Freemasonry and the cult of Ptah
Richa...@aol.com
I'm curious as to whether anyone has information regarding a possible
connection between Freemasonry and the Egyptian cult of Ptah. This
connection came up in my research for a book on a tangentially related
subject. I found what I think is a great deal of evidence suggesting that
the cult of Ptah may have evolved directly into modern Freemasonry. The
lineage goes something like this:
1. Cult of Ptah (Egypt)
2. Cult of Khousor/Kothar-wa-Hasis (Phoenicia)
3. Cult of Daidalos/Hephaistos (Greece and Crete)
3. Cult of Daidalos (Etruscan-era Italy)
4. Collegia Artificium (Rome)
5. Knights Templar
6. Scottish Templars
7. Freemasonry
The descent of Freemasonry from the Roman collegia has, of course, been
widely discussed. But I have never seen a discussion of the older
Ptah-Khousor-Daidalos connection, outside of my book.
The evidence for this connection seems quite strong. One of the most
intriguing hints can be found in the wall reliefs of Rosslyn Chapel,
Scotland, whose panels feature scenes from the story of the "Murdered
Apprentice" This Murdered Apprentice story is extremely similar to the
ancient Greek story of Daidalos, who murdered his nephew and apprentice
Talos, out of envy.
Does any of this ring any bells?
-- Richard Poe
-------------------==== Posted via Deja News ====-----------------------
http://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Post to Usenet
Paul Hume
> The descent of Freemasonry from the Roman collegia has, of course, been
> widely discussed. But I have never seen a discussion of the older
> Ptah-Khousor-Daidalos connection, outside of my book.
>
> The evidence for this connection seems quite strong. One of the most
> intriguing hints can be found in the wall reliefs of Rosslyn Chapel,
> Scotland, whose panels feature scenes from the story of the "Murdered
> Apprentice" This Murdered Apprentice story is extremely similar to the
> ancient Greek story of Daidalos, who murdered his nephew and apprentice
> Talos, out of envy.
>
> Does any of this ring any bells?
>
Only the alarm marked "bad history". Ptah (depending on the period) was
one of the Creator Gods, or the "executive officer" of the Prime Mover
when that office got moved to Amoun later on. I suppose that office (the
God who makes stuff, as it were) is where you see a connection to
Hephaistos.
And what this has to do with the Templars, a mere 3-4000 years after
Ptah was big on the divine hit parade is as unclear as the connection
(outside yet more bad history) between those knights and the Masons.
Murder-of-enlightened/superior/beautiful-hero-out-of-envy/lust/desire
for gain is such a universal motif, that if you take cognate myths as
signs of a connection to the legend of Hiram, you can connect the
Masonic mythos to almost every culture on Earth.
Paul
Paul
Rick Reade
Ptah? Isn't that the sound one makes when spitting?
As far as I know, there is no cult of spitting noises in
Freemasonry.
Dr. Roger M. Firestone
It is fairly well established that the legend of the Master Mason's
degree was introduced into Freemasonry in the 1700s, after the
foundation of the first Grand Lodge. How it was done so as to leave
almost no traces of its creator is astonishing. However, there is good
reason to believe that the Mason who introduced it was knowledgeable of
mediaeval legends and literature; there is no need to invoke an obscure
chain of transmission from ancient Egypt through the Templars for this
story. One paper exists on the subject; it is written in French and was
published in a Polish journal (an awful lot of Polish research in
mathematics was published in French--it was the only way to be sure it
would be read; German was the other choice, but the Poles weren't going
to do _that_!). I'm afraid that I am ethically constrained from giving
further information--it isn't my own research.
I happen to side with Pike, who referred to the "_supposed_ mysteries"
of Freemasonry. Pike recognized the need for some to believe in
mysteries and mysticism and terror and fantastic or dire symbols; for
them, he created lower numbered degrees. For those who were truly ready
for the truth about Masonry, he provided other, more advanced lessons.
Of course, the "wise and studious" may find the truth in the Master's
Lodge--but most will benefit from Pike's help in the Scottish Rite.
Perhaps the greatest mystery of Freemasonry is the need to mystify what
is actually quite simple. But then the Truth is also in the Volume of
the Sacred Law, and most don't really accept that either, certainly not
easily or early in their lives...
Roger M. Firestone, 32 KCCH
Richa...@aol.com
In article <34B82A...@lan2wan.com>,
paul...@lan2wan.com wrote:
>
> > The descent of Freemasonry from the Roman collegia has, of course, been
> > widely discussed. But I have never seen a discussion of the older
> > Ptah-Khousor-Daidalos connection, outside of my book.
> >
> > The evidence for this connection seems quite strong. One of the most
> > intriguing hints can be found in the wall reliefs of Rosslyn Chapel,
> > Scotland, whose panels feature scenes from the story of the "Murdered
> > Apprentice" This Murdered Apprentice story is extremely similar to the
> > ancient Greek story of Daidalos, who murdered his nephew and apprentice
> > Talos, out of envy.
> >
> > Does any of this ring any bells?
> >
>
> Only the alarm marked "bad history". Ptah (depending on the period) was
> one of the Creator Gods, or the "executive officer" of the Prime Mover
> when that office got moved to Amoun later on. I suppose that office (the
> God who makes stuff, as it were) is where you see a connection to
> Hephaistos.
Actually, the connection is much stronger than this. In her book,
Daidalos and the Origin of Greek Art, archaeologist Sarah Morris argues
that there was an international "cult connection" between the worshippers
of Ptah (Egypt), Kothar-wa-Hasis (Phoenicia) and Hephaistos (Greece). All
of these are gods of the arts and crafts.
A tablet from the city of Ugarit praises Kothar-wa-Hasis in these words:
"His seat is at Memphis, his throne is at Kaphtor." Another tablet calls
Kothar-wa-Hasis, "Lord of all Divine Memphis." Memphis was a city in
Egypt that was considered the home of Ptah's cult. In Egyptian theology,
the Lord of Memphis was Ptah. These words explicitly identify
Kothar-wa-Hasis with Ptah. That's not my theory, but the theory of Sarah
Morris, a noted Bronze Age archaeologist.
Morris also draws a link between Kothar-wa-Hasis and Daidalos.
Kothar-wa-Hasis means "Skillful-and-Wise" and Daidalos means "skillful."
There are innumerable parallels in the legends about these two figures.
Some scholars believe that "Daidalos" was originally just a descriptive
epithet for the god Hephaistos, as in "Hephaistos Daidalos" -- Hephaistos
the Skillful.
But who is Hephaistos? In the Linear B script, used by the Mycenaean
Greeks from about 1400 to 1100 BC, archaeologists have found a name
a-pa-i-ti-jo -- apparently a very old version of "Hephaistios", which
could refer to either a person, a festival, or a month named after the
god Hephaistos.
Working backwards from apaitijo, linguists have deduced that the actual
name of the god Hephaistos, in Mycenaean times, was probably Apaito. This
is, in fact, very close to Ptah. The only real difference lies in the
vowels, which are not shown in Egyptian writing. Ptah's name, for all we
know, may really have sounded a lot like Apaito in Egyptian. And, indeed,
Cornell University historian Martin Bernal believes that the name
"Hephaistos" very likely derived from that of the Egyptian god Ptah.
What does all this mean? It means that, as far back as the Bronze Age,
craftsmen all over the Eastern Mediterranean appear to have been united
in a single, international religious cult. Was this cult an early
precursor of Freemasonry? Maybe.
> And what this has to do with the Templars, a mere 3-4000 years after
> Ptah was big on the divine hit parade is as unclear as the connection
> (outside yet more bad history) between those knights and the Masons.
The Templars emerged around 1119 -- approximately 2300 years after the
close of the Bronze Age. During that 2300-year period, the cult of Ptah
may have been transmitted to Europe and preserved there through the cult
of Daidalos, which was very prominent in classical Athens, and was also
observed among the Etruscans and Romans.
Interestingly, the worshippers of Daidalos employed common craftsmen's
tools as cult emblems, just as the Freemasons do today. A gold Etruscan
seal from about 470 BC shows Daidalos carrying a saw and an adze, while
his son Ikaros carries a double axe and a T-square.
Craftsmen's tools were also used in Egyptian rituals, such as the Opening
of the Mouth ceremony, in which a priest -- dressed as Ptah -- would
"awaken" a statue of a god by touching its mouth with a chisel, while
another priest, dressed as Anubis, would touch it with an adze.
> Murder-of-enlightened/superior/beautiful-hero-out-of-envy/lust/desire
> for gain is such a universal motif, that if you take cognate myths as
> signs of a connection to the legend of Hiram, you can connect the
> Masonic mythos to almost every culture on Earth.
>
> Paul
True, but, in this case, as I hope I have demonstrated, the connection is
somewhat more precise and well-documented.
With best regards,
rpe...@lausd.k12.ca.us
In article <884875534....@dejanews.com>,
How the Freemasons claims were fraudulent:
From The Myth of Egypt and Its Hieroglyphs, by Erik Iversen, pgs. 121-3.
"The extent of the belief in magic, demonology, and occultism,
together with an uncanny urge for mystic experience and occult
revelations, is demonstrated by the rather frightening reports of the
case against prisoners in Paris and at the court of Louis XIV about 1700,
and the memoirs of the period bear illuminating evidence of how
astrology, alchemy, and magical experiments were fashionable occupations
for the idle rich as well as the ambitious poor. The ardent
adherents of true mystics, as for instance Boheme, Swedenborg, and
Gessner, formed influential congregations round mystic doctrines of their
leaders, and adventurers and rogues such as Schrepfer, Saint Germain and
Cagliostro could live on the fat of the land, be accepted in high
society, and become almost religiously revered by means of a mystic
oratory, simple conjuring tricks, and demonological thimbleriggings.
Semi-religious and secret societies of every denomination abounded, and
common to most of them was their dependence on esoteric doctrines,
cosmological conceptions, and a mystic terminology based on a weird
conglomeration of debased Neo-Platonic, Gnostic, Hermetic and Cabbalistic
ideas. The theoretical aim of most of them was a vague ethical desire to
obtain perfection by means of a secret knowledge of an esoteric truth,
manifest in allegorical symbols, the true meaning of which was gradually
revealed to the initiate as he passed through the rites of the various
degrees of the societies among which the Rosiscrucians and the Freemasons
were the most influential and respectable. How the essential mystery
which the old Neo-Platonic manner would seem to have been considered a
secret mystic experience more than an actual secret, was considered an
Egyptian heritage is well-established in Masonic literature and was a
natural consequence of the tendency to ascribe an Egyptian origin to any
mystical creed and doctrine. In more or less direct connection with
the interest for secret rites and allegorical ceremonies engendered by
the Masonic activities grew an extensive literature with Egyptian
subjects, almost invariably centered around cultic mysteries and secret,
symbolic initiations. Typical is Jean Terrason's moralizing novel
'Sethos' (1731) which in the author's own words was strongly influenced
by 'Telémaque.' By far the most important parts of the voluminous book
are the elaborate descriptions of the various trials, rituals and
mysteries to which the hero, the young Sethos, was submitted by his
fatherly tutor, in order to ennoble and fortify his character, and
develop the lofty virtues of an enlightened monarch. The book is not
without a certain historical colouring, obviously based on extensive
studies of classical authorities as Apuleius, Plutarch, Iamblichus and
Eusebius. It was widely read, and not infrequently considered an
authoritative source of information concerning Egyptian cult and
mythology, with unjust disregard of Jablonski's compendious and scholarly
'Pantheon Aegypthiorum,' which appeared in the years 1750-1752. In
Masonic circles 'Sethos' became of almost historical importanct, because
it became the basis on which French reformers framed their so-called
Egyptian ritual. Seen from a literary point of view it gave rise
to countless imitations, a true literary Egyptomania. Already in 1739 it
was dramatized by Tannevot into a five-act tragedy in verse, and in 1751
Rameau wrote an opera ballet 'La naissance d'Osiris,' the text of which -
by Cahusac - is said to be reminiscent of Sethos. Von Köppen published
in 1770 his 'Crata Repoa,' or 'Initiations into the ancient society of
Egyptian priests,' much read in Masonic circles and frequently reprinted.
The first German translation of 'Sethos' appeared in Hamburg already in
1732, and no less a person than Matthias Claudius made a new and better
one in 1777. An opera by Naumann 'Osiris', with libretto by Mazzola, was
produced in Dresden 1781, and the renowned geologist and Mason, Ignatz v.
Born inaugurated his 'Journal für Freimaur' with a great article on the
mysteries of the Egyptians based on Terrason and v. Köppen. Born was
Master of the Lodge 'Zur Wahren Eintracht' in Vienna, into which Mozart
was originally introduced; and the dependence of Schikaneder's text to
'The Magic Flute' (1791) on the above-mentioned material was long ago
indisputably established and acknowledged. It must not be forgotten
either that Goethe, who during his Italian journey had shown a keep
interest in Egyptian antiquities, and even taken casts of hieroglyphs and
smaller monuments, wrote a continuation of 'The Magic Flute' (1795), and
that Spiess, the very popular author of novels of horror, wrote a
'Geheimneisse der Alten Egypzier,' which I have not seen, but in which
the 'irresistible longing for Egypt' is said to be the leitmotiv.
.....(Other books were discussed.) It is obvious that these works
were only indirectly and very remotely connected with the Egyptian
traditions, but the stupendous fraud responsible for their appearance was
based on a cunning understanding of the fact that a mystic belief in the
occult science of ancient Egypt was still alive and strong enough to be
used in dangerous efforts to dominate the imagination and the minds of
men.
Dennis Eijs
> the fact that a mystic belief in the
> occult science of ancient Egypt was still alive and strong enough to be
> used in dangerous efforts to dominate the imagination and the minds of
> men.
they are no longer the ones that started and the ones that understand
they misinterpret the symbols from their original form and as such
they can not be the ones that have started it.
how do I know?well,that is my secret
ankhor ankhORION
truth is in the yey of the beholder
except for the beholder of the eye
for it may see through any lie
(yes I'm up to my ussual wierdness again this night,
but doesn't it say children and madmen tell the truth :o)
food for thought isn't it(listen too
lion sion reggea in america and hear the revelation
if you can find it for it is a old record :o)
ankhor ankhORION
--
=free奄nkhor奚+-3~.xs2all.I's=
Richa...@aol.com
In article <884928338....@dejanews.com>,
etc. etc. etc.
With all due respect to Erik Iversen, he has not demonstrated that
Freemasonry's claims to an Egyptian pedigree are "fraudulent." All he has
shown is that a novel called "Sethos" contributed to a wave of
fashionable Egyptomania during the 18th century.
In her book, "Not Out of Africa", Mary Lefkowitz employed an identical
argument. She argued that, because many 18th-century Masons drew some
ideas about the Egyptian Mysteries from the novel "Sethos", that Masonry
itself must therefore have had no legitimate claim to an Egyptian
heritage. But this is faulty reasoning.
"Sethos" romanticized the Egyptian Mysteries, to be sure. But there had
to be something there, in the first place, for Terrason to romanticize
it. Iversen acknowledges that "Sethos" was based upon the writings of
classical authors, such as Apuleius, Plutarch, Iamblichus and Eusebius.
These men wrote about the Egyptian Mysteries at a time when the Egyptian
temples were still functioning. Personally, I trust their opinion more
than that of Mary Lefkowitz or Erik Iversen.
-- Richard Poe
Richa...@aol.com
On 1/13/98, Aron wrote:
> You must start from Egypt and the The Cult of Ptah and find out its
> connection to Freemasonry.
Aron, I caught your message in alt.prophecies.nostradamus.
We've got a thread going here in alt.freemasonry that specifically
addresses the connection between Freemasonry and the Cult of Ptah. If
you've got some information on this connection, why don't you share it
with us?
-- Richard Poe
wjg...@gmail.com
> I'm curious as to whether anyone has information regarding a possible
> connection between Freemasonry and the Egyptian cult of Ptah. This
> connection came up in my research for a book on a tangentially related
> subject. I found what I think is a great deal of evidence suggesting that
> the cult of Ptah may have evolved directly into modern Freemasonry. The
> lineage goes something like this:
>
> 1. Cult of Ptah (Egypt)
> 2. Cult of Khousor/Kothar-wa-Hasis (Phoenicia)
> 3. Cult of Daidalos/Hephaistos (Greece and Crete)
> 3. Cult of Daidalos (Etruscan-era Italy)
> 4. Collegia Artificium (Rome)
> 5. Knights Templar
> 6. Scottish Templars
> 7. Freemasonry
>
> widely discussed. But I have never seen a discussion of the older
> Ptah-Khousor-Daidalos connection, outside of my book.
>
> The evidence for this connection seems quite strong. One of the most
> intriguing hints can be found in the wall reliefs of Rosslyn Chapel,
> Scotland, whose panels feature scenes from the story of the "Murdered
> Apprentice" This Murdered Apprentice story is extremely similar to the
> ancient Greek story of Daidalos, who murdered his nephew and apprentice
> Talos, out of envy.
>
> Does any of this ring any bells?
>
>
> -------------------==== Posted via Deja News ====-----------------------
> http://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Post to Usenet
I came across this post. I know is a bit old but I think I have found the connection your looking for.