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Over the course of Dreamland’s Year of Awakening, we will explore not only the modern threads of knowledge about how to do this, but also the ancient wisdom.
In this interview, Paul Boudreau shows us how many classic myths and stories from Sumerian, Egyptian and other sources contain instructions for awakening higher consciousness. The illusion in which we live never stops telling us that we are small, helpless and essentially “meat machines,” but there is much more to us than that, and the hungry soul can find food in ancient stories, created at a time when human beings could still sense their souls.
Surrounded as we are by material goods in the west, or consumed by agonizing poverty in the rest of the world, we are, as a species, going soul blind. It was not always like this. The past can point the way to a future in which the human species recovers itself and continues on its true journey. Paul Boudreau is an ecologist and biologist who studies ancient myths and sites. He has done on-site explorations in Egypt, and will share his finding with us.
Visit Paul at his website, www.awhico.com.
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Wonderful interview! Thank
Wonderful interview! Thank you so much.
You assume the Sumerian texts
You assume the Sumerian texts were written by Humans. What is your evidence that it was written by Humans??
Susan, do you have any
Susan, do you have any evidence that it was not? I use one question mark at the end of my sentences. Two just seems redundant. Also, do us humans deserve a capitol letter? We need a non-HUMAN to answer that.
A thoroughly enjoyable show.
A thoroughly enjoyable show. A long, hot, relaxing bath with this show was exactly what I needed.
Susan and Ed
your brief
Susan and Ed
your brief comments got me to thinking about something.
At first I thought, kind of sarcastically, is there any evidence of any language not written by humans? But then I remembered something that Whitley’s latest book, in collaboration with Jeff Kripal, helped me to realize. There is one language I can think of that was not developed by humans, although humans have now begun to learn and read this language.
It is the language of DNA and biological organisms of all kinds are the organic statements expressed by the language codified in this sacred molecule. Have you ever asked yourself, why should a gene, which is a molecular structure, map to blue or brown eyes, legs or fins, teeth or beaks? Why should a fragment of a long complicated, yet still microscopic, molecule have anything to do with a macro structure like a tree or a human. DNA is the language by which our physical bodies are written and made manifest. Who developed this language? Who wrote it and who is reading it? How does the reading of it create all the miracles of organic nature that we participate in?
I find it interesting that
I find it interesting that many of us are synchronizing certain concepts at this time. For instance, the idea that some of these ancient spiritual belief systems and practices that supposedly are about death are really about what we should be doing now in our ‘living’ bodies. (The weighing of the heart ceremony as an example). Recently Whitley discussed ‘The Tibetan Book of the Dead’. This book is very dense and I am still working my way through it, but I found yet another little gem of a book that is helping me understand the “Tibetan Book of the Dead’, called ‘The Buddha Scroll’, which contains a 36-foot long, full color reproduction of an 18th century Chinese Buddhist scroll, that includes more than 600 portraits of buddhas, bodhisattvas, arhats, and devas. This scroll has the same ‘feel’ as viewing the ancient Sumerian and Egyptian images as discussed in then interview with Paul Boudreau, different, yet the same. Used copies of this book can be found at Amazon for a little as a penny!
http://tinyurl.com/j4saa7v
Eyewitness, as for the language of DNA, Greg Braden wrote an excellent book about this called ‘The God Code’ back in 2004. While we don’t know anything for sure, this book is much food for thought and consideration.
I really enjoyed the information and the gentle, wise energy of Paul Boudreau in this interview.
Whitley and Paul Boudreau I
Whitley and Paul Boudreau I want to comment on the part of this interview that totally captured my imagination……..
http://www.ancientegyptonline.co.uk/heka.html
HEKA…….SO, DO THE RAISED ARMS/HANDS INDICATE AN ACT OF PROTECTION/INVOCATION/A CALLING UPON/OR DIVINE MAGIC? DOES HEKA PREDATE WITCHCRAFT OR IS THIS A TOTALLY SEPARATE ACTIVITY? DOES OUR KA, SIT/WALK AND DREAM WITH US AT ALL TIMES? DOES IT HAVE A FORM? IF WE COULD INTERACT WITH IT AND (KNOW) WE HAVE , MIGHT OUR KA BRING MORE UNDERSTANDING OF SOUL TO HUMANKIND WHILE WE ARE STILL IN THE PHYSICAL?
DOES ANYONE HAVE THOUGHTS OR COMMENTS ON THIS?
The Egyptian word for magic was “heka” (which literally means “using the Ka”) and Heka was the personification of magic. His name (and the word magic) were depicted as a twist of flax and a pair of raised arms.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ka_statue
The hieroglyph representing the (ka) is composed of a pair of (((upraised arms))). It is sometimes depicted on top of the head of the statue to reinforce its intended purpose.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_soul
Ka (vital spark)
The Ka (kꜣ) was the Egyptian concept of vital essence, that which distinguishes the difference between a living and a dead person, with death occurring when the ka left the body. The Egyptians believed that Khnum created the bodies of children on a potter’s wheel and inserted them into their mothers’ bodies. Depending on the region, Egyptians believed that Heket or Meskhenet was the creator of each person’s Ka, breathing it into them at the instant of their birth as the part of their soul that made them be alive. This resembles the concept of spirit in other religions.
The Egyptians also believed that the ka was sustained through food and drink. For this reason food and drink offerings were presented to the dead, although it was the kau (kꜣw) within the offerings that was consumed, not the physical aspect. The ka was often represented in Egyptian iconography as a second image of the king, leading earlier works to attempt to translate ka as double.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heka_(god)
The word Heka means activating the Ka, the aspect of the soul which embodied personality. (((Egyptians believed that activating the power of the soul was how magic worked))). “Heka” also implied great power and influence, particularly when drawing upon the Ka of the gods. Heka acted together with Hu, the principle of divine utterance, and Sia, the concept of divine omniscience, to create the basis of creative power both in the mortal world and the world of the gods.
http://www.janetcunningham.co
http://www.janetcunningham.com/Ancient-Egyptian-Subtle-Bodies.html
HIGHER KA…..
Although the ka is a spiritual principle, its effects run the gamut from purely spiritual form to physical manifestation (Ellis, 1995). I have separated the ka of the spiritual principle into the higher ka and the form closer to physical manifestation as the lower ka.
In Egyptian reliefs and paintings, the ka is shown standing protectively behind the pharaoh, acting as a sort of guardian angel in life. Examples of this sort have led to an interesting interpretation of the ka as the spiritual body within the physical body. The ka is also represented as a pair of upstretched arms, frequently placed on a standard or an offering stand and embracing food offerings (Faulkner).
The representation of the royal ka has certain special characteristics not granted to other men’s kas. The sign of the ka is sometimes placed on the head of a small image of the pharaoh and follows him as his double, implying a totalization of the indestructible envelope of the king, who becomes unified with his ka. According to Schwaller de Lubicz (1956):
All that has been said about the ka of the king is the model and plan to be followed by men seeking spiritual achievement. Such men are few, and for the majority of human beings, Egypt did not develop the theme of the ka in this way. The divine ka is not embodied in ordinary man, who is controlled only by his lower ka and his kau. So the common symbol is not generally used to represent the higher ka (Lubicz, p. 361).
Naydler agrees, “…the royal rapprochement with the ka did not occur only after death, as it did for the mass of the people. The king was conscious of his ka during life” (Naydler, 1996, p. 196).
LOWER KA…..
(((However, unlike the khu, the ka can exist separately from an individual’s physical being while he or she is still alive))).
Whereas ab desires are emotionally driven, ka desires are primal and instinctual, desires encoded into the species for sustenance, preservation, and reproduction. According to Ellis (1995), more than any other spiritual body, the ka is intimately linked to the transference of spiritual charge during life and death. If the ka’s appetites were left unsatisfied, they deflected the soul (ba) in its ultimate task of self-transformation. Unlike the ba and khu, the ka was not eternal simply because it existed in the spiritual realm; the creative, preservative power of the ka needs to be fed on the material plane (Ellis, 1995).
For the masses, to return to one’s ka meant to go to live with the ancestors; one’s children belonged to the generation of one’s ka and the “sins of the fathers and mothers” passed from generation to generation. The common man or woman, upon death, went to the ka, whereas only the pharaoh or high priests who had evolved to living in conscious awareness of their ka would leave the body with the ka.
The lower ka acquires self knowledge. According to Masters, it is the body of experience and if the ka does not develop itself, then the higher bodies will be crippled; in fact, it can lose its grasp of the world if the ka is not strengthened before exploration. He posits the ka to be the intellect, imagination, and will with the ability to make the unconscious (haidit) conscious by temporarily inhibiting its own mental processes to allow its field of consciousness to be occupied. The ka can become a detached observer to bring back memories from the haidit to integrate. Fantasy, according to Masters, takes place in the ka.
The most commonly mentioned form which the human personality could assume after death was the ka. However, unlike the khu, the ka can exist separately from an individual’s physical being while he or she is still alive.
Carollee, you raise so many
Carollee, you raise so many great points relating to the Egyptian concepts of Heka and Ka! So many things I agree with and support.
“Does Heka predate witchcraft?” Yes, the Egyptians had a much broader worldview that included much more than the current overly-rational western world view. I highly doubt that the Ancient Egyptians had any of the negative valuation of “witchcraft” that we have been given from Christianity.
Yes, Heka includes the glyph for the Ka or vital essence. Heka, the neter of magic includes the concept of vital essence. We deal with the glyph Heh as relating to Being and breath in our Chapter 3.
Yes, Ka exists on the interface between that which arises below and that which arises from above. As such our Ka exists in a critical location in the hierarchy of our human bodies that includes physical and more-than-physical attributes.
We have been greatly influenced by the writings of Jeremy Naydler (http://www.innertraditions.com/shamanic-wisdom-in-the-pyramid-texts.html) who introduced us to the need to explore Ancient Egyptian writings as directed at us as living beings – as opposed to the misrepresented view that they are about death and the dead. His work makes the point that these very first writings of humans are designed to help us learn how to live a more conscious life in the here and now. Proper work and preparation, such as we can expect for Pharaohs, can lead to a different experience. The proper action of the Ka in our living lives is critical to our connecting with our higher bodies.
It is most unfortunate that Christianity has warped the ancient concepts from the Egyptians and Sumerians such as Ka/vital essence and Heka/magic into their present misrepresentations.
Of course we have much more to say on this in our book “Awakening Higher Consciousness: Guidance from Ancient Egypt and Sumer” (http://www.innertraditions.com/awakening-higher-consciousness.html).
Thanks so much for your insightful comments on these important topics.
All the best, Paul Boudreau
Carollee and Paul I love this
Carollee and Paul I love this discussion and have been studying Kemetic Soul Anatomy as part of a lifelong quest! I am convinced that the Ancient Egyptians new fully how we are put together energetically / spiritually in the same way that in modern times we understand how the body works as a bio-mechanical machine.
Here is a painting I made on the subject: http://setkenblog.blogspot.com.au/2015/05/material-immortality.html
The interview transcript is
The interview transcript is now available online at: http://www.awhico.com/blog/2016/dreamlandinterview.
Topics include The Garden of Eden, pyramids and how would you represent large souls in literature and art?
There is a story where the
There is a story where the god has a stone boat: which is really funny because I think there must have been this thing with the ancients and staying above water in a strange way. Jesus walks on water also if anyone remembers. The ancients really must have seen this staying above water to be a god like quality.
Horace was a really interesting character.