L Cooper Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> cladking Wrote:
>
> > My favorite being that "atum's" shadow is above
> him,
>
> Could you tell me where in the PT's you find this.
> Thanks.

Utterance #574

1485a. To say: Greetings to thee, Sycamore, who protects the god, under which the gods of the underworld stand,

1485b. whose tips are seared, whose inside is burned, (whose) suffering is real.

1486a. Assemble those who dwell in Nun; collect those who are among the bows.

1486b. Thy forehead is upon thine arm (in mourning) for Osiris, O Great Mooring-post,

1486c. who art like her who is chief of the offering (to), and of the worship (?) of the lord of the East.

1487a. Thou art standing, Osiris; thy shadow is over thee, Osiris;

The literal meaning of this appears to make sense. The "sycamore" is the djed or "mooring-post" which controls water flow and is under the processes creating the pyramid. It assembles those forces within the waters of the abyss who come to be among the bows. "Osiris" by the time this was written has already usurped the role of "atum". If we had an earlier version of the Pyramid Texts the king would have always been referred to (when the subject of a sentence) as "atum/ N" .

Faulkner refers to the "bows" as the "celestial expanse". The stars are the droplets which create the rainbow so it is literally the "expanse of the stars". Utt #570 though is the true "rainbow utterance" since there are several references in it.

In order to have a shadow above one must either cause a rainbow or have a light below.

Obviously no line in the Pyramid Texts proves it was meant literally. But my contention is that when taken literally every line makes perfect sense. This line, for instance agrees that the "gods" are creating above; 502b. "The double doors of heaven are locked; the way goes over the flames under that which the gods create, which allows each Horus to glide through, in which N. will glide through, in this flame under that which the gods create". Our minds automatically parse these words and interpret them to be metaphoric because the literal meaning in no case makes sense to us.

It's very difficult for me to believe that they imagined a god in a room with a light below and his shadow on the ceiling or outside with a shadow on some tall edifice. But "rainbows" create their own shadows between the primary and secondary rainbows. At dusk and sunset the light is above and the shadows below so there are an extremely limited number of literal meanings for saying that one's shadow is above him. Note also that in this passage with the shadow above that the "sycamore" is entreated to "gather those from the watery abyss among the (rain)bows".

It is not in any way necessary to interpret this as I do but it appears to make literal sense. Osiris; shadow is literally above him in utterance 273 as well;

393a. To say: The sky is overcast, the stars are darkened,
393b. the bows are agitated, the bones of the earth-gods quake.

[www.sacred-texts.com]

The sky isn't "overcast" but rather the water flies up into the shadow between the rainbows and is no longer visible.

____________
Man fears the pyramid, time fears man.