Hi Chris,

My goal was to demonstrate that the Old Kingdom religious texts do not mention Sah at the height of the sky, which is needed for an alignment theory to work for the upper, southern shaft. I don't think I failed in this because the texts not only don't support a culmination context for Sah but, rather, strongly reference Sah at the horizon.

It is for Re, the Sun god, for which a situating of a high point in the sky is reserved.

Taking a look at eighteen of the Sah references in the Pyramid Texts, it can be seen that,

line 151 deals with the horizon,

line 186 concerns a season in the sky and a season on land (earth),

line 408-408 gives a designation of Sah as Lord of the Horizon,

line 723 describs sah in terms of reaching the sky,

line 802 deals with Sah located in the Underworld,

line 820 mentions Sah in the context of dawn light,

line 821 conerns Sah in relation to the eastern and western regions of the sky, not the middle of the sky,

line 822 describes Sah as crossing the sky (not stopping midway to pick up passengers!),

line 883 tells of the king being born with Sah (clearly a sunrise reference),

line 959 provides an explanation that Osiris' name became Sah when he was thrown to earth by Seth,

line 1436 is about the birth of Sah as associated with the birth of 'Limitless in the Horizon',

line 1561 describes the earth being hacked up so that the king can rise up to reach the hand of Sah,

line 1717 tells that the place of Sah is in the Netherworld,

line 1763 informs us that the king is lifted up on a ladder (to the sky) and has his foot on Sah,

line 2116 states that the king is given birth like Sah, rising up from out the earth,

line 2172 describes the king as being high in the sky moving from east to west as a companion of Sah and Sepdet (not picking up the king midway in the sky!),

and line 2268 is unclear due to damage but describes stars which are near Sah.


So, considereing the above, it is rather clear imo that the main thrust of the Old Kingdom texts dealing with Sah concerns lifting up the King from the eastern horizon. The role of Sah to transport the king to the western horizon is also evident. But there is no reference to Sah in the middle of the sky and certainly no reference to Sah stopping at the meridian to pick up soul components of a hitch-hiking king that were somehow projected in cannon ball fasion up to the starry sky!

Ken