Eye

This amulet of ancient times is said to hold great magical powers. It has been mistakenly called the "evil eye" . It also has been called the Eye of Ra. It holds many legends and secrets. A symbolic sign for protection. It tells a tale of a great battle between the gods, Osiris, Seth and Horus.

and keep in mind that I have paraphrased it to my way of writing as there are several accounts, I have combined the stories together.

Osiris, the great grandson of the mighty god Ra and his beautiful consort, Isis, the first to rule over the living world as Pharaoh and Queen. The ways of Osiris were just and peaceful making sure everything was kept in balance through Ma'at as she lovingly smiled upon all. The people praised Osiris and Isis for many, many moons. And peace was in abundance.

Swollen with pride and conceit was the brother of Osiris, Seth. He who had battled with the Apep the Destroyer was disconcerted and disturbed. He desired and envied everything his brother Osiris had, Isis, the throne, the supremacy over the living world. In his evil, sinister mind he devises a stratagem to rid himself of his brother and take it all for himself. He builds a box and carves an evil spell on it that would shackle anyone who crossed the threshold, never able to flee from it's hold.

Set takes the box to the Great Feast of the gods. He patiently waits for Osiris to become completely intoxicated, then entices him to a game of strength. Each one would enter this box and pull a Houdini, not by magic, by brute force. Osiris, confident in his supremacy enters the box. Set swiftly makes his move and pours molten lead into the box. Osiris tries in vain to escape. The sinister spell constrains him where he dies. Set then takes the box and throws it into the Nile where it drifts away.

Set quickly claims the throne of Osiris and commands that Isis becomes his queen. So distraught are the other gods that no one confronts Set fearing the same fate awaits them as their beloved Osiris. Bereaved and pining the Great Ra does not provoke Set in any manner.

The sands of time seemed seemed bleak and dismal. A great war was on the horizon that would separate Egypt. The balance Ma'at no longer existed for pandemonium and corruption was abundant. Despondent and inconsolable was Ra that he did not hear the desperate cries of his beloved children.

Isis, faithful, true and undaunted by Set she sets forth in search of her Osiris. She scours the Nile from one end to the other till she finally comes to a graceful, mighty tree, with long feather like branches with clusters of tiny leaves and skewers of beautiful pink blossoms. Embedded at the roots of this tree is the box that she has been looking for all this time. She feels the power of Osiris within for lives on even in death. As she starts to break up the box she moans and bewails the deceased body. She takes the box back to to the temple of the gods in Egypt. In a breath she transforms herself into a song bird and flies around his body signing ballads of mourning. Descending herself on to him, she bestows an incantation unto him. The very essence of Osiris enters her and she conceives. Knowing that she will bear a son whose journey will be to free Egypt and to reciprocate his father she calls him Horus. She takes the young Horus and relocates to an Island beyond the reach of Set.

Once Horus was safe, Isis seeks out to find Thoth, the wisest of all the Egyptian gods. He was the god of the moon, magic and writing. For Thoth knew all and saw all. She appeals to him for an incantation that could resurrect her husband, Osiris from the dead. Thoth through himself was brought into existence by whispering his own name through his own incantations. To help with Isis' plight, Thoth gives her no guarantee's. Thoth knows that Osiris' akh is lost. He needs to be re born in order for his akh to acknowledge him. Together, Isis and Thoth conjure up the Ritual of Life. Disturbingly enough, before the incantation was finished Set finds them. He violently steals the body and dismembers the body and scatters the pieces through out Egypt.

Frantic, Isis does not give up. She appeals to her sister Nephthys, Mistress of the House and wife of Set, for help in guiding her to find the strewn pieces of Osiris. Loyal to her sister Isis, they set out for the long journey. As days turn into weeks and weeks into months and months into years, they bring each piece they find to Thoth. Once all the pieces were found, Thoth brings the body parts to Anubis, the jackal headed god of the dead, where he sews Osiris' body members back in place. He washes Osiris' entrails, then embalms the body, wraps him up in linen and finally casts the spell of the Ritual of Life. As Osiris' mouth opens, his akh re enters and Osiris lives once more.

It is written that one who dies, even a god may not reside in the land of the living. Anubis takes Osiris to Duat, the sacred under world of the dead. Once there, Anubis relinquishes his throne to Osiris, now he is the god of the underworld where he assesses the souls of the dead in judgment. He sanctions the faithful and good. The evil he sentences to Ammit, the demon goddess who sits beneath the throne of Osiris and the scales of justice, she is ready to devour and annihilate the souls of the wicked.

Set, upon hearing of Orisris' resurrection is infuriated and outraged. He assumed that he would rule over all the gods for eternity. But his anger diminished as he knew that Osiris could not cross over to the land of the living. Yet Set knows that the son of Isis and Osiris is a threat that had to be dealt with. As Horus continues to grow into manhood, Set sends many demons and serpents to kill him. He obliterates them all. The day finally comes when Horus is ready to go up against Set, alone. Isis bestows upon him great magic and Thoth bestows a great magic sword.

A great battle ensues. Horus confronts and provokes Seth into a challenge of supremacy. The war goes on for several years, some say the battle lasted for eighty years, as the two of them bludgeon each other mercilessly. Set then executes with a passion of fury a severe hit to Horus' left eye and tears it out and crushes it into pieces! Despite his injury, Horus composes himself, and regains his strength to inflict one last blow, he picks up his sword of magic and with a quick powerful stroke he castrates Set. Alas, Set lies there defeated in battle, Horus does not want more bloodshed and allows him to live.

After Horus won the battle, the God Thoth found the pieces of the eye and reassembled them with his magic and gave it back to Horus. However, he had already been healed and given a new eye by his mother Isis, a powerful healer. Horus gave the Eye as a gift to his murdered father Osiris.

As all the gods gather, they start fighting amongst themselves of who is the rightful heir to the almighty throne. Set still affirmed his right to supremacy as Horus declared himself the rightful ruler as the son of Osiris. The gods were divided between the two of them. Banebdjetet, the Ram headed god of lower Egypt, who is frustrated with the chaos, bolts in the conversation and demands that they carry on amicably before they completely disrupt the harmony of Ma'at, goddess of infallibility and universal order.

He advises them to beseech the guidance of Neith the goddess of war and impartiality to arbitrate between two sides. When she arrives, she is distressed over the turbulent atmosphere. She listens wisely, as both sides tell her their side of the controversy. After pondering carefully, she declares that Horus is the legitimate heir to the throne. Horus' first act of sovereignty is banishing Set into darkness for all eternity.

As we all know the "Eye" is the most recognised symbol of all times. We see it everywhere. In ancient Egypt it was commonly used as an amulet and was wrapped up with mummies. As a funeral amulet, it was used as protection against evil in the underworld. The Book of the Dead instructs that funerary eye amulets be made out of lapis lazuli or a stone called mak; some were gold-plated. Both eyes were used on the out side of the sarcophagus or coffin to allow the deceased to see from beyond his or her casket.

Coffin of Sepi JE 32868 (CG 28083) Cairo Antiquities Museum Material: Painted Wood Size: Height: 70 cm; Width: 65 cm; Length: 233 cm Location: Deir el-Bersha, Tomb of Sepi III Excavation: Egyptian Antiquity Service Excavations of 1897 Period: 12th Dynasty, (1991-1783 BC)

Location: Valley of the Kings, Tomb of Tutankhamun (KV 62)

Bound into the bandages wrapping the mummy of Tutankhamun, Howard Carter believed that this pectoral was a piece of jewelry that the king would have worn while still living. Though very beautiful, its function was primarily protective.

The "eye" has been transformed down to our timeline as the All Seeing Eye or the Eye of Providence, usually depicted in the sky looking out upon the earth, it is an ancient symbol of the sun, and historically has been used as a symbol of omniscience. The idea of the solar eye comes to us from the Ancient Egyptians, who equated the eye with the deity Horus and Osiris and the great battle against Set. The human eye in its ability to perceive light was viewed as a miniature sun. In Chinese philosophy, yin and yang represent the two primal cosmic forces in the universe. Yin (moon) is the receptive, passive, cold female force. Yang (sun) is masculine- force, movement, heat. The Yin Yang symbol represents the idealised balance of the forces; equilibrium in the universe.

Photobucket

Pic from unknown artist

Regardless, Horus became known as "Horus who rules with two eyes" His right eye was white representing the sun while his left eye was black representing the moon.

Horus was also an ancient Egyptian sky god in the form of a falcon. The right eye represents a peregrine falcon's eye and the markings around it, including the "teardrop" marking sometimes found below the eye. As the wadjet (also udjat or utchat), it also represented the sun, and was associated with his mother Isis, The left eye, sometimes represented the moon and the god Thoth.

Confused yet?

As an amulet the Eye of Horus has three versions: a left eye, a right eye, and two eyes. The eye is constructed in fractional parts, with 1/64 missing, a piece that Thoth added with magic. The Eye of Horus is depicted as a human eye embellished with a typical Egyptian cosmetic extension and subtended by the markings of a falcon's cheek. The symbol of modern pharmacies and prescriptions, Rx, is derived from the three pieces of the Eye of Horus.

1/2 was represented by smell, symbolized by the right side of the eye in a form of the nose. The pyramid text says: "Behold [the fire] rises in Abydos and it comes; I cause it to come, the Eye of Horus. It is set in order upon thy brow, O Osiris Khenti-Amenti; it is set in the shrine and rises on thy brow."

1/4 was represented by sight or the sensation of light, symbolized by the pupil. The pyramid text says: "Perfect is the Eye of Horus. I have delivered the Eye of Horus, the shining one, the ornament of the Eye of Ra, the Father of the Gods."

1/8 was represented by thought, symbolized by the eyebrow. The pyramid text says: "...the Eye of Horus hath made me holy...I will hide myself among you, O ye stars which are imperishable. My brow is the brow of Ra."

1/16 was represented by hearing, symbolized by the left side of the eye in the form of an arrow pointing towards the ear. The pyramid text says: "That which has been shut fast/dead hath been opened by the command of the Eye of Horus, which hath delivered me. Established are the beauties on the forehead of Ra."

1/32 was represented by taste, by the sprouting of wheat or grain from the plant stalk, symbolized by a curved tail. The pyramid text says; "Come, the Eye of Horus hath delivered for me my soul, my ornaments are established on the brow of Ra. Light is on the faces of those who are in the members of Osiris."

1/64 was represented by touch, symbolized by a leg toughing the ground, or what also could be thought of as a strong plant growing into the surface of the earth. The pyramid texts says; I shall see the Gods and the Eye of Horus burning with fire before my eyes!"

For an in depth look into the mathematics of this subject please click on to Terrance G. Nevin

His insight on this is next to phenomenal.