THE PYRAMIDS of the COLD • Chapter 43 How the Tyet knot of Isis is about glorifying the resistance of a string and the inserted wedge of ring clamps used on sewn boats

In summary: we’ve seen many times now the modus operandi used by ancient Egyptians to glorify their scientific and technological prowess; here we’re gonna see another example with Isis, the goddess who have been created to glorify the two central active hauling ropes that were hidden inside the central wooden Djed caisson of the Grand Gallery. What needs to be fully understood is the twofold reason why Egyptians created all these deifications in the first place: of course they wanted to use science and technology to legitimate themselves as the rulers of Egypt, but they also wanted to give to the people tools that would help them in their everyday life. Here, we’re gonna talk about the metaphor of the ‘red menstrual blood of Isis’, and what I’ll demonstrate is that the whole point of this metaphor was to help women dealing with their periods and menstrual tampons.

The metaphor of the ‘red menstrual blood of Isis’ is of course about the menstrual tampon, and more importantly about the string of the tampon: women simply hoped for the string of the tampon to hold and remove the whole body of the tampon from the vagina. Egyptians absolutely loved this kind of associations; the association of the string of a tampon with the two central hauling ropes, and the association of the body of the tampon with the body of the impactor: when the tampon was stuck inside the vagina, the impactor of the Great Pyramid was stuck at the entry of the inclined well, and they both had to fight against the suction effect before being pulled out.

This is what the metaphor of the ‘red menstrual blood of Isis’ is all about: when invoking Isis, menstruating women simply hoped for the string of their tampon to hold while being pulled out.

[Tyet illustration] “The tyet (Ancient Egyptian: tjt), sometimes called the knot of Isis or girdle of Isis, is an ancient Egyptian symbol that came to be connected with the goddess Isis. […] The tyet resembles a knot of cloth and may have originally been a bandage used to absorb menstrual blood.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyet

Operating diagram of the Grand Gallery of the Great Pyramid of Khufu, showing what really was goddess Isis all about: the two central hauling ropes that got Osiris, the weight of the composite impactor out of the waters of the inclined well. This process, is what the Isis and Osiris myth is all about, and it asked for these two hauling ropes to be as strong and reliable as possible, for the impactor to be pulled out of the well despite the inevitable suction effect. So, when Egyptian women had to get their menstrual tampon out of the vagina, they simply invoked the great goddess of the rope Isis, and hoped for the strings of the tampon not to break.

43.01  What's the link between the Tyet knot of Isis which is also called the 'red menstrual blood of the goddess' with ropes? (because remember, Isis really is just about ropes)

What we’ve seen so far is that Isis was the glorification of the two central hauling ropes of the Grand Gallery, i.e. the most important ropes used in the Great Pyramid, the ones directly connected to the impactor, hence the ones which gave life to Horus, Ra and Osiris. In short, the Isis ropes were of extreme importance, hence the fantastic importance of goddess Isis over time. So, one should ask what’s the link between Isis and blood, and particularly with menstrual blood? Why was Isis associated with women and menstrual blood as it is clearly said about the Tyet knot of Isis, and why would the Tyet knot have been associated with a menstrual cloth?

“The ancient Egyptian amulet of the Tiet (also Tyet or Tet) is also known as the Girdle of Isis, the Buckle of Isis, the Knot of Isis, or the Blood of Isis. Appropriately, the amulet was often made of blood-red jasper, carnelian, or even red glass. (Red glass, by the way, is a precious material and quite difficult to make; the red color comes from the addition of gold to the molten glass.). The Goddess’ blood that is our topic today is the red blood of menstruation, in Egyptian hesmen. A menstruating woman is a hesmenet. […] Interestingly, it may be that menstruation was also associated with cleansing. Hesmen is not only the word for “menstruation,” but is also found with the meaning “purification.” It was also a term for the ritual cleanser par excellence, natron.” https://isiopolis.com/2014/11/23/the-blood-of-isis/

“The tyet (Ancient Egyptian: tjt), sometimes called the knot of Isis or girdle of Isis, is an ancient Egyptian symbol that came to be connected with the goddess Isis. […] The tyet resembles a knot of cloth and may have originally been a bandage used to absorb menstrual blood.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyet

Operating diagram of the Grand Gallery in the Great Pyramid of Khufu, when the impactor is ready to be uprooted from the waters of the inclined well, despite the suction effect from the water. Unfortunately, the exact positions of the impactor and the Ptah lower hatch at that moment are still very imprecise.

43.02  The 'red menstrual Blood of Isis' is only about the string of a tampon

We’ve just seen that because of her real origin, Isis has been used and reused in day to day life by ancient Egyptians 'each time' they needed to rely on the strength, resistance and reliability of a rope; and this is exactly what happened here with the 'Blood of Isis' metaphor: the metaphor isn’t really about a rope, but about a string, the string that is (today) and that was in ancient Egypt, sewn to menstrual tampons.

In short, the connection between Isis and the red blood of menstruation is the tampon’s string: women were invoking Isis (the glorification of the ropes that had been uprooting the impactor out of the inclined well) so that the string wouldn’t break under tension when they were pulling their tampon out of the vagina.

It really is one of the most interesting metaphors I’ve the pleasure to decipher to this day, and it explains why the hell was Isis associated with menstrual blood.

This metaphor is beautiful because it allows us to really understand the whole process of glorification that happened 4,500 years ago. We know that all the efforts deployed inside the Grand Gallery was to pull up the two central hauling ropes which were hidden inside the Djed central wooden caisson in order to get the impactor back to the top of the Gallery, ready for a new cycle.

Here are the key points about the Isis hauling ropes:

• they were two hidden very strong and resistant ropes

• they were getting an oblong object out of the inclined well (almost “uprooting” the impactor out of the well)

• they were doing all this again, and again… in a perpetual cycle of operation

And if you think it through, all these points have their perfect counterpoint in the use of a menstrual tampon: everything in the metaphor here is about the string of the tampon. You want the string to be strong and resistant… just like the Isis ropes were.

In short, during the Fifth Dynasty and the creation of goddess Isis as the reinterpretation and glorification of the hauling ropes, each time ancient Egyptians used ropes (or strings) in a very symbolic way, they used Isis and evoked her strength and her resistance.

“The redness of the Tiet could represent the red lifeblood a mother sheds while giving birth. On the other hand, it might also represent menstrual blood. Some say the amulet is shaped like the cloth worn by ancient Egyptian women during menstruation. Others have interpreted it as a representation of a ritual tampon that could be inserted in the vagina to prevent miscarriage.” https://isiopolis.com/2022/05/15/the-blood-of-isis-4/

“The history of the tampon and its usage dates back to Ancient Egypt in the 5th century B.C., where medical records describe tampons made from the papyrus plant.” https://goauntflow.com/blog/the-history-of-the-tampon/

Washable tampons, by Natalie: https://preppingwithnatsprat.blogspot.com/2013/01/no-worries-period.html

43.03  The problem of the extra force needed to counter the suction effect before getting the impactor out of the well

This is where the tampon metaphor gets absolutely perfect; because of course the most difficult part of the hauling Beetle’s crewmembers was to lift the impactor to the top of the Gallery, step after step (latch bolt after latch bolt), but the most difficult step of all, was certainly to get the impactor out of the well. The team first had to counter the suction effect resulting of the fact that the impactor was “stuck” inside the waters of the well.

Mummy Mask of a Woman, Roman Period A.D. 60–70. Object Number: 19.2.6 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New-York: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/547257

43.04  The Tyet Isis knot is all about inserting something into another thing that just looks like a vagina (as so clearly shown on the above image)

Scholars have tried to see in the Tyet knot of Isis, some kind of menstrual cloth, because egyptologists can’t think of anything else than a very simple cloth, for people living thousands of years ago. But, the thing is we perfectly know ancient Egyptians were already using menstrual tampons; a tool that you insert inside the vagina. And once you’ve changed your mind about what tool women used to have to deal with their periods at the time of pharaohs, just like they have today, the Tyet knot of Isis starts to talk a little bit: look at it, and tell me you don’t see the idea of a tool you have to insert somewhere? But hopefully, not all egyptologists see in the Tyet knot of Isis a bandage or menstrual cloth, some actually are talking about the tampon as well.

I’ve already had the same experience many times now: most of the time ancient Egyptians took extra care into hiding things within the countless metaphors they’ve so elegantly produced, but in some very little occasions, what have been meticulously hidden suddenly appears much more clearly, and that is the case with this very unique representation of the Tyet knot: there is no menstrual cloth nor there is no menstrual bandage, instead it is clearly indicating that the Tyet is all about something that has to  be introduced into, well let’s say another thing.

But the whole point, as we’re gonna see later, isn’t really about a menstrual tampon; it’s just that the Tyet knot is about something that can really makes you think as the way a tampon is used by menstruating women.

“The redness of the Tiet could represent the red lifeblood a mother sheds while giving birth. On the other hand, it might also represent menstrual blood. Some say the amulet is shaped like the cloth worn by ancient Egyptian women during menstruation. Others have interpreted it as a representation of a ritual tampon that could be inserted in the vagina to prevent miscarriage.” https://isiopolis.com/2022/05/15/the-blood-of-isis-4/

“Carpenter Murat Tosun, one of Osman Erkurt trusted assistants, tighten the ligatures of a "sewn" planking of a conjectural reconstruction of Cycladic boats, in Osman Erkurt's workshop”. Photograph by Piero Castellano: https://www.lightrocket.com/galleries/30976/experimental-archaeologist-rebuilds-ancient-ships

The Tyet knot of Isis probably is a representation of a wooden ring clamp with a triangular-shape wedge. Such tools were used to sew wooden boards together, in particular to make sewn boats. [illustration] Red Tyet knot of Isis amulet: https://www.reddit.com/r/Cowofgold_Essays/comments/sxfhe0/tyet/ 

Sewn boat clamp in “process of sewing [in sewn boats]”: https://www.sewboat.narod.ru/boat/construction.gif

43.05  The Tyet knot of Isis is a wooden ring clamp used in the construction of sewn boats (and its 'loop' only is about representing the triangle-shape ring clamp’s wedge that has to be inserted into the tool, hence the tampon metaphor)

It is not the first time that I can make the same observation: most of the time, ancient Egyptian art is very ‘standardized’ and ‘consensual’, and it is the case for almost all the Tyet knot of Isis amulets. It is obvious that the instruction given for making these amulets was to 'never come too close to the original design of the tool', and 'make it cute'. But sometimes, it looks like this instruction had been somehow forgotten. On the above amulet, the usual 'loop' has disappeared and its true purpose becomes crystal clear: the loop is only a support to represent the triangular shape of the wooden wedge of the ring clamp.

43.06  The loop of the Tyet knot of Isis is just the head of the tool

Egyptians here simply wanted to give some kind of humanoid form to the tool, so they've created some kind of 'head'.

43.07  But the Tyet knot of Isis wooden ring clamp is probably more about the construction of the central wooden Djed caisson than about sewn boats

Of course, the reference wouldn’t be about sewn boats making, but about how was made the central wooden Djed caisson; and that would explain why Djed pillars are very often associated with the Tyet knot of Isis (just like on the previous photograph taken by Nicole Lesar on a Roman mummy mask, and in the above image from isiopolis). Once again, just like we’ve already seen so many times now, we have associated at the same time both the symbol of a very particular thing, and the symbol of how that particular thing was made (the Dendera light and the spitting snake venom, Science and the magnifying glass, the sledge and the hollowed out rail, etc.).

Now, we’re gonna see what really is the Tyet knot, and why the metaphor of the menstrual tampon is so brilliant.

“Osiris as the Djed Pillar with Isis and Nephthys beside Him as two Tyet Knots. The Knot of Isis is frequently paired with the Pillar of Osiris.” https://isiopolis.com/2019/11/16/what-is-the-tyet-or-knot-of-isis/

The "red menstrual Blood of Isis" is a beautiful metaphor that has been used by women in ancient Egypt when they were getting ready to take their menstrual tampon out of the vagina: they hoped the string won’t break and so they invoked goddess Isis, praying for the string to be as strong and reliable as were the Isis hauling ropes inside the Gallery of the Great Pyramid. Women simply hoped the string won’t fail. Illustration from a video by Diana In The Pink, "5 Tampon tips every girl should know”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qG3_TXrpAXw

43.08  Tyet knots have been associated with tampons because of how the wedge is inserted inside the slot of the tool

And now that we know the Tyet knot of Isis is the glorification of a ring clamp in which has to be inserted a wedge with some force, before having to get it out of the slot at the end of the process, of course we understand why this object has been associated with the idea of a woman inserting a tampon in the vagina, before being forced to get it out as well.

Wooden Ring Clamp with Wedge, thanks to Green Stars SAPL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZiSJ0_lgeA

43.09  Is it so difficult to understand that everything is only metaphorical?

Because yes, how the hell could anyone have believed even a split of a second that one of the most important symbol of the ancient Egyptian religion had literally been a cloth menstrual pad?!! Seriously? Of course, it wasn’t about the cloth, but about a tampon; but most of all, and I cannot emphasize enough by saying that it really is only metaphorical!

When I read egyptologists’ oversimplified and somehow childish vision of what really was ancient Egypt, it gives me the chill, literally, but the bad ones. Here, the metaphor is so beautiful, I feel some kind of pleasure I must say. Everything here is in how woman are inserting the tampon inside the vagina and how craftsmen are inserting the wooden part wedge of the clamp ring tool that is used to sew two boards of wood together. The sophistication of the metaphor is so brilliant!

• you first have to open the wooden legs of the tool

• then you insert the wedge through the slot of the tool and you force it in

• finally you will have to uproot the wedge out of the slot

43.10  And here it is: finally, natron comes into play

All along this study, there is one term that regularly comes into play, and that is natron, the salt used by pharaohs during the mummification process. Contrary to what Egyptologists are claiming, Egyptians didn't use natron they've simpy found onto the ground: they've chemically produced it (read the chapters about the Red Pyramid and the Disc of Sabu to understand how chemical manufacturing of 100% pure natron made by pure magic science has been made possible).

Like I said earlier: this is the production of this natron mummification salt inside the Pyramids that link these gigantic structures with immortality of the pharaohs; but until today, I’ve found nothing in the ancient Egyptian religion about natron. But with this Tyet knot of Isis, things finally changed: natron comes into play, because the Egyptian word for 'menstrual blood' is 'hesmen', and it is the exact same name for 'natron'.

 “The Goddess’ blood that is our topic today is the red blood of menstruation, in Egyptian hesmen. […] Hesmen is not only the word for “menstruation,” but is also found with the meaning “purification.” It was also a term for the ritual cleanser par excellence, natron.” https://isiopolis.com/2014/11/23/the-blood-of-isis/

Blood of Isis Tyet amulet E2208 at the Louvre: https://collections.louvre.fr/ark:/53355/cl010014269

43.11  The first step of the mummification process is to get all the blood out of the body: this is the link between the Tyet knot of Isis and the natron used during mummification

To summarize the whole thing, this is what we have: 'hesmen' = The Tyet knot of Isis = the menstrual 'Blood of Isis' = mummification salt 'natron'. Well, no wonder egyptologists were completely blind here and couldn’t figure out why we do have all these equivalences; but we know better now:

1 • we know the Tyet knot is a stylistic representation of a wooden ring clamp with wedge (a tool used to hold two boards together while they are sewn together)

2 • we know that the association of the 'Tyet knot of Isis clamp' with menstrual blood is because the wooden wedge has to be inserted and forced into the 'open legs' of the tool, just like a tampon has to be inserted and forced into the vagina, before being forced out of the legs of the tool

3 • we also that the first step of the mummification process is to get all the blood out of the body

And this is the link we were looking for: before you can proceed to the mummification process, you have to get all the blood of the body out; so once again, Egyptians looked for the perfect metaphoric illustration of this crucial step, and they came up with the menstrual blood metaphor. Everything here is about blood, slowly dripping of out of the body.

43.12  The mummification process in question

When you interest yourself in the Egyptian mummification process, two techniques are mentioned: the use of solid natron and the use of bath of natron. But, all this “drained blood” thing about the Tyet knot of Isis forces me to consider another possibility: what if ancient Egyptians were actually doing the exact same thing with a natron solution as our modern embalmers are doing with formal solution?

Would it be possible for Egyptians to immediately after having drained all the blood out of the body, inject a natron solution through veins and arteries?

Is it possible that all this solid natron or “bath of natron solution” be another metaphor? Because, for sure they wouldn’t have any difficulty to perform the injection (unless you continue to see ancient Egyptians as very  limited colored people from the past like they were seen in the 1800s, of course). Or maybe they could have proceeded with the three methods at the same time, we knows!

“In the first step of the embalming process, the body is perfused with embalming fluids via the vascular system. Drawing by Emmanouil Kapazoglou.” https://www.researchgate.net/figure/In-the-first-step-of-the-embalming-process-the-body-is-perfused-with-embalming-fluids_fig2_267274129

Operating diagram of the Great Pyramid of Khufu for flash-evaporative cold production, hypothetically for cooling down a Solvay-like process and the manufacturing of chemically manufacturing of 100% pure natron, the salt used by Egyptians for the mummification process.

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Table of contents

Operating diagrams of the Great Pyramid

Timelines

Index