Hi Graham,


> I was thinking prior to the 10th dynasty, I was
> thinking precession and the 72 years periods as
> mentioned by you and the enormous time it would
> take to record these events before anything came
> of it.


Yes, but the point is, that if we have the decan tables on the 9-11 dynasty coffins, then the observation must have began way before. And how long must they have observed before they realised there was a pattern regularly repeated? I don't think this is a task of a few years, you know. Because let's face it, they didn't know there would be a pattern to begin with, did they? Anyhow, they went right on observing, since we see the same system repeated in the Ramesside tombs i.e. a couple of thousand yeas later. One would think that kind of a timeline in observation would give them hints of the precession, don't you think?




>
> Their whole belief system was based on the sky?


Well, the birth, the life, the death and the life after death, all paralleled and identified with the sky. I'd say that about covers it, eh?



>
> I dunno but the concept of maat seems more at home
> with the balance one sees in the close up nature
> of plants, animals and the human ordeal.


Yeh, sure. Maat is present on all levels, even if most tangibly on the earthly one. But the Egyptians had also a conception of cosmic Maat etc.



We agreed
> that geometry played a part and as you probably
> know that's what I'm heavily into.

Yes, and we can go right ahead agreeing on that one. I am sure that the Egyptians noticed the Fibonacci series as designed by the nature, for example. We know their passion for the nature and their keen skills of observation, hence a geometrical (or would that be mathematical?) design of that kind cannot have been missed by them. Not by people who saw geometry and balance in everything.
Still, from there to go to suggestions such as you make further down in this thread about the two eyes of Horus.... well, it's a huge jump. We do know that originally the eyes of Horus were the sun and the moon, since Horus was the entire sky. What we need to remember is, that the conception of divinity must include the "god experience" i.e. an experience of something more sovereign than the human being, and that can hardly be caused by a plant, which can be destroyed by anybody simply by stepping on it, or tearing it off the ground (and burning it, if one wants to be thorough).
On the other hand, the plants are caused to grow by the divine forces, and this is the explanation to the passages in the texts talking about the Eye of Horus on the human flesh. Here we are not talking about sun's rays, but the effect of the divine eye (not the sun or the moon, but the divine principle behind it) on the mummified body. Very important, since the body needed to be intact for the nightly visit of the soul. This, being a good example of the AE conception of transformation, may be the origin of the Alchemists' idea of changing something into gold. I think.







Ritva