Hi, thanks for the response to my posting. On Sokar as a stellar deity, I write:

"According to the eminent British Egyptologist Sir Ernest Alfred Wallis Budge (1857-1934), the curator of Egyptian Antiquities at the British Museum for thirty years and the translator of many Ancient Egyptian texts, the falcon-headed god Sokar (or Seker) was ‘probably the oldest of all the gods of the dead’ in Egypt. Although his growing influence was cut off in its prime by the burgeoning cult of Ptah, the creator god of the royal city of Memphis, Sokar’s role as guardian of the deceased in the underworld would remain strong, particularly at his primary cult centre of Rostau (or Restau), meaning ‘mouth of the passages’, which, we find, turns out to be ancient Giza. His connection with the location was very ancient indeed. It is mentioned in the Pyramid Texts, c. 2400 BC, although it probably goes back to the very beginnings of Ancient Egyptian history.

"Certainly by 3000 BC, Giza was being used as a northern extension of the Memphite necropolis, over which Sokar was divine protector, for it was at this time that a large north-south orientated tomb known as Mastaba V was constructed here. It dates to the reign of a First Dynasty pharaoh named Djet, and was discovered in 1904 some 2.5 kilometres (1.5 miles) south-south-east of the current pyramid field. When excavated, it was found to be surrounded by the graves of no less than 56 retainers, showing the importance of its internee. Why exactly this unnamed official chose Giza as his burial place is not known. Yet records show that twice during the reign of Djet’s father, Djer, the all-important festival of Sokar took place.

"Since tradition asserts that Djer built the royal palaces of Memphis, there is every reason to suspect that the earliest known festival of Sokar took place within its necropolis, arguably even reaching the Giza plateau, which is likely to have been a cemetery by this time. Such a conclusion is evident from the discovery here of pottery jars and other contemporary artifacts pre-dating the foundations of Dynastic Egypt, including four intact vessels unearthed just west of the Great Sphinx in 1907. They were almost certainly buried as grave goods and belong to the so-called Buto-Maadi, or Maadian, culture, that thrived in the area of Cairo and the Nile Delta during the Chalcolithic, or Copper, age, c. 3900-3200 BC. In all twelve Buto-Maadi sites have been detected, including a cemetery at Heliopolis, north-east of modern Cairo....

"Sokar is additionally connected with the benben, a sacred egg-like stone symbolising cosmic creation, which might also have been of meteoric origin. This link between Sokar and the benben is found in the Pyramid Texts, which state that the egg-like stone ‘is in the Mansion of Sokar’. Elsewhere it is said to have been kept at the ancient cult centre of Heliopolis (the Biblical ‘On’ and Egyptian Iunu), situated north-east of modern-day Cairo. The benben-stone was placed, most probably, on a pedestal within a structure known as the Mansion of the Phoenix, the Greek form of the benu, the Heliopolitan name for the bird of creation in his form as the white heron. He is invariably shown perched on the benben-stone, or on a sacred mound, just as white herons make their nests on temporary mud islands that appear in the River Nile after the annual inundation.

"The Festival of Sokar
The connection between Sokar and both meteoric iron and the sun-egg not only demonstrates his stellar attributes, but also his relationship to the northern group of constellations, the Great Ones as they were known. In fact, we find that during the festival of Sokar, the king would enter the ‘halls of Sokar’ and identify with the god, equated already with Osiris, after which he would undergo symbolic funerary rites including the ‘Opening of the Mouth’, through which he was renewed and made ‘triumphant’. This celestial aspect of the falcon-headed deity is expressed also in a New Kingdom inscription from the Temple of Medinet Habu in Southern Egypt which proclaims, ‘Opened are the doors of heaven, that the god [Sokar] may come forth,’ which exactly echoes the understanding of Cygnus as the Bird’s Foot constellation by the native peoples of North America.

"During this event the pharaoh symbolised by a statue of Sokar would be taken aboard the henu-barque, the falcon god’s personal vessel, which sported a conical roof on which was mounted a falcon head as well as an antelope’s head prow that gazed backwards at a ceremonial ‘chapel’ or cabinet. The statue would remain in its own ‘room’ as the barque was paraded on a sled around the boundary walls of the city or temple complex in question. After ten days of ceremonies and processions, the festival would climax with the symbolic resurrection of Sokar, reflected in the inevitable transition from death into new life that the king would ultimately make."


All references are given in THE CYGNUS MYSTERY

The most obvious Mound of Creation at Giza would have to have been surrounded, or at lapped, by the waters of the Nile, which hardly suggests the original rock outcrop beneath the Great Pyramid. Gebel Ghibli is a much better candidate, but even this might not have been the original one.

Andrew