THE PYRAMIDS of the COLD • Chapter 28 The four shining Sons of Horus skate blades

In summary: if there is something absolutely certain about ancient Egyptians, it is that they would have never, under no circumstance what so ever, reproduced, described and worshipped any of their technological achievements just the way they were in real life, and without any elaborate disguise, metaphor or scheme.

Since the beginning of the study, I’ve always tried to imagine what the skate blades would have looked like; and when I look back to previous diagrams I’ve made since 2021, I did one of the most idiot foolish mistake you can do when studying ancient Egyptian art and religion: consider things literally, simply the way they are appearing in paintings, reliefs, figures and other artifacts.

Here, I thought that the skate runners (whether they would have been installed  on ‘utility sleds’ used to move blocks, equipments or personnel; or they would have been set underneath the impactor of the Great Pyramid, or on any other equivalent equipment used in different times and different places), would have been shaped in accordance with the so many sleds Egyptians have built or drawn. But I think it’s a fake: sleds only are decoys. They would have never been used as they are on any kind of real sleds. Their only goal was to describe the function of the sleds, not the way they were designed.

What I’m thinking is that just like it is today in our own civilization, ancient Egyptians loved winter sports. Of course they knew about snow; it is snowing today probably every year in the Sinai mountains, and it was snowing even more 4,500 years ago when it was much colder; so what I suspect is that they’ve used the way they were using sleds during winter time as a metaphorical tool when they wanted to glorify the way they were using sleds in the desert for the construction of buildings, the operation of impactors and probably for the hauling Beetles as well.

When you look at the above ice skates from the 1950s, this is isn’t the blades which have the characteristic shape of a sled runner, but their protecting covers. So, what really are these characteristic sled runners as shown on the above photograph of the Outer coffin of the ancient Egyptian artisan Sennedjem? Well, maybe we’ll never know exactly what it really is: they could be about ‘winter skis or runners’ used on sleds, or they could be about the protecting covers of the real skate runners.

In this chapter, we’ll see that the real design of the impactor’s skate blades was probably very close to modern ice skate blades; and that just like suspected in previous chapter “Anubis and the Opening of the Mouth”, these blades were indeed made of metal. We’ll also see that these metal skate blades have been glorified into the ‘shining’ Four Sons of Horus; and if in some versions of the killing of Apep it is them, the shining Four Sons of Horus who are cutting the Great Snake of the Underworld Apep into multiple pieces, it is precisely because the Sons of Horus really were blades.

[Illustration] 1950s ice skates at https://www.ebay.com/itm/285144972414

Operating diagram of the Grand Gallery of the Great Pyramid of Khufu, with the Hathor hauling plug and the full extension of the central wooden Djed caisson inside the inclined well: the hollow guide rails were continuously running from the top of the Grand Gallery to the inside of the inclined well for the impactor to be able to move efficiently into both parts of the caisson: its aerial part in the Gallery, and its flooded part in the well.

28.01  First of all: everybody knows the Four Sons of Horus, but they were also called the Four Sons of Osiris

The Egyptian god Horus, sometimes seen by egyptologists themselves as a composite deity associating him with Ra to create Ra-Horakhty, was one of the many glorifications of the impactor and one way of looking at the impactor’s structure was as a representation of the Sun: the impactor was endlessly moving up and down the Gallery, disappearing into the waters of the well at the end of every cycle, just like the Sun disappearing into the waters of the Nile, or the waters of the sea.

• First, it was Horus that was decrypted: the composite impactor (the association of the Osiris weight with its vessel: Ra’s solar boat)

• Then, it was the Eye of Horus and the Eye of Ra that were decrypted: because there was two hauling ropes to operate the impactor, there had to be two bollards onto the impactor for the eyes of the ropes to connect with. The eye metaphor is when the eyes of the ropes reconnect with the bollards: it would appear like the eyes would be reassembled (the pupil with the iris)

• Then it was the real meaning of Horus the elder that had been decrypted: the elder metaphor is about the way the impactor was slowly and painstakingly hauled and lifted back to the top of the Gallery

• Then Horus the child had also been decrypted: the metaphor is about the release of the impactor and childbirth

• Now, it is the Four Sons of Horus, also called the Four Sons of Osiris, who are gonna be deciphered

“Texts from later periods continue to invoke the sons of Horus for protection in the afterlife as the Pyramid Texts do. In many texts they were said to protect Osiris, the funerary deity whose mythological death and resurrection served as the template for ancient Egyptian funerary practices. Some texts even refer to them as the sons of Osiris rather than Horus.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_sons_of_Horus

“Horus gradually took on the nature as both the son of Osiris and Osiris himself. He was referred to as Golden Horus Osiris. In the temple of Denderah he is given the full royal titulary of both that of Horus and Osiris. He was sometimes believed to be both the father of himself as well as his own son, and some later accounts have Osiris being brought back to life by Isis.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horus

Original photograph of the Grand Gallery of the Great Pyramid of Egypt at Giza, showing the central gutter where was set the central wooden Djed caisson and the two lateral ramps where the 6 crewmembers of the hauling Beetle were getting the impactor out of the inclined well and back up to the top of the Gallery, from page 52 of "The call of the stars; a popular introduction to a knowledge of the starry skies with their romance and legend" (1919) by Kippax, John R. (John Robert), 1849-1922: https://www.flickr.com/photos/internetarchivebookimages/14597229618/

28.02  The deceased pharaoh identified himself with Osiris: he wanted to reenact the operation of the impactor of the Great Pyramid, and by doing so proving its power, influence, greatness and determination to survive in the afterlife

The following excerpt may be one of the most important of all, because it is finally the whole point of the religion that is described, with the deceased pharaoh identifying himself with Osiris, the weight of the impactor of the Great Pyramid. What it means is that in order to be immortal, the “test” was actually to be able to “reenact”, metaphorically, the operation of the Great Pyramid, or at least the operation of the impactor in the Grand Gallery.

It could be seen as the will of demonstrating the capability of the deceased pharaoh to keep the Great Pyramid functioning by his own personnel power and greatness, I guess.

“The relation of Horus himself to his children is highlighted in PT utterance 690, which says that Horus has come to the deceased king “provided with his [Horus’] souls, namely Hapy, Duamutef, Imsety, and Kebehsenuf.” The ‘children’ of Horus thus seem thus more like emanations of Horus himself. In PT utterance 670, the king is said to have been raised up by the four Gods, who are characterized as the king’s “children’s children,” apparently on account of the king being identified with Osiris and the four Gods as children of his child Horus.” https://henadology.wordpress.com/theology/netjeru/horus-sons-of/

Operating diagram of the Great Pyramid of Khufu for flash-evaporative cold production. Most of the ancient Egyptian gods and goddesses are nothing other than the metaphoric glorifications of how this Great Pyramid was operated. The other Egyptian deities are other glorifications, of much more basic ideas or tools, like Thoth and Seshat who are the glorification of the reed pen and ink, and Atum who is the glorification of the evaporative process itself.

Funerary figure of the Four "Shining" Sons of Horus: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/551149

28.03  The Four Sons of Horus were associated with Isis and Horus the elder: two deities who glorify the hauling process and focus on the need to help the impactor to be slowly and painstakingly lifted up

The main reason of having created the Four Sons of Horus as a glorification of the four skate blades of the impactor, when there is already Anubis (running North) and Wepwawet (running South) as glorifications of the same skates, is that when these two jackal gods reflect the idea of running associated with the skates (they are skate runners indeed), the Four Sons of Horus reflect another idea: the fact that when the impactor Horus was painstakingly lifted up to the top of the Gallery (that is Horus the elder), Egyptians used this part of the operation to introduce the best help you can get as an elderly: your own sons. So this time, the skate blades have become the Four Sons of Horus, who would place themselves underneath Horus, and lift him up.

So, when Anubis and Wepwawet are about the skate runners, the Four Sons of Horus are about the fact Horus the elder looked just like any elderly.

“Imsety (jmstj), Hapy (ḥpy), Duamutef (dwꜣ-mwt.f), and Qebehsenuef (qbḥ-snw.f) are first mentioned in the Pyramid Texts, the earliest ancient Egyptian funerary texts, in the late Old Kingdom (24th and 23rd centuries BC). In numerous sources, such as Spell 541 of the Pyramid Texts, they are stated to be the children of Horus, one of the major deities of the Egyptian pantheon. In a few of these texts they are instead called the children of the god Atum, the god Geb, or the goddess Nut. A passage in the Coffin Texts from the Middle Kingdom (c. 2055–1650 BC) says they are the offspring of the goddess Isis and a form of Horus known as Horus the Elder.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_sons_of_Horus

"A Complete Set of Canopic Jars" at the Walters Art Museum", 900-800 BCE (Third Intermediate Period), limestone with paint. "This set of canopic jars was made to contain the internal organs removed from the body during the mummification process. The four sons of the god Horus were believed to protect these organs. The jackal-headed Duamutef protected the stomach; the falcon-headed Qebehsenuef, the intestines; the baboon-headed Hapi, the lungs; and human-headed Imsety, the liver."  https://art.thewalters.org/detail/77403/a-complete-set-of-canopic-jars/

28.04  The Four Sons of Horus were known as ‘the Shining Ones’ because they were about skate blades; consequently, they were the Ones invoked when it was time to cut the organs out of the body during mummification: they were indeed the blades

In this chapter, we’ll understand what really were the Four Sons of Horus really about. We’ve already seen what Horus himself was about: the composite impactor of the Great Pyramid, i.e. the association of the wooden vessel Ra (hence the famous ‘barque of Ra’) with the Osiris weight which gave all its speed and energy to Ra. But until today, I only circled around the comprehension of the Four Sons of Horus. Who really were these guys? Well, we’ll see that if they were associated with the organs that have been cut out of the body of the deceased during the mummification process, it only is because they actually were the Ones to cut them out.

And this is one of the most incorrect interpretations made by academic egyptologists. No, the Four Sons of Horus weren’t supposed to ‘protect’ the organs of the deceased after his body has been through the mummification process: because the Four Sons of Horus are the glorification of the skate blades of the impactor of the Great Pyramid, they were the Ones invoked by the embalmer, when it was time to cut the organs out. Of course, because they were about blades, they’ve been called ‘the Shining Ones’. And, as so well illustrated on the above image of ice hockey blades, don’t try to put your finger underneath: they’ll be cut off! In short: metaphorically, each Son of Horus was responsible for making the cut.

“The four sons of Horus were a group of four deities in ancient Egyptian religion who were believed to protect deceased people in the afterlife. Beginning in the First Intermediate Period of Egyptian history (c. 2181–2055 BC), Imsety, Hapy, Duamutef, and Qebehsenuef were especially connected with the four canopic jars that housed the internal organs that were removed from the body of the deceased during the process of mummification. Most commonly, Imsety protected the liver, Hapy the lungs, Duamutef the stomach, and Qebehsenuef the intestines, but this pattern often varied.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_sons_of_Horus

29.05  There is no mummification of the selected organs if you don’t cut them out of the body first: the Four Sons of Horus really are about protecting the organs after all!

So, I’ve just said that the Four Sons of Horus weren’t the protector of the organs, but the Ones invoked when it was time for the embalmer to cut them out of the body. But when you think about it, I’m also wrong saying that!

Why? Because it precisely is because you cut the organs out that allows you to mummify them; and if you mummify these organs, then you save them and you make them immortals. In short: the Four Sons of Horus really were about protecting the organs!

Operating diagram of the Grand Gallery of the Great Pyramid of Khufu, explaining why Horus was equated with Osiris by ancient Egyptians themselves, and why Isis saved them both at the same time. Addition of the Four Sons of Horus skate blades and the hauling plug Hathor. "Elsewhere the children of Horus are said to carry or raise up the deceased: “Horus has given you his children that they may go beneath you and none of them will turn back when they carry you” (utterance 368)”: https ://henadology.wordpress.com/theology/netjeru/horus-sons-of/

28.06  When the Four Sons of Horus were “attached” to Horus and when they were placed “underneath” the deceased and when they “carried and raised” him from water

The difficult part in deciphering ancient Egyptian deities, is that there is not one and just one deity for every particular element of the operation of the Pyramid. What Egyptians did is very different: they loved to represent over and over the same single element in many different ways, depending on different aspects of this element: its nature, its function, its appearance, etc.

We’ve already seen that the impactor had been glorified many times in this part of the operating cycle where it is moving at full speed down the Grand Gallery and the central wooden Djed caisson: the composite impactor had become a falcon (glorifying the speed), a bull (glorifying the power and strength), a ram (glorifying the ramming capability), a crocodile (glorifying the way it was sliding into water) and the invisible deity Medjed “the Smiter”.

We’ve seen recently that the impactor had also been glorified in the other part of its operating cycle, when it was painstakingly hauled back up to the top of the Gallery, just like the impactor was an elderly, helped by the hauling Beetle and its six crewmembers. And that is Horus the elder. The ‘ascending from water’ Horus the elder.

Now that we have the correct interpretation of Horus the elder, the following excerpt will point us to the right direction for the deciphering of the Four Sons of Horus:

• the Four Sons of Horus were linked with large amount of water (the “drowned” reference)

• the Four Sons of Horus were supposed to “carry and raise” the deceased

• the Four Sons of Horus were supposed to somehow get “beneath” the deceased

• the Four Sons of Horus weren’t supposed to change direction (“none of them will turn back”) when carrying

• Horus and the Four Sons of Horus were “attached” together

• Hapy, one of the Four Sons of Horus was involved into the idea of splitting open a mouth (the same metaphor of Anubis we’ve already seen in previous Section 52: it is actually about Hapy himself cutting something)

 “The association of the Sons of Horus with specific bodily organs is the final stage in a process of development in the earlier stages of which these Gods assisted the deceased in ways less rigidly determined. PT utterance 33 says that “Horus has caused the children of Horus to muster for you [the king] at the place where you drowned,” drowning being a general symbol for death in the manner of Osiris. Elsewhere the children of Horus are said to carry or raise up the deceased: “Horus has given you his children that they may go beneath you and none of them will turn back when they carry you” (utterance 368); in utterance 688, the children of Horus prepare a ladder upon which the king is to climb to the sky. It is said that “Horus has attached himself to his children,” and the deceased is urged to “join yourself with those of his [Horus’] body, for they have loved you” (utterance 370). In PT utterance 506, the deceased identifies himself with each of the four children of Horus successively. The children of Horus share with Shu and Tefnut the function for the deceased of preventing hunger and thirst in PT utterance 338 (the four Gods “reap” on behalf of the deceased, who speaks of them as his/her “surviving children” in CT spell 751).”  “In CT spell 158 (BD spell 113), Horus says “I have placed Duamutef and Kebehsenuf with me so that I may watch over them, for they are a contentious company,” “it is indicated in spell 158 that Seth will “complain” over the fact that Duamutef and Kebehsenuf are “with” Horus “ “Hapy, who is asked by Horus to split open the mouth of his father Osiris, that is, to perform the ritual of Opening the Mouth, a ritual more typically associated with Anubis, which permits the deceased to breathe—this being appropriate for Hapy, who secures the jar holding the lungs.” https ://henadology.wordpress.com/theology/netjeru/horus-sons-of/

Coffin of Sennedjem, Egyptian Museum, Cairo, by danderson4: https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/coffin-of-sennedjem-egyptian-museum-cairo-a3711d3a50b84755acee9a34d68ac835

28.07  The lifting reenact hypothesis

Maybe, or probably the idea was to insert a transversal beam that would have allowed to move the coffin, by using technical pieces witch would have had a design as close as possible as the original skate blades, both by their position onto the coffin and their shape.

28.08  The Four Sons of Horus and the rungs of a ladder metaphor

So far, this is what we’ve already seen:

• The Four Sons of Horus were also called the Four Sons of Osiris

• The Four Sons of Horus were to be placed “underneath”, “carry and raise”

But here, this is something new: we have the ladder metaphor! Because what better way of describing the very painstakingly process of hauling and raising up the impactor step by step, latch bolt after latch bolt, than comparing it to ascending a ladder, rung after rung?

“In the Pyramid Texts, the sons of Horus are said to assist the deceased king in the afterlife. In Spell 688, for example, they "make firm a ladder" for the king to ascend into the sky”  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_sons_of_Horus

Illustration of a Manhole Ladder System: https://www.sulagon.co.il/

“The Shining Ones - The 4 Sons of Horus”, Norfolk Museums Service: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjigvuEbEAM

28.09  The Four Sons of Horus were known as ‘the Shining Ones’ because they were about the skate blades… and they could have been made from a meteorite

Unfortunately, there isn’t much literature about the fact the Four Sons of Horus were called “the Shining Ones”, even if they are very often associated with stars. We’ll see later in this Section, that the link between the skate blades and the stars, may be very real: it is possible that they’ve been made from a meteorite, just like the multiple artifacts made of iron found in the tomb of king Tutankhamun.

Extract from the Norfolk Museums Service video transcript: “Horus and Isis made a lily flower grow out of the water, and, when it bloomed, inside were four gods. Human-headed Imseti, the kindly one. Jackal-headed Duamutef, he who adores his mother. Baboon headed Hapi, the oarsman, and, falcon-headed Qebehsenuef, he who refreshes his brothers. They are known as the shining ones, and you can see them shining in the night sky near the pole star.”  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjigvuEbEAM

“There are a great many things that are designed to be held by the handle but your new knife is not one of them. Holding a knife partially by the blade gives you more control, making it safer to use. First things first, find the  balance point of your blade. Pinch the blade between your index finger and thumb, just below the spine near the handle. Find the point on the blade where the tip doesn’t teeter forward and the handle doesn’t totter backwards. Easy, right? There you have it. Balance point located!” https://knifewear.com/blogs/articles/knife-skills-how-to-use-your-japanese-kitchen-knife-like-a-pro

28.10  Tutankhamun's meteoric iron dagger may indicates that not only the skate blades were made of metal, but that they could also have been crafted from meteoric iron

Probably, if this hypothesis of skate blades made of metal is right, copper wouldn’t be an efficient option for its low resistance capabilities; but it is well known that ancient Egyptians also used iron. Obviously, egyptologists are very reluctant to grant ancient Egyptians the necessary knowledge associated with the mastering of the production of tools or weapons made of iron, but remember that this idea comes from the same guys who think the Disc of Sabu was an oil lamp, or a decorative object to put on some table, or some tool used to mix grain in the brewing process.

Well, turns out that as a former winemaker, I also worked in some artisan breweries both in France and Canada; and believe me or not, egyptologists can really keep their mixing grain tool for themselves, because I would be totally incapable of finding a purpose for that “disc”. (See Section 34 on the Disc of Sabu and the Solvay process for natron manufacturing).

But I got it! You guys really want to see ancient Egyptians as if they were simply not very clever African and colored people from the past. You guys are still as haughty and snooty as were the very first egyptologists that you even believe the famous meteoric iron dagger of Tutankhamun wasn’t crafted by Egyptian themselves, but that it was a gift from a foreign country.

“Nineteen iron objects were discovered in the tomb of Tutankhamun, including a set of blades which appear very similar to those used in the Egyptian opening of the mouth ceremony (a ritual performed for the benefit of the deceased to enable an afterlife). These blades are also intricately linked to iron and stars, being described in temple inventories as composed of iron and were themselves frequently referred to as the stars.”

 […] “This suggests that the dagger was probably imported to Egypt perhaps as a royal gift from a neighboring territory (letter EA22 of the Amarna letters describes an iron blade gifted to Egypt by a Mitanni king) indicating that at this time Egypt's knowledge and skills of iron production were relatively limited.”

 “Tutankhamun's meteoric iron dagger, also known as Tutankhamun's iron dagger and King Tut's dagger, is an iron-bladed dagger from the tomb of the ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun (reigned c. 1334–1325 BC). As the blade composition and homogeneity closely correlate with meteorite composition and homogeneity, the material for the blade is determined to have originated by way of a meteoritic landing. The dagger is currently displayed at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tutankhamun%27s_meteoric_iron_dagger

Illustration: "The meteoritic origin of Tutankhamun's iron dagger blade". Meteoritics & Planetary Science. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tutankhamun%27s_meteoric_iron_dagger#/media/File:Tutankhamun's_meteoric_iron_dagger.png

“Overthrowing of Apep by the Great Cat Mau, a form of Sun god Ra” in the Theban Tomb TT359, located in Deir el-Medina, part of the Theban Necropolis. It is the burial place of the ancient Egyptian workman Inherkhau, who was Foreman of the Lord of the Two Lands in the Place of Truth during the reigns of Ramesses III and Ramesses IV (Wikipedia). Image thanks to kairoinfo4u: https://www.flickr.com/photos/manna4u/18578810231/in/photostream/

28.11  Most of the time this is the Great Cat Mau who is killing Apep with a blade…

The 4 Sons of Horus “The Shining Ones”, Norfolk Museums Service: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjigvuEbEAM

28.12  But in some occasions it is the Four Sons of Horus themselves who are killing Apep (and they don't need no blades, because they are the blades)

And of course, if they were it is only because as the glorification of skate blades, they were invoked probably in every single occasion where a blade was required. In short, just like the Great Master Digger Anubis was invoked before digging graves, the Four Sons of Horus were invoked before making important cuts by using blades. Here, they are the blades really cutting Apep (Apophis) into little pieces.

Extract from the Norfolk Museums Service video transcript: “But, how can the shining ones stop the evil snake Apophis from destroying Ankh Hor on his journey? Apophis is really dangerous! Yes, you're quite right. He is very dangerous. So, when Apophis attacks, the shining ones take a net at the four corners, the North, the South, the East and the West, and they bind him down with the strong net so he cannot move and then they cut him up into little pieces” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjigvuEbEAM

Operating diagram of the Grand Gallery of the Great Pyramid, showing that the central wooden Djed caisson perfectly extended right inside the inclined well to provide a continuous hollow guide rail system.

Look how the trunk is getting into the coils of the snake: the tree is "sinking" into the waters that really is the snake.

28.13  A better understanding of this extraordinary scene: the central wooden Djed caisson wasn’t simply “extending the well”… because it literally was getting inside the well as well

We’ve seen many times now the crucial importance of the central wooden Djed caisson for the production of pressurized air, but of course, the floor of the caisson was also crucial for the operation of the impactor: it is that caisson’s floor where were set the hollow guide rails for the skate runners of the impactor. But until today, I didn’t really thought of what happened precisely for the operation of these blades once the impactor got into the well. And the solution is obvious: the rails of the caisson had to perfectly extend inside the well. In short, the rails had to be continuous in both parts: they had to, at least partially, extend into the inclined well.

But what is fascinating with the above painting of Mau killing Apep, is that not only it is representing the fact that the tree of life, by putting all its weight onto the snake, is actually shown pressurizing the waters of the well, but it is also indicating that the caisson (the Tree of Life, literally), was getting inside the well. If the only goal of the Tree was to put all its weight onto the snake to represent pressurization of the waters of the well, the snake wouldn’t have to be coiled the way it is. The snake should have been flat onto the ground.

But it is not. Look at the Tree, and how it literally goes inside the coils of the snake. What the artist wanted to represent here is simply the fact that the central wooden caisson (the Tree of Life) was literally getting inside the waters of the well.

“Outer coffin of the ancient Egyptian artisan Sennedjem, who lived in Deir el-Medina (in Egyptian, Set Maat or “Place of Truth”) during the reigns of Ramses II and his father, Seti I. He was part of an elite group of skilled craftspeople and artists who lived in this walled village on the west bank of the Nile at Thebes and worked primarily in the tombs in the nearby Valley of the Kings. Sennedjem held the title of “servant in the Place of Truth,” indicating that he was one of a team responsible for constructing and decorating the royal tombs. Sennedjem’s own tomb was on a hill overlooking the workers’ settlement.” Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco © Sandro Vannini/Laboratoriorosso: https://www.famsf.org/stories/sennedjem-and-egyptians-who-built-royal-tombs

"Alabaster Canopic Chest of Tutankhamun": http://www.globalegyptianmuseum.org/detail.aspx?id=15099

28.14  The Sons of Horus were acting as "supports", placed at "the four corners" and were indeed associated with sleds

Until now, we’ve learnt that the Four Sons of Horus were also called the Four Sons of Osiris, that they were shining, that they were supposed to get “underneath” and “raise and lift” the deceased; now we will learn that the Four Sons of Horus were also supposed to be on the four corners of sarcophagi and that they acted as "supports".

In short, when it was time for the deceased to ascend to eternal life, he invoked the four skate blades that had been used in the Great Pyramid, hoping for his trip to be as successful as the trip made by the impactor of the Pyramid.

“Maarten J. Raven, argues that the primary purpose of the sons of Horus was to act as “the four corners” of the universe and the four supports of heaven, and only secondarily with the protection of the body’s integrity. The association of the Sons of Horus with the earth’s cardinal directions is explicit in one scene where, represented “as birds flying out to the four corners of the cosmos”. The Four Sons of Horus, by Stephen O. Smoot, John Gee Kerry, Muhlestein John, S. Thompson: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5296&context=byusq

“In many instances the [Four Sons of Horus] gods are linked with the four cardinal points, including on sarcophagi where they appear from the Middle Kingdom on, on or near the four corners. Representations of the gods, often made of faience, were sometimes placed between the mummy wrappings.” https://www.globalegyptianmuseum.org/glossary.aspx?id=358

"An alabaster chest with four cavities to hold the internal organs. Each is cavity is covered by a stopper carved with a portrait of Tutankhamun". Egyptian Museum, Cairo. Photograph by Jon Bodsworth: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canopic_chest#/media/File:Cano_ja_49_tut.jpg

Tomb of Ay, WV23, above the entry of the annexe are the four sons of Horus, represented with human heads seated in pairs facing each other around a table of offerings. Kairoinfo4u: https://www.flickr.com/photos/manna4u/13044427033

28.15  Of course, the Four Sons of Horus, just like Anubis were as well projecting massive projections of water droplets behind their path: they were the blades

We’ve just seen in previous chapter that Anubis was the glorification of the skate runners when descending the Grand Gallery (moving towards North). So, of course the question is why would the ancient Egyptians constructed these Four Sons of Horus deities if Anubis and Wepwawet were already the glorification of the skate blades?

And this is exactly the same answer as why Egyptians constructed so many deities for the two central ropes (ascending and hauling Isis, descending Nephthys, winding and unwinding Seshat, fishing Hatmehit, and probably more that I didn’t understood yet), or the ramming impactor (falcon Horus, the Apis Bull, the rams, crocodile Sobek, and probably more that I didn’t understood yet). The main reason of having used the jackal for the glorification of the skate blades was because Egyptians wanted to emphasize the running capabilities of the jackal: the speed and the fact that jackals were running on very long distances.

But the Four Sons of Horus are very different: their role is different. The Four Sons of Horus are not about the fact they were “running”, but “cutting”, because they would have looked like real blades. In some ways, Anubis and Wepwawet also glorify the four blades: it is their fours parallel paws perfectly set flat onto the ground; but the Four Sons of Horus emphasize even more the fact there was four skate blades underneath the impactor, and that they were all shining because they were made of metal.

And of course, just like Anubis (the running skate blades descending the central wooden Djed caisson), the Four Sons of Horus also projected water plumes behind their path because they were the blades as well). Remember: the "flail" is the water plumes.

Anubis photograph thanks to kairoinfo4u: https://www.flickr.com/photos/manna4u/33781706141/in/photostream/

Parts of a flail discovered in a tomb in Menphis, perfectly depicting the Dendera Light-like shapes. Ironically, the Louvre is describing that shape as "a pearl in form of a drop”: https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010005690

Anubis, supervisor of the mummification process. Underneath the lion bed are the four canopic vases, for the organs that were mummified separately. Photograph by André: https://www.flickr.com/photos/andrevanbortel/3643941456

28.16  Running Anubis and the Four Cutting Sons of Horus are about the same thing: running blades

The two major aspects of the skate blades of the impactor are represented here in the same scene:

• Anubis, the jackal god being a metaphoric illustration of the “running like a jackal” blades

• The Four Sons of Horus, placed underneath, with their heads cut off and the organs inside the jars cut off as well because the Sons of Horus are also about the blades: "cutting blades"

Jackal Anubis onto the sliding cover of the famous Anubis shrine found in the tomb of Tutankhamun KV62. Photograph by Aidan McRae Thomson, at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo: https://www.flickr.com/photos/amthomson/26885812817/

28.17  The perfect metaphor of the skate blades’ operation: the sliding cover

So, of course the Anubis box on the left is 100% contemporary, but this lovely modern item is nevertheless the perfect demonstration of what really were Anubis and the Four Sons of Horus all together.

We’ve already seen in previous Section 52, Anubis represented on a sliding cover at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo (black Anubis, above image), but this lovely box with the Four Sons of Horus underneath “sliding” Anubis is not only very cute, it also is perfectly accurate.

Of course, it will be interesting to know if this box is a complete legitimate copy of an original artifact from ancient Egypt, or if it only is a new interpretation. But if it is a complete new interpretation, the artisan who crafted that box, didn’t invent anything that isn’t described in paintings anyway. In both cases, antique or not antique, this box is completely legitimate, because there isn’t anything that is not “sourced”.

Anubis coffin dog jackal, Box real stone with set Canopic jars Sons of Horus Unique Hieroglyphs Real Sculpture stone heavy with natural color made in Egypt: https://www.amazon.com/Anubis-Canopic-Hieroglyphs-Sculpture-natural/dp/B0B5VNGTN1

Funerary figure of Duamutef, at the MET: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/551149

28.18  Often, when you look at what Egyptians have made, you need to think playful! Now, do you see the slide control knob on the above figure of Duamutef? Do you see the guide rail and the Grand Gallery itself, where the Four Sons of Horus were running and sliding all day long?

One of the most important aspects of the work done by ancient Egyptians about the way they’ve built such a wonderful piece of Art that was their “religion”, is the playful manner that is perfectly illustrated here with the famous wooden figures of the Four Sons of Horus now at the MET. If you miss this playful aspect of the ancient Egyptians, you will miss a lot of things, probably most of them. With these above wooden figures, you can understand it only if you have this playful aspect in mind, and if you understand that you have to, in some ways, play with the figures; just like you also have to play with the representations of Anubis put onto his sliding cover.

Slide Potentiometer with Plastic Knob: https://www.adafruit.com/product/4272 and https://www.amazon.in/5000-Slide-Potentiometer-Control-Push/dp/B07Y2HY71R

Operating diagram of the Grand Gallery in the Great Pyramid of Khufu for the impactor's operation. The Gallery is the famous "sacred cavern of the act of Hauling of the Underworld with the sloping paths" of the Amduat (Section 21). 

28.19  Operating diagram of the Grand Gallery

Addition of the Eye goddess Hathor hauling Cow counterweight and connecting plug. To this day, the real design of the Hathor hauling plug is still a mystery. Last updated February 25, 2025.

Rudder and Steering: https://www.morganscloud.com/2022/03/11/adventure-40-rudder-and-steering-gear/

28.20  The Son of Horus Hapi and the rudder metaphor: if Hapi was the One “steering a boat” and described as a simple "rudder” it is because as one aspect of the skate blades' operation, he was the One keeping the impactor in a perfectly straight trajectory

I hope at this point you’re convinced of the real meaning of the Sons of Horus, but until now we've only discussed about the four of them all together; what we are gonna see now, is that they've also been used individually to emphasize one particular characteristic at a time of these blades. And we’re gonna start with Hapi, the baboon headed son of Horus.

“Hapi (xapi) the baboon headed son of Horus protected the lungs of the deceased and was in turn protected by the goddess Nephthys. The spelling of his name includes a hieroglyph which is thought to be connected with steering a boat, although its exact nature is not known. For this reason he was sometimes connected with navigation, although early references call him the great runner: “You are the great runner; come, that you may join up my father N and not be far in this your name of Hapi, for you are the greatest of my children – so says Horus”. In Spell 151 of the Book of the Dead Hapi is given the following words to say: “I have come to be your protection. I have bound your head and your limbs for you. I have smitten your enemies beneath you for you, and given you your head, eternally.” Spell 148 in the Book of the Dead directly associates all four of Horus’s sons, described as the four pillars of Shu and one of the four rudders of heaven, with the four cardinal points of the compass. Hapi was associated with the north”. https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/31119

Canopic Jar representing the deity Hapy 664–525 BC (late period), from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New-York https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/543953

Illustration adapted from “Rows of celestial cows and [four] ceremonial rudders, Side Chamber Ba, left (south) wall. Courtesy of Uni Dia Verlag. Uni Dia Image Nr. 36835. QV 66: Queen Nefertari-Merymut, Side chamber Ba, left wall”: https://thebanmappingproject.com/index.php/media/22632

28.21  The Four Rudders of Heaven: the skate blades gave to the impactor all its speed, direction and power

In some ways, Anubis was the mummification god because as the running blade he was doing the first incision that started the embalming process (previous chapter); on the other hand, the Four Sons of Horus were doing the following incisions: the ones who cut the four different organs that had to be saved and protected by the mummification process. But of course, both Anubis and the Four Sons of Horus were the deities invoked because they were the skate blades on which the impactor of the Great Pyramid got all its speed, direction and power.

This "none of them will turn back" direction thing is what the rudder metaphor is all about.

"Elsewhere the children of Horus are said to carry or raise up the deceased: “Horus has given you his children that they may go beneath you and none of them will turn back when they carry you” (utterance 368)” https ://henadology.wordpress.com/theology/netjeru/horus-sons-of/

“Spell 148 in the Book of the Dead directly associates all four of Horus's sons, described as the four pillars of Shu and one of the four rudders of heaven, with the four cardinal points of the compass.” https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/31119

Steering rudder illustration from the Hampshire County Council “Key sailing terms needed to be skipper ready for Cowes Week”: https://www.hants.gov.uk/thingstodo/outdoors-news/cowes-week-2022

28.22  Because the "running like a jackal" Anubis and the Four "cutting blades" Sons of Horus are about the same skate blades of the impactor operated into water, Anubis himself is also showing the “rudder” metaphor... with his tail

I’ve been questioning myself for some time now, about why Anubis was so often represented with such a magnificent tail, such as on the above wooden figure of Anubis at the Fitzwilliam Museum, but I couldn’t find any satisfactory explanation.

But now that we know Anubis and the Four Sons of Horus are actually about the exact same thing, the answer is obvious: the tail of Anubis is about the same “rudder metaphor” we’ve seen with Hapi, the baboon Son of Horus.

Painted wooden figure of Anubis showing his magnificent “rudder tail”, at The Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge, U.K.: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/58773

Operating diagram of the Grand Gallery of the Great Pyramid, showing that the central wooden Djed caisson perfectly extended right inside the inclined well to provide a continuous hollow guide rail system. The rails were regularly supplied with water, hence the metaphor comparing the skate blades with rudders.

28.23  The rudder metaphor about the skate blades running inside the hollow rails

In the following excerpts, there are a lot of references that can be deciphered only if you’ve understood what the baboon headed son of Horus Hapi was all about. Probably Hapi is the most important one of the Four Sons of Horus, in particular when it is said: "The spelling of his name includes a hieroglyph which is thought to be connected with steering a boat, although its exact nature is not known."

Of course, everything here is about the fact that the skate blades of the impactor were operated inside guide rails were water was regularly running into, so the rails would be wet all the time. In short: just like the rudders on a boat, the skate blades maintained the impactor in a perfect trajectory all along its path within the central wooden Djed caisson of the Gallery. What we know so far is:

• the skates blades were operated inside U-shape hollow guide rails (Section 50 and 52)

• water was running though these guide rails (from the sarcophagus biosand filter)

Once you keep these two critical points, you can understand all the metaphors about Hapi:

• the fact he was associated with steering a boat and described as a rudder

• the fact he was called “the great runner”

• the fact he was smiting enemies beneath him

28.24  The four skate blades were: running as long as the jackal, at the speed of the falcon, shining like a mirror and keeping the trajectory straight like it was a rudder

The Four Sons of Horus, all together, as a team, has been glorified mostly for the “cutting” metaphor of the skate blades, but what is even more interesting, is that everyone of them has also been used individually to emphasize other aspects of the operation of the blades inside the wet hollow rails of the central wooden caisson:

• The "running" jackal headed Duamutef: we’ve already seen with Anubis that the jackal had been used because of the way the animal is running on very long distances into the desert; and this is for the same reason that one of the Sons of Horus is also represented with the head of a jackal. In short, the jackal is about the running blades.

• The "flying" falcon headed Qebehsenuef.  We can easily understand that if another of the Sons of Horus has the head of a falcon, it is to glorify the extreme speed of the skates when the impactor was “falling” from the top of the Gallery into the entry of the well.

• The "reflecting in a mirror face" human headed Imsety. I’m still not sure about the reason why there is one of the Sons of Horus with a human head, but it is possible that the metaphor that has been used on Imsety is about the reflecting property of the metal blades: Imsety could be about your own very face, reflecting into the blades, just like it was a mirror. Interestingly, if you look at the above image of an ancient Egyptian mirror from the MET collection, you will see the very shape of the skate blades themselves; but there is probably only a fifty fifty chance the remark is legitimate and that this strange shape has nothing to do with the original shape of the skates, who knows?

• The "steering straight" baboon headed Hapi. We've just seen the reason why Hapi was all about "steering a boat" and a "rudder", but it doesn’t explain why Egyptians used the baboon as the animal face of this metaphor. Again: what is the link between the baboon and water...

Mirror with handle in the form of a Hathor emblem at the MET: metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/545165

Operating diagram of the Great Pyramid of Khufu for flash-evaporative cooling of a Solvay-like process for chemical manufacturing of sodium carbonate natron, the salt used by embalmers for the mummification of the pharaohs.

28.25  Operating diagram of the Great Pyramid of Khufu for flash-evaporative cooling of a Solvay-like process

At this point, because of the Dendera Light representations and the salt deposit found in the cooling passage and the Queen’s chamber (Section 1 and Section 2), only the flash evaporative process is certain; the fact that the cooling was made for a Solvay-like process is still hypothetical (see Section 33 about the Red Pyramid).

Just to put the 0.3% slope of the flash-evaporative cooling conduct into perspective and because the only purpose of this ramp was to redirect the liquid water that didn’t evaporate towards the basin of the Queen's chamber: “Since the aqueducts were operated by gravity the course of the channel had to be carefully planned so that it would maintain a steady slope. A steep gradient was avoided, since faster flowing water would erode the channel walls and threaten the stability of the structure, especially at bends. These constraints would have affected possible courses the aqueducts took. Vitruvius gives a figure of 0.5% as an ideal angle of descent, but in practice this varied considerably, the average gradient usually lying between 0.15% and 0.3%, due to the constraints of geography.” From a thesis by Evan J. Dembskey: http://www.romanaqueducts.info/picturedictionary/pd_onderwerpen/surveying.htm

And from another source: “The slope of the aqueducts [in ancient Rome] ranged from 0.07% to 3.00%, with an average slope of 0.20%”: https://engineeringrome.org/the-water-system-of-ancient-rome/

It is not by accident if most of the ancient Egyptian deities didn't exist at the time the Great Pyramid was built at the end of Dynasty 4, and the first myths only appear during Dynasty 5.

28.26  The Four Sons of Horus: no trace of them at the time when the Great Pyramid was in construction

We’ve already seen that there is no existing ancient Egyptian text or myth prior to when the Great Pyramid was built at the end of Dynasty 4. We’ve also seen that the reason was because the Pyramid was the probably the end game of the scientific and technological era concluded by pharaohs. Their temples should be seen as the first university campuses in human history: probably every one of them would be similar to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) or the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Probably every campus was specialized in a very particular aspect of the technology developed by pharaohs; but this is only after the mastering of flash-evaporative cold in the Great Pyramid (and most probably the massive production of  natron) that the research programs stopped.

Only then, pharaohs triggered the second part of the plan: the glorification of what they’ve accomplished, and the writing of all the myths and the creation of thousands of additional gods and goddesses who joined the rare deities that had already been created (like Neith, Anubis, etc.).

Well, the Sons of Horus are part of these new deities, created after the Great Pyramid was built: they only appear in the so-called ‘Pyramid Texts’, beginning with the Fifth Dynasty.

Preface

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Table of contents

Operating diagrams of the Great Pyramid

Timelines

Index