Lodge Ptah
The god Ptah is very ancient. A text from the
Old Kingdom relates:
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And so the making of everything and the
creation of the gods should be assigned to Ptah. He is the
Tatenen who produced the gods, from whom everything has
come, whether food, divine sustenance or any other good
thing. So it has been found and understood that his power
is greater than that of the other gods.
And then Ptah rested after he had created
every thing and every Divine Word. |
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Tatenen is the god Ptah as the primeval mound
which rises up from the limitless waters and imposes order upon
chaos. In this we see a precursor of the creation myth of Genesis
12 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon
the face of the deep. The statement that after his labours, Ptah
rested also has parallels in Genesis 22 And on the seventh day
God finished his work which he had done, and he rested on the
seventh day from all his work which he had done.
The form of Ptah is that of a bearded man in
profile with a tightly fitting skull cap and a shroud of white
linen or wool. He holds in his hand the hieroglyphic symbols for
life, stability and power and he stands upon the primeval mound
or sometimes within a pavilion. This calls to mind the Qabalistic
image of Kether; a bearded king seen in profile. The colours of
Kether are, of course, white brilliance and gold. "Behind"
Kether lie the waters of Ain Soph, Limitlessness.
Utterance 714 of the coffin texts has Ptah saying:
I was the spirit in the primeval waters,
he who had no companion when my name came into existence.
The most ancient form in which I came into existence was as
a drowned one.
I was he who came into existence as a circle,
The circle is another image associated with Kether as a symbol
of beginnings. It is also symbolic of wholeness and can be seen
as a mandala representing the perfected self. The image of the
god reinforces this idea of perfection. He is self-contained,
white and pure. He stands within a pavilion or upon the primeval
mound, complete unto himself. The pavilion in which he stands
is itself the hieroglyph Shen meaning infinity and is a pun
on one of the titles of Ptah, "Infinity, the Master of
Years".
An inscription dating from 800 BC tells the creation
story of Ptah. the opening lines state that the inscription itself
is to be copied from an older, worm eaten papyrus onto stone in
order to preserve it. the scribe then goes on to say that in the
beginning chaos reigned. Then Ptah appeared on the primeval mound
as Ptah-Nun, Ptah-ta-Tanen, Ptah-Nefertem and five others whose
names are indecipherable. Ptah created Nun and Nunet and they,
in turn brought forth Atum and Thoth as the thought and tongue
of Ptah. this allows us to speculate that 3 of the other forms
of Ptah may have been Ptah-Nunet, Ptah-Atum and Ptah-Thoth. there
are references elsewhere to Ptah-Sokar; Sokar being a god of darkness
and decay, a counterpoint to the bright creator Ptah.
Ptah is associated with the creation of crafts;
his High Priest was known as the Lord of Master Craftsmen. He
was the patron deity of kings and so it is perhaps fitting that
the temple of Ptah, Hwt-ka-Ptah is rendered in Greek Ai-gy-Ptos
and gives us the modern name Egypt.
The hieroglyphs for the god Ptah are:
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| The wicker stool (P) |
The loaf of bread (t) |
The flax wick (h) |
It is tempting to see in this an image of the
craftsman working in one of the tombs or temples; sitting on his
wicker stool working by the light of his flaxen wick and with
the ancient equivalent of a packed lunch beside him. I am sure
that the scribe intended something of this meaning to be conveyed
but there is a deeper significance. In one version of the creation
myth we find the gods and spirits asking, "What will you
live on?" to which the creator replies, "I will live
and have power through bread."
The hieroglyph for bread was often painted blue
signifying the life force and this, incidentally, is the colour
of Ptah's skin. Perhaps then, Ptah represents the "bread
of life" and in eating bread we partake of the body of the
god. Much later this same symbolic truth was expressed by the
Christ when he took bread and said, "Take, eat; this is my
body" (Matthew 2626).
It seems then, that the god Ptah is a universal
god with no less appeal than, say, Isis or Osiris. Yet he was
never a god of the people, his worship seems to have been reserved
for a priestly elite. His mysteries were deliberately hidden from
the populace and it is for this reason that there is little to
be found of his cult. For those who will persevere however, here
is a god who will lead you to the very edges of space and time;
a god who stands upon the shores between cosmic night and cosmic
day. Here is a god who is no less relevant today than he was 5000
years ago in the land of ancient Khem.
For more details contact:
Email Contact: Giles
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