedjat) becomes an important symbol of healing, and of the prevention of harm, as a result of one of the most basic traits of Egyptian magic. In Egyptian magic, one of the strongest ways to accomplish one's end is to identify onself (or the person one is intending to help, or both) with one or more of the gods. In the case of the Eye of Horus, one wears an amulet bearing this symbol so as to associate oneself with the great god Horus, in order to prevent harm, or to encourage healing where harm has already taken place. This amulet becomes a favorite in the funerary cult.
Ra, who becomes a kingly god when the Third Dynasty kings first take him as a royal patron, is also a sky god, but his role is fundamentally solar in nature. In the Heliopolitan myth, the sun is identified with the fiery eye of Ra, but this is only one interpretation of the visible phenomenon that is the sun. The same complex of myths, for example, thinks of the sun at dawn as the ball of dung rolled over the hill by the sun god in his form as the celestial beetle, Kheper. Both interpretations exist side by side, and they are not considered to be contradictory. Rather, they are viewed as partial understandings of complicated and sacred reality that is ultimately beyond human comprehension.
The Eye of Ra, when so capitalized, refers to a myth in which Ra removed his eye after his children went out to explore the primordial waters and got lost. He sent his eye, with its fire to illuminate the darkness, separately to look for them. The eye returned with the children in tow, but in the meantime Ra had grown a new eye. The Eye of Ra became jealous of its lost position; it was not merely a body part of the sun god, but also his daughter, variously identified with goddesses like Wadjet, Hathor and Sekhmet. Ra welcomed her back, however, and placed her at his forehead to protect and illuminate. In this case, it is the cobra goddess Wadjet (not to be confused with the entirely different word Wedjat) that is intended. The cobra goddess perched on the forehead of Ra is the model for the Uraeus, or cobra sculpture that adorns the crowns of Egyptian kings.
The Eye of Ra does refer also to the great goddesses Hathor and Sekhmet, respectively the wives of Horus and of Ptah of Memphis. When it is Sekhmet that is identified with the Eye of Ra, it is meant to emphasize the destructive power of the sun's heat, focused against an enemy or even a victim. The sun's fiery gaze can wither instead of giving life, and in an age long before the germ theory, this withering effect seemed to explain some catastrophic diseases. Sekhmet became a goddess of plague, but also of healing and of the prevention of disease. This duality is also evident in Hathor, perhaps the supremely feminine and gracious goddess in Egyptian belief. She is a patroness of healing, the arts, and human love, all things that flourish under the benevolent gaze of the sun. She is theoretically capable, however, of all of the savagery of Sekhmet. According to one myth, Ra decided to punish mankind, and sent his Eye as Hathor in a fearsome guise to accomplish the task. The rampaging cow-goddess became so caught up in her work that she exceeded her mandate, and Ra needed to stop her before she could wipe humanity out completely. In the end, it was a massive pool of beer, colored to look like blood, that distracted her from her task and returned her to her characteristically benevolent role.
The Eye of Horus and the Eye of Ra are therefore profoundly different symbols, founded on initially separate (but ultimately intertwined) myth-cycles and playing different roles in Egyptian magic and ceremony. At the same time, overlapping characteristics point to the flexible and syncretic nature of Egyptian religion, which always found ways to adapt an old idea when adopting a new one. The fact that the Eye of Horus and the Eye of Ra, or for that matter the gods Horus and Ra, existed side by side throughout the remainder of Egyptian history speaks to this truth.
Learn more about this author, Michael Fassbender.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
Difference of opinion? Debate now.
