Pistol Wrote:
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> 'In fact, each pyramid [generally] ensured the
> rule of universal order, the turning of the days
> and seasons, and the flooding of the Nile. The
> mechanics of the pyramid as cosmic engine depended
> on the Egyptians concept of a person and the
> distinct phases of life and death, called Kheperu.
> These transformations continued when the Ka, the
> ba and the body, which had become separated at
> death, interacted in the final transformation -
> becoming an 'akh', a glorified being of light,
> effective in the afterlife. The pyramid was an
> instrument that enabled this alchemy to take place
> for the pharaoh, who had ruled as the god
> incarnate, and allowed that incarnation to pass
> from father to son; from Osiris to Horus... The
> pyramid is better understood as the meeting point
> of life and light with death and darkness".

You have a point here, IMO, on Lehner's use of the word kheperu when, again IMO, he ought to reference Khepri. I do not find references to kheperu in an afterlife or resurrection context, but Khepri is of course central to the concept of resurrection and is the reborn Ra. It's all about Ra and the king being in life the son of Ra and in death joined with Ra and being resurrected with him in a never ending cycle as Khepri is associated with Neheh, and this is not the same as the manifestations, or transformations, with kheperu.

Lehner is correct in stating that succession passes from Osiris to Horus, father to son, but not correct, IMO, to tie this into the ressurection rituals and afterlife beliefs for a king. If this were so, then we would see references, from the PT onwards of course, to the word wennen and Wennefer for Osiris directly. The baton of being Son of Ra and the living Horus is passed on not from Osiris, but from one king to the next as son of Ra, or as the ka of Ra. It seems as if Lehner has mixed up the prosaic rules of sucession, which surely date from Dynasty 2, with the mechanisms by which Osiris resurrects Ra, and by extension the dead king, in the Sixth Hour of the Amduat, which only appears in the record in the 18th Dynasty, though must have extisted in some form for a considerable time before.

This is taking a leap, but it seems as if Lehner may be equating the pyramid with the "Hidden Chamber" in the Amduat, and I can see, if so, he may think this as while it is not explicit in the Amduat, the resurrection in the Sixth Hour takes place at Rosetau, Giza, which is shown in the Fifth Hour, but I suspect it is as a destination and the journey continues in the Sixth Hour. However, in my opinion I supect that it may be the case that the events and location we see in the Sixth Hour are informed by what the Egyptians themselves knew about pyramids, but direct references to this are long lost to us so we can only guess.