THE PYRAMIDS of the COLD • Chapter 38 Why did Ra have to merge with Osiris to get to the 'Secret Cavern of the Act of Hauling' for his sun boat to be towed by four gods

Introduction: we've already seen that in order to be operated and powerful at the same time, the impactor of the Great Pyramid had to be composite in its nature, associating a weight that gave all the speed, energy and ramming power to the impactor and a wooden part that was the vessel for the weight. If that Ra has been attributed the ‘role’ of the sun god, it is because of the way the impactor was endlessly moving up and down inside the central wooden Djed caisson: the impactor constantly moved in the caisson, from the waters of the inclined well to the distant upper platform, just like the sun in the sky, every day. We’ve seen that if Ra is pretty much systematically represented with its barque, it only is because a barque is a wooden transportation vessel, and the impactor needed exactly that: a wooden vessel. In short: there is not really a barque of Ra, because Ra himself really is that barque. Ra is the wooden vessel of the composite impactor. But Ra also is the wooden part of the so-called ‘wooden coffin’ in the Osiris myth. Ra isn’t named when it comes to that wooden coffin, but the nevertheless, that wooden coffin is Ra, the wooden vessel. And of course, this vessel is meant for Osiris, as it is clearly claimed.

Not only ancient Egyptians did create many gods or goddesses to glorify the exact same thing, simply seen from different perspectives (like the many names given to the impactor: Ra, Osiris, Horus, Sobek), but they did the same thing when writing myths where these deities were highlighted: the Osiris myth, the Book of the Gates or the Book of the Hidden Chamber (the Amduat) are just that, different ways of telling the same story, the story of what happened inside the Great Pyramid in general, and inside the Grand Gallery in particular.

It's one thing to have decrypted what was really Ra, Osiris, Horus, Taweret, Hathor, Bastet, Sekhmet, Isis, and all the other deities I've the opportunity to reveal in this study, it's beautiful, it's marvelous, it's revolutionary, but the this only is the beginning of what has to be done during the next years, the next decades, and after that as well. The real difficult part starts now, with the deciphering of all these myths of the Underworld. But what is sure is precisely what this Underworld really is: the metaphorical reinterpretation of everything that happened inside the Great Pyramid of Khufu, the end game of the pharaohs' scientific and engineering era. In this so-called Underworld, one of the most compelling story tells about a secret cavern, in oval shape, where was accomplished the sacred 'act of hauling'; it's in the Fourth Hour of the Amduat, and it is all about the Grand Gallery of the Great Pyramid, and the hauling of its impactor.

[illustration] "The Grand Gallery of the Great Pyramid of Gizeh, looking south, the sheer-cut-off of the floor; and the two ramps ascending into the darkness beyond". Great Pyramid Passages Volume 1, 1910 edition by John and Morton Edgar: https://archive.org/details/GreatPyramidPassagesVol11910Edition/page/n301/mode/1up

Operating diagram of the Great Pyramid of Khufu, for flash-evaporative cold production. All the physical work that made the pyramid work was carried out in the Grand Gallery where a team of 6 men allowed the impactor to be tirelessly raised to the top of the Gallery in order to begin another pressurization cycle. The operation of the Great Pyramid was therefore divided into two parts: a first part of hauling the impactor, then a second part of pressurization which began as soon as this impactor was released into the slope.

Operating diagram of the Grand Gallery in the Great Pyramid of Khufu, illustrating the reason why Ra had to merge with Osiris, and why there is the mention of "Osiris in his coffer" in ancient Egyptian texts. when Ra and Osiris are descending at full speed inside the central wooden Djed caisson. Both combined have been seen as Horus.

38.01  The Book of Caverns is centred on sun god Ra, merging with the body of Osiris "in its coffer" just like in the Osiris myth

The main difficulty we encounter when we set out to reconstruct what ancient Egypt was really like is that to do so, we must turn to the hidden meaning of Egyptian mythology: the ancient Egyptians had no press, radio, television, or cinema, but to flood the people with complex ideas, they created a multitude of gods and goddesses, each of them the glorification of a specific scientific concept (such as Atum for the glorification of the process of water evaporation), or of specific tools (such as Thoth and Seshat for the glorification of the stylus and ink, respectively). But the ancient Egyptians did not stop at simple gods; they also wrote real stories, myths, and each of them recounts a very specific part of what they accomplished as scientists and engineers. Among the most important myths, we have already seen the Osiris myth, which illustrates in a purely metaphorical way the composite nature of the impactor and the fact that it was pulled by two ropes (the two hands of Isis) from the inclined well while being imprisoned inside the central wooden Djed caisson. But here we will see the other part of the story: the fact that to raise this impactor to the top of the Grand Gallery, the two central ropes (Isis) were coupled to two other ropes on the side ramps, and that therefore, four ropes were used. Of course, we will also see how the Egyptians glorified the Grand Gallery itself in the famous 'oval cavern of the act of hauling' of the Amduat.

Basically, in the so-called 'Book of Caverns', the story starts with Osiris, trapped in his coffin, as described in the Osiris myth, and his fusion with Ra. Later, they enter together the Cavern of Sokar, in the Book of the Hidden Chamber.

“The crucial theme of the first half of the book, is the encounter of Re with the mummy of Osiris “in its coffer”. In the third section, Re enters the “cavern where Aker is”. “Book of Caverns - third section - drawing by A.G.Shedid.” https://www.sofiatopia.org/maat/hidden_chamber03.htm

[illustration] Book of Caverns, fifth division. Scene from tomb of Ramses VI. (KV9, chamber E, right wall): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Caverns#/media/File:Book_of_caverns_(KV9)_fifth_division.jpg

The Grand Gallery of the Great Pyramid of Khufu was the place where a team of six crewmembers operated a hauling gantry that allowed to get a composite structure based on a wooden vessel and a weight, to the top of the Gallery; when release that 'impactor' first pressurized the air that was trapped in the central wooden caisson where the impactor was moving, before pressurizing the waters of what could be called an inclined well. This whole process, is what all the Books of the Underworld are all about; they are glorifications of what happened in that big oval cavern that is the Grand Gallery, the cavern of the Act of Hauling described in the Amduat 'Book of the Hidden Chamber'.

38.02  The 'encounter' of the vessel Ra with the Osiris dead weight

This part is therefore essential to understanding the story since it describes the creation of a new entity resulting from the fusion of Ra with Osiris. Since all of Egyptian mythology is nothing more than a gigantic pileup of metaphors upon metaphors, the Egyptians actually used this subterfuge many times: we all know about the fusion of Ra with Horus to create the new entity Ra-Horakhty. But in reality, everything here is about the very structure of the composite impactor. Ra, Horus, and Osiris are all different but complementary visions of this impactor: Osiris being the dead weight, Ra the wooden structure serving as a means of transport for this dead weight, and finally Horus representing the two components associated with each other, speeding through the Grand Gallery, like a falcon attacking its prey.

“The crucial theme of the first half of the book, is the encounter of Re with the mummy of Osiris “in its coffer”. In the third section, Re enters the “cavern where Aker is”. “Book of Caverns - third section - drawing by A.G.Shedid.” https://www.sofiatopia.org/maat/hidden_chamber03.htm

38.03  Why does 'exhausted' Ra need to merge with the body of Osiris to get his 'principle of movement' back

Like I said in the introduction, the complexity of the Egyptian myths is so huge that it's gonna take an enormous collective work, during many generations to really understand every single part. But it is possible, little by little we can do it. For now, what I can do all by myself is only start the process. In the following excerpt, what's striking is that the whole story of the Amduat, to put it simply, is to give Ra all his power back after he has lost it, somehow. The task seems difficult, but Ra knows the solution to regain all his energy: he has to merge with the body of Osiris. The translated text doesn't use the term 'energy', but 'principle of movement', that's the 'Ba'. In other words, that is the body of Osiris who is giving all his power, all his energy, all his “principle of movement (the Ba)” to Ra. Keep in mind that Ra is the wooden vessel (call it a barque if you want), and Osiris is the load of that barque, because he is the weight of the impactor.

“The Books of the Underworld are a "strip-like" literary genre, telling the story of the regeneration of the subtle bodies and the illumination of consciousness, represented by the "Ba of Re" in his barque. Of these, the Amduat is exemplar. The important novelty they share is the "fusion" of Osirian and Heliopolitan material : at dusk (West), the principle of movement (Ba) of the old Re is exhausted and needs to be replenished by merging with the body of Osiris in the Duat. The Ba of Re is "swallowed" by Nut, the star-goddess who's body appears at Sunset. The "unseen" path of Re is associated with the Duat, the "underworld", starting at 6 pm and ending at 6 am.” https://www.sofiatopia.org/maat/hidden_chamber03.htm

38.04  The Book of the Hidden Chamber (also called Amduat) tells the story of Ra travelling though the Underworld, so that he can regenerate himself

Now that we've seen the fusion of Ra with Osiris, we'll see with the Amduat what actually happened to the new entity Ra-Osiris. Although most of the time the ancient Egyptians insisted on using metaphors to talk about their exploits, here, oddly enough, they dropped these metaphors to describe what was carried out in the Grand Gallery, since the Hour Four of the Amduat explicitly speaks of the 'oval cavern of the act of hauling' and, moreover, it represents what happens with scenes showing extremely steep 'passageways'. One might of course ask why the Egyptians abandoned the use of metaphors to describe the fact that the Grand Gallery was used for precisely 'an act of hauling.' Perhaps this is related to the fact that this 'act of hauling' was carried out by flesh-and-blood men: it wasn't 'gods' who pulled the impactor, but rather men.

On the other hand, everything around these men, and in particular the four ropes of the Gallery, were indeed gods or goddesses. But let's keep in mind that all these gods and goddesses are merely glorifications of scientific knowledge, tools, or very specific equipment. In other words, the Egyptian gods and goddesses were made by men, they weren't men themselves

“The Amduat (literally ‘that which is in the netherworld’), also known as the Book of the Hidden Chamber, is a funerary text that describes the journey of regeneration of Ra, the Egyptian sun god, through the 12 hours of the night from sunset (symbolising death) to sunrise (symbolising rebirth). The text starts appearing in royal tombs from around 1500 BC, and the two most notable examples are perhaps those painted on the walls of the burial chambers of Thutmose III (1479–1425 BC) and Amenhotep II (1427–1400 BC) in the Valley of the Kings, Thebes. It represents an important stepping stone in the literary tradition of ancient Egypt, being the model for later Books of the Afterlife, and it maintains its relevance well into the Graeco-Roman era.”

“The main aim of the text is to offer a description of the netherworld so that the deceased, as well as the living, are able to gain familiarity with what to expect when their journey into the afterlife begins. Knowledge of the secret paths of the netherworld offers protection to the deceased from the dangers and threats he/she may encounter; the text shows the obstacles and demons that could obstruct a safe passage through the hereafter as well as the deities and beings able to assist and help the deceased towards the completion of the journey of regeneration.” https://www.rct.uk/collection/1145263/section-of-the-papyrus-belonging-to-nesmin-with-the-fourth-hour-of-the-amduat

Operating diagram of the Grand Gallery, when the composite impactor is being hauled back up to the top of the Gallery. This is what Hour 4 of the Amduat is all about: the glorification of sun god Ra being towed, painstakingly, step after step, latch bolt after latch bolt. The 'gates', or 'knifes' described in the Amduat, are these latch bolts. Of course, the 'four gods' who towed the solar barque most certainly are the four ropes of the Grand Gallery.

38.05  Amduat, hour Four: Ra is entering the region of ‘the act of towing’ and his solar barque is towed by four gods

Remember that the hauling process in the Grand Gallery begins when the impactor is more or less floating in the waters of the inclined well, this is why its reinterpretation in the Fourth Hour of the Amduat is talking about a “dry region”, and that there was four ropes and four Egyptian pulleys to redirect these ropes into the steep slope of the Gallery from the upper platform, that’s probably the “four gods” that are mentioned.

"In the fourth hour of the Amduat, Ra enters a dark and dry new region called Rosetau, meaning 'act of towing'. His solar bark is indeed depicted as being towed by four gods over a dry, sandy land populated by snakes. The solar barque (Mesektet) itself has been transformed into a double-headed serpent as only snakes can successfully get across this desert and dangerous region. The zigzag path, repeatedly closed by doors, gives access to the 'Land of Seker, who is upon his sand', which Ra visits during the fourth and fifth hours.” rct.uk/collection/1145263/section-of-the-papyrus-belonging-to-nesmin-with-the-fourth-hour-of-the-amduat

38.06  Hour Four of the Amduat: Ra is entering the region of ‘the act of towing’... but his path is repeatedly blocked by some kind of 'knifes' or 'doors'

But of course, the most important reinterpretation occurring in the Fourth Hour of the Amduat Book of the Hidden Chamber is how the sequential hauling process due to the operation of the pairs of latch bolts has been described as an endless hauling process constantly blocked by some kind of ‘doors’ or ‘knives’. What is remarkable is how good the metaphors used by ancient Egyptians are clever: a latch bolt indeed looks like a knife, but most importantly, latch bolts are in real life mounted on doors: the latch bolt is what allows you to shut a door. In the Grand Gallery, each step of the hauling process was most certainly made possible by 24 pairs of these latch bolts; they weren't installed on doors, but in the two eastern and western walls of the Gallery, in what is called today, the symmetrical 'niches'.

“In this hour [Hour Four], Re [Ra] is repeatedly blocked by doors called "knife", cutting the way into pieces. Re utters words of power without seeing those he wakes up from their slumber of near-death, nor can they see him, for he turned into a dark Sun. In this deepest hour of darkness, Re can no longer see the inhabitants of the Duat. They hear him, but no one answers Re. Absence of light and silence overpower his soul.” https://www.sofiatopia.org/maat/hidden_chamber03.htm#1.4

[illustration of a latch bolt] How to Fix a Stuck Door Latch. Video by The Elite Group Property Inspections: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qG8CruM5zYk

Section of the papyrus belonging to Nesmin, representing the fourth hour of the Amduat, characterized by the "oval cavern of the act of towing", and visibly by very steep passages as well.

38.07  The sloping passages of the Fourth Hour of the Amduat are because of the steep slope of the Gallery

"The Amduat, literally "That Which Is In the Afterworld", also translated as "Book of the Hidden Chamber Which is in the Underworld" and "Book of What is in the Underworld"; is an important ancient Egyptian funerary text of the New Kingdom of Egypt." Papyrus from The Royal Collection Trust, c.300-275 BC. RCIN 1145263: https://www.rct.uk/collection/1145263/section-of-the-papyrus-belonging-to-nesmin-with-the-fourth-hour-of-the-amduat

The composite structure of the impactor of the Great Pyramid. If the wooden part that served as a simple vessel, has been glorified into sun god Ra, the weight that gave all its speed, energy and ramming power to the structure, has been glorified into Osiris. This is why an old and exhausted Ra needed to merge with Osiris to replenish himself.

The solar barque of sun god Ra, or Ra and Osiris as they both have to merge at some point. Twelfth Hour of the Amduat: Museo Egizio in Turin): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amduat#/media/File:Libro_dell'Amduat_0147215g_detail.tif

38.04  The composite impactor analysed by ancient Egyptians themselves: Ra is about the ramming capability of the wooden structure and Osiris about the weight that gives all its power to that structure

The following excerpt and the explanation that comes with it, may be one of the most important parts of this study, as it is discussing of the obsession for ancient Egyptians of the idea of active and inactive principle, or action and reaction principle. Remember how Egyptians have glorified the two central hauling ropes of the Grand Gallery into either Isis (the ascending ropes, really in the act of hauling the impactor, hence the reference to “You, will ascend with Isis”), or Nephthys (the same but descending and inactive ropes, hence the reference “You, will descend with Nephthys); or remember that they’ve done the same thing for the impactor Horus (represented into a speeding falcon when the impactor was descending the Gallery, or into a elderly, painstakingly ascending the Gallery); well they’ve done the same thing here with Ra, and the need for him to merge with Osiris to be replenished: to get his “principle of movement” back, in short to get his ‘mojo’ back.

In the excerpt, there is the mention of the Ba of Ra, but what really is that Ba, or rather what was it for ancient Egyptians obsessed with these principles of action and reaction, active and inactive? I think the key is the fact that Ra was represented ram-headed, and that the Ba of Ra was also a ram. So, when it is said that at some point Ra gets separated from his body that becomes Osiris, what it means is that it is the body of Osiris (that is the weight of the impactor) that is giving to Ra its ramming capacity.

In other words, Ra only is the impactor seen as the ramming composite structure. And of course, if you want to talk about the impactor, seen as a wooden vessel, then you invoke not Ra, but the barque of Ra.

“Throughout the text of the Amduat, Ra is depicted as being "ram-headed" as he descends into the underworld and becomes separated from his body, being left only with his 'Ba' as he seeks to reunite with his body, which is now in the form of Osiris, in the ensuing hours. The hieroglyph for Ba is the same as the one for a ram in Ancient Egyptian, suggesting that his appearance is a visual pun.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amduat

If in the following excerpt, Isis is mentioned to somehow intervene in the so-called 'secret oval cavern of the act of towing', it only is because the goddess is the glorification of the two central hauling ropes which were responsible to haul the impactor back up to the top of the Grand Gallery: 

"Here, the primordial engine of this process comes into focus, namely the controlled fusion of Osiris as Sokar and Re as the multicolored serpent in the "Cavern of Sokar", initiating the transformation. In the middle register, we see Isis acting as the head over this cavern, filling it with flames of fire.” https://www.sofiatopia.org/maat/hidden_chamber03.htm#1.4

38.08  Hour Five of the Amduat: the 'secret paths' of hauling in the 'oval cavern', controlled by Isis herself

“The lower register continues the "secret paths" of the Land of Sokar of the 4th Hour, closed by two doors. Between them is the interior, or "core" of Sokar's land, with an "oval", "cavern", "cave" or "egg" in its centre, embedded in the two halves of the double sphinx Aker, the god of the Earth. Here, the primordial engine of this process comes into focus, namely the controlled fusion of Osiris as Sokar and Re as the multicolored serpent in the "Cavern of Sokar", initiating the transformation. In the middle register, we see Isis acting as the head over this cavern, filling it with flames of fire.” https://www.sofiatopia.org/maat/hidden_chamber03.htm#1.4

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Operating diagrams of the Great Pyramid

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