THE PYRAMIDS of the COLD • Section 39 How Isis and Nephthys are the glorification of the operating cycle of the two hauling ropes of the Great Pyramid's impactor

In summary: we have already seen in the myth of Osiris that if it was Isis who rescued Osiris and pulled him out of the water and out of the hollow tree trunk in which, still imprisoned inside his ‘wooden chest’, he had once again found himself trapped, it is, of course, because Osiris is nothing other than the glorification of the weight of the weighted impactor and is herself nothing other than the glorification of the two central hauling ropes that allowed this impactor to be raised between each new cycle of operation of the Grand Gallery.

With Isis and Nephthys, the ancient Egyptians were in fact able to glorify not only the use of these two central ropes, essential to the operation of the Great Pyramid, but even more so the fact that these ropes were actually engaged in a cycle that simultaneously moved them from an upward phase to a downward phase, repeating itself endlessly. In other words, the difficulty encountered in deciphering the ‘twin divine sisters’ Isis and Nephthys therefore lay in the fact that the two goddesses were in reality the glorification of the same two ropes, simply seen in two different parts of their cycle of operation.

Isis and Osiris are also among those ancient Egyptian deities whose oldest traces date from after the construction of the Great Pyramid, and therefore indicate that they are directly affiliated with it and that they were therefore created, like the famous Osiris myth itself, only in direct homage and glorification to the functioning of this Pyramid.

Of course, as with all other Egyptian deities, the many, many epithets given to them are simply beautiful metaphors. Whether these metaphors are about anchoring and mooring concerning Isis, or about the so-called 'tresses' or 'braids' of Nephthys, all of them are in reality about ropes: a braid is in essence a rope.

“Whereas some Egyptian deities appeared in the late Predynastic Period (before c. 3100 BCE), neither Isis nor her husband Osiris were mentioned by name before the Fifth Dynasty (c. 2494–2345 BCE). An inscription that may refer to Isis dates to the reign of Nyuserre Ini during that period, and she appears prominently in the Pyramid Texts, which began to be written down at the end of the dynasty and whose content may have developed much earlier.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isis

How to Rope Braid: https://www.everydayhairinspiration.com/2019/07/05/rope-braid/kopi-af-how-to-rope-braid/

Operating diagram of the Great Pyramid of Khufu for flash-evaporative cold production, hypothetically for chemical manufacturing of sodium carbonate Natron. The process required a weighted impactor, operating similarly to a modern piston, to be tirelessly raised to the very top of the Grand Gallery by means of two central ropes. Isis and Nephthys are merely an expression of the ancient Egyptians' desire to glorify these two ropes: Isis being about these ropes ascending into the gallery and pulling the impactor, while Nephthys is about these same two ropes, but descending the gallery to be reattached to the impactor waiting in the inclined well, and thus begin a new cycle.

39.01  Isis is all about ropes [1]: Isis was the 'Great Mooring Post'

What is both disturbing and entirely understandable is the fact that the ancient Egyptians seem to have conceived the operating cycle of the Grand Gallery of the Great Pyramid, and the handling of the impactor itself, in a way similar to a ship's anchor that was tirelessly lowered and raised again and again. It is therefore not surprising to see that the Egyptians used naval metaphors about Isis, and metaphors that highlight the goddess's true nature, namely the glorification of ropes, in particular 'mooring ropes'. Isis was also said to have 'moored' Osiris.

"Isis is not just about rebirth and sunrise. She is also the Great Mooring Post". https://isiopolis12.rssing.com/chan-10218340/all_p4.html

Also, a very detailed study "When Isis "Moored" Osiris", by L. D. Graham - JEOL. Excerpt: "The present paper, which is philological in nature, addresses a central event in the Osiris myth as it is narrated in the Great Hymn on the Stele of Amenmose. Specifically, the Great Hymn says (in line 15) that, when Isis eventually located Osiris’s body after his murder by Seth, she “moored her brother”. https://hcommons.org/deposits/objects/hc:47012/datastreams/CONTENT/content

[illustration of mooring lines] https://www.safe-skipper.com/competent-crew-skills-mooring-lines/

Operating diagram of the Grand Gallery in the Great Pyramid of Khufu, showing the two central hauling ropes in the central wooden Djed caisson. These two ropes have been glorified into the two sisters Isis and Nephthys: when Isis glorified the rope ascending the Gallery, Nephthys glorified these same two central ropes, but descending the Gallery. Egyptians were more obsessed with the idea of completing a cycle than the idea of balance (Ma'at). These two ropes were also the only ones to be operated inside the central wooden Djed caisson (glorified into the Djed pillar).

If in the image below we can see a Djed pillar surrounded by 'Tyet' Isis knots, it is because what represents the central part of the Djed pillar, which is nothing other than the central wooden caisson in which the piston-like impactor evolves, is itself made up of an assembly of simple wooden frames, sewn together. We have also already seen the true meaning of the Was scepter (the glorification of the tool for drilling holes), and so we have here the explanation and the complete glorification of how such a technical feat for the time was achieved as the manufacture of such a large caisson, capable of withstanding strong pressure.

39.02  Isis is all about ropes [2]: the Tyet 'knot of Isis'

Among the many clues left to us by the ancient Egyptians about the true nature of what the goddess Isis truly represented in their eyes is the famous 'Isis knot,' and it's hard to imagine a simpler and clearer clue than this one.

If Isis was worshipped in ancient Egypt and famous for her 'knot,' it's of course because Isis is nothing other than the glorification of ropes; very special ropes, of course, since these are the ropes used in the Great Pyramid (Isis only appears in the Pyramid Texts, during the 5th Dynasty, while the Great Pyramid wasn't built until the end of the 4th Dynasty), but ropes nonetheless.

We will see in the next chapter the more complete decryption of the 'Tyet' Isis knot and the fact that for the Egyptians it was a question of glorifying another of their tools: the wooden clamp with a wedging block which allowed them to hold in place two wooden planks so as to be able to join them by sewing (the Egyptians were known to use sewn ships); and without going into more detail in this chapter, we can therefore easily understand that the Egyptians turned to Isis, the very symbol of the strongest rope there is, and therefore invoked Isis to make the knots which ensured the solidity of their ships.

39.03  The wooden clamp and the knot all together glorified through Isis 

We have seen that the goddess Isis (along with her sister Nephthys, of course) only appears from the 5th Dynasty onwards, and that the reason for this is that the ancient Egyptians simply hadn't 'created' or 'written' them yet, so much so that the glorification process resembles a gigantic work of modern literary creation, or perhaps even more accurately, the writing of today's long-running television series. 

But what is interesting is that the Tyet Isis knot existed long before the appearance of Isis herself, and this suggests that the primary intention was to glorify the wooden clamp with wedging block; it would only be later, when the Great Pyramid was built and put into operation, that the new goddess Isis would have been created and associated with the wooden clamp, so that in addition to glorifying the tool, it would also be the knot itself that could be glorified in turn.

“In many respects the tyet resembles an ankh, except that its arms curve down. Its meaning is also reminiscent of the ankh, as it is often translated to mean "welfare" or "life". The tyet resembles a knot of cloth and may have originally been a bandage used to absorb menstrual blood. An early example of a tyet sign comes from a First Dynasty tomb at Helwan, excavated by Zaki Saad in the 1940s. This example predates the first written references to Isis and may not have been connected with her at the time. In later times, it came to be linked with her and with the healing powers that were an important aspect of her character.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyet

Self Working Rope Magic, by Karl Fulves: https://www.murphysmagic.com/product.aspx?id=34555

39.04  Isis is all about ropes [3]: the reassembly of the body of Osiris

"Isis, who is Osiris's wife as well as his sister, is his queen. Set kills Osiris and, in several versions of the story, dismembers his corpse. Isis and Nephthys, along with other deities such as Anubis, search for the pieces of their brother's body and reassemble it. […] Finally, Isis restores breath and life to Osiris's body and copulates with him."  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isis

"Nephthys or Nebet-Het in ancient Egyptian was a goddess in ancient Egyptian religion. A member of the Great Ennead of Heliopolis in Egyptian mythology, she was a daughter of Nut and Geb. Nephthys was typically paired with her sister Isis in funerary rites because of their role as protectors of the mummy and the god Osiris and as the sister-wife of Set.[…] It is Nephthys who assists Isis in gathering and mourning the dismembered portions of the body of Osiris after his murder by the envious Set."  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nephthys

Square knot at: https://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2019/09/26/always-tie-a-square-knot-correctly-with-this-tip/

If Isis was associated with the idea of "ascent" and Nephthys with that of "descent," it was because they were both glorifications of the two central hauling ropes of the Grand Gallery used in the Great Pyramid of Khufu. The Egyptians were obsessed with the idea of completing a cycle, and the functioning of these two ropes offered them the opportunity to illustrate this obsession in a remarkable way.

39.05  The ascending (active) Isis and the descending (inactive) Nephthys

Today, if we were to repeat the same glorification process that was carried out by the ancient Egyptians, we certainly would never have thought of doing so, and we probably would have started by creating a goddess for each of the ropes, whereas the Egyptians only created one. But after all, they would certainly have been the ones who were most right in the story, because if there were indeed two ropes to pull the impactor (we can be sure of this because what we could call the Egyptian Pulleys of Ezekiel were four in number, as written in the Bible), but only one goddess for these two ropes (either Isis or Nephthys), each of these goddesses has two arms: when Isis pulls Osiris onto the bank of the river in the Osiris myth, it is indeed two arms that pull and save Osiris from the water.

“It’s easy to consider duality as opposition, for instance, as it is in Ma’et/Isfet or Day/Night. And indeed we can find such oppositions in ancient Egyptian texts when it comes to Isis and Nephthys. Usually, Isis is the Bright Sister and Nephthys is the Dark. The Pyramid and Coffin Texts provide us with examples. One of the most explicit is Pyramid Text 222 where the deceased is urged to descend into the darkness of the Otherworld with the Night-barque and Nephthys, while they ascend with Isis in the Day-barque. Isis guides and sheds light on the hidden paths of the Otherworld, but the Coffin Texts tell us that Nephthys speaks and they are obscured: “Hidden are the ways for those who pass by; light is perished and darkness comes into being, so says Nephthys.” While Isis summons the Barque of the Day, Nephthys is “a possessor of life in the Night-barque.”” Written by Isadora: https://isiopolis.com/2021/11/21/isis-nephthys-opposites/

The reason why Isis and Nephthys are interacting with the Djed pillar is because they were both glorifications of the two central hauling ropes of the Grand Gallery of the Great Pyramid and because they were both mostly positioned inside the central wooden caisson responsible for generating pressurized air to the flash-evaporative cooling system. Sarcophagus fragment APM08103, Allard Pierson Museum: https://uvaerfgoed.nl/viewer/image/11245_3_1811/2/#topDocAnchor

39.06  About the true reason of why Isis and Nephthys interact with the Djed pilllar

A magnificent image perfectly illustrating the method used by the ancient Egyptians to simultaneously record and encode scientific and technological information within their religion. Indeed, if you were not among the initiated, you probably didn't know the true meaning of the Djed pillar, nor even of the two goddesses Isis and Nephthys.

As we have already seen, Isis and Nephthys are the glorifications of ropes, two ropes to be precise. But the difficulty in deciphering all the elaborate glorifications created by the Egyptians lies in their extreme sophistication: while from a technical point of view, Isis and Nephthys both represent the same two ropes (those that tirelessly raised the Great Pyramid's impactor to the top of the central wooden Djed caisson), Isis and Nephthys represent the two complementary phases of their operating cycle. When Isis glorifies the two active ropes that raised the impactor from the inclined well, Nephthys, for her part, glorifies the inactive part of this cycle, the part where these ropes descended inside the Djed caisson to be reattach with the floating impactor.

The Djed pillar, being the glorification of the central wooden caisson designed to generate the pressurized air essential for the proper functioning of the flash-evaporative cold production cycle, is shown by the position of Isis and Nephthys through two things:

• by placing their hands at body level on the Djed pillar, they indicate that they were actually positioned inside the central wooden caisson of the Grand Gallery

• by placing their hands at head level, they both indicate that their upper bodies were not inside the Djed caisson: indeed, the upper ends of the ropes were outside the caisson, as they were wound around the winding shaft

39.07  Isis is all about ropes [5]: the 'tresses of Nephthys'

The metaphor of the famous braids of Nephthys is certainly the easiest of all the metaphors used by the ancient Egyptians in their glorifying process: what could be more obvious than to represent, without naming it, a rope, than by speaking of a braid?

"Nephthys or Nebet-Het in ancient Egyptian was a goddess in ancient Egyptian religion. A member of the Great Ennead of Heliopolis in Egyptian mythology, she was a daughter of Nut and Geb. Nephthys was typically paired with her sister Isis in funerary rites because of their role as protectors of the mummy and the god Osiris and as the sister-wife of Set.[…] It is Nephthys who assists Isis in gathering and mourning the dismembered portions of the body of Osiris after his murder by the envious Set."  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nephthys

"The one being reborn is to “throw off the tresses of Nephthys” like he throws off his mummy wrappings at his rebirth". https://isiopolis.com/2014/07/13/oh-yes-more-nephthys/

39.08  Isis is all about ropes [6]: the 'stretching the cord' ceremony

Here, I refer you to Chapter 01, which deals with the famous ceremony of 'the stretching of the cord', if you really want to understand the true meaning of this 'ceremony'. But of course, what interests us here is simply the mention of the cord and a sort of equivalence made between Nephthys and Seshat, the goddess invoked in that ceremony.

But be careful, if Isis and Nephthys are glorifications of ropes, Seshat is not directly so. Once again, I refer you to Chapter 1, which explains that Seshat (goddess of writing and libraries) is the glorification of ink, but that the famous ceremony of 'stretching of the cord' is actually about the use of the tool called an 'ink line' (equivalent to a chalk line, just better in every possible way), and of course, there it is: the rope of Seshat.

"As early as the Pyramid Texts (the oldest ones date from 2400-2300 BCE), Nephthys is said to have “collected all your members for you in this Her name of Seshat, Lady of Builders.” (Pyramid Texts, Utterance 364)": https://isiopolis.com/2014/07/13/oh-yes-more-nephthys/

"As Lady of Builders, one of Seshat’s main functions is to lay out the boundaries for new buildings, especially temples, via the ceremony of “stretching the cord,” which was a method of using a cord or rope to measure out straight foundations for a building." https://isiopolis.com/2014/07/13/oh-yes-more-nephthys/

In 2013, a group of mechanical engineering students at the University of Illinois, sponsored by independent researcher Stephen Blakely, did the original test of the pulley theory which had been developed to explain how ancient Egyptians could have built the great pyramids. On September 5, 2020, Blakely demonstrated the theory in person with some family and friend help. Stephen Blakely called his reinvented pulley the Egyptian pulley. Photograph by Jared Treece: https://dailyegyptian.com/102401/news/southern-illinois-man-tests-pyramid-creation-theory/#

Operating diagram of the Grand Gallery in the Great Pyramid, showing the location of the redirecting Egyptian pulleys.

39.09  Geb and Nut: the 'parents' of Isis and Nephthys are truly about the two Egyptian pulleys that operated the two central hauling ropes

In the next chapter, we will see in detail why and how the ancient Egyptians used what we might today call the 'Egyptian pulley,' a type of pulley made entirely of stone and designed solely to change the direction of ropes. We will see that the Egyptians glorified this 'Egyptian pulley' in the god Geb (the pulley's base) and the goddess Nut (the rotating cylinder inside the base). But what interests us here is that the two goddesses Isis and Nephthys, who are nothing other than the glorification of ropes, have Geb and Nut as their parents.

So here we are with another extraordinary metaphor, where we can perfectly understand how ropes could have been compared to the daughters of a pulley: this pulley not only lifts and rises the rope, but above all, it keeps them in perfect position, it frames them, just as a parent might raise their children.

"Nephthys or Nebet-Het in ancient Egyptian was a goddess in ancient Egyptian religion. A member of the Great Ennead of Heliopolis in Egyptian mythology, she was a daughter of Nut and Geb. Nephthys was typically paired with her sister Isis in funerary rites because of their role as protectors of the mummy and the god Osiris and as the sister-wife of Set.[…] It is Nephthys who assists Isis in gathering and mourning the dismembered portions of the body of Osiris after his murder by the envious Set."  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nephthys

Mechanical engineers and independent researchers Stephen Blakely (in the middle on the above photograph, with the cradle on its side and the pulley on the grass) and his brother Gregory, are the ones who have 'reinvented' what they've called 'the Egyptian pulley':  https://dailyegyptian.com/102401/news/southern-illinois-man-tests-pyramid-creation-theory/#

This is how ancient Egyptians themselves have represented the operation of the Egyptian pulley. Because the pulley wheel does look like an eye, they've simply put the Eye of Horus on the wheel; and just like we've already seen this many times now, the baboon is only here as a representation of the water used as lubricant during the operation of the Egyptian pulley (see below, the explanation of the water clocks 'decorated' with baboon figures). [illustration] Papyrus EA10018,1 "Book of the Dead of Henuttawy"; frame 1; full colour vignette. The Trustees of the British Museum: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/Y_EA10018-1?selectedImageId=359892001

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Operating diagrams of the Great Pyramid

Timelines

Index