Per-Ankh

The House of Life

Symbols, what´s that anyway?

To even begin to try an understanding of Ancient Egypt we must first realize that the Egyptians had a close relationship with symbols. Symbolic thinking permeated their worldview and was expressed in every facet of art, from the highly refined reliefs and paintings found in the great temples to the small, simple amulets worn around the neck of the commoner.

A symbol is something that has a meaning beyond the apparent one. It can bring about a connection between different levels of consciousness as it were. And in ancient Egypt it´s not an exaggeration to say that the primary form of expressing thought was by symbolism. This is not to say that contradictions and multiple meaning doesn´t exist, but for now let´s keep to one track at a time. Luckily for us, much of their work remains in the form of paintings, reliefs and sculpture and with the symbolic way of viewing the world in our minds, we might be able to get a bit closer to the "magic" of Ancient Egypt.

So what was all this symbolism about then?

If an image is not merely an image, what lies behind it? For the Egyptians the deeper meaning was always linked with the very nature of existence itself, the structure of the cosmos. The various aspects of existence was inherent in that word, that image, that statue etc, which depicted the aspect in question. By depicting or acting out a situation or a circumstance, reality and physical presence actually came about, it became a fact per sé. And it was never a question of art for itself, for its´own sake - the purpose was to reflect the world of the gods or depict various kings and queens in the act of paying homage to the gods.

Symbolism in Structure

To take the Egyptian temple as an example then; the temple while it is fully visible on Earth is at the same time also the "sky" where the gods exist and thus a god may take up residence in a temple structure. And when the priest opens the sealed doors of the shrine each morning, he opens the "doors of the horizon" and sees the god in his "earthly sky". The temple, like the god, existed on more than one level of reality.

More; every part of the temple structure had its specific symbolic connotations as a model of the universe, at least from the New Kingdom and onwards. The mud brick wall that encircled the whole temple area was built on an alternatingly concave and convex foundation bed to depict the primeval waters of Nun from where everything had been created. The temple itself was imitating the primeval mound - that piece of land which had risen out of these primeval waters when the cosmos was created. It could have several pylons, i.e. gateways, opening into one or more open courtyards behind which was a hall where the roof was held up by pillars leading up to the dark sanctum where the god was, enclosed in his naos.

The ceiling in the temple was considered to symbolize the sky of the universe. It was decorated with stars and flying birds representing different deities. The floor was likened to the marshy ground, therefore the pillars represented papyrus plants, lotus and palm trees. The pillar heads were decorated to depict palm leaves, papyrus or lotus flowers accordingly. Also the lower parts of the temple walls depicted different marsh plants.

The floor level was gradually rising towards the inner sanctum, thus depicting to the center of the primeval mound of earth that had risen from the waters when the world was created and the gods first had appeared. This is also where the creator god Atum in the form of the Benu bird was said to have alighted.

The pylons too had their symbolic meaning, they reflected the form of the hieroglyph for "horizon" where the sun rose each day. In the Ptolemaic temple at Edfu the pylons are called "Isis and Nephtys who raise up the sun god who shines on the horizon". And the long processional path leading up to the pylons reflects the sun´s journey each day as it rises above the pylons in the east, moves across the courtyards and halls during the day and finally as it sets in the west where the inner shrine was located.