A trip like this has many levels and only on return do some of them start sinking in. In fact, I really want to go back again now, to Egypt. It seems like each trip brings deeper levels of meaning and the first trip, for me, was sightseeing all those things I read about in books and magazines. I also had the completion of a past-life memory there of being an Muslim man — not sure of the time period.
When I left I wasn’t sure I would ever get back, even though I told the Soliman family I would love to come back. It seemed unrealistic. But there I was again, being greeted with open arms, this time it seemed like I was just taking my pal Scott who always wanted to go. I wasn’t sure what the trip was about for me.
But the first thing was an attraction to the Goddess NUT
During the day, Nut and Geb are separated, but each evening Nut comes down to meet Geb and this causes darkness. If storms came during the day, it was believed that Nut had some how slipped closer to the Earth. Nut is the barrier separating the forces of chaos from the ordered cosmos in this world. Her fingers and toes were believed to touch the four cardinal points or directions. The sun god Re was said to enter her mouth after setting in the evening and travel through her body during the night to be reborn from her vulva each morning. She gives birth to the sun in the east and swallows the sun in the west.
Sometimes she appears in the form of a cow whose body forms the sky and heavens. Nut in this form represents the Great Kau (Cow), the Great Lady who created all that exists, the Cow whose udder gave forth the Milky Way. (Also represented as the cow goddess Hathor.) Nut was considered to be the mother of the sun and the moon. In the form of a great cow her eyes represent the sun and the moon. She is also pictured as a giant sow, suckling many piglets. These piglets represented the stars, which she swallowed each morning before dawn.
Nut is the Mother of all deities. She united with her brother the Earth god Geb, in a tight and passionate embrace until separated by Shu (‘air’) on the orders of Ra. Ra was annoyed because Geb and Nut had come together without his knowledge or agreement. Expecting that there would be a natural result of their affection, he declared that Nut could not give birth to children on any day of any month of any year. The god Thoth came to Nut’s help. He had been playing draughts with the moon and he had won enough of the moon’s light to make up five new days. Since these days were not on the official calendar, Nut was able to bear a child on each. Nut arches over the earth morning from between her thighs. She is the arching vault of the heavens, Her body sparkling with starlight. Through Her mouth the Sky-boat of the Sun passes each evening, from her vulva the it re-emerges and the day is reborn each morning. She retains some weather working functions; the thunder is her voice.
As Mother Night, Nut represents the unconscious, luna, moon, feminine, the emotional body. Her glyph often depicts two crossed arrows against a leopard skin. Nut is associated with the element air, rainbows and sycamore trees.
Scott and Yasmine on the Amon rooftop
****ONCE on the train to Luxor (following, by the way, a horrible train fire disaster on the same route – although not a tourist train that we would have been on) the synchronicities and gifts began. We were seated in a first class cabin with three others– two Japanese young men and an African Canadian woman. It was a night train and as I dozed, trying to sleep, I said to Scott and Yasmine the black woman, — “we have all four races here – red, yellow, black and white.” Scott smiled and said, “Judy has those kinds of thoughts when she goes to sleep.” hmmmm.
Later it occurred to me that not only did we have all four races, but probably in the proportions of their numbers on earth. Two Asians, one black, one and 3/4 white and 1/4 American Indian. Am I crazy or what?
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The gift of curiosity
Family Times column
Judy Gibson
March 23, 2002
I’ve been thinking, lately, about curiosity.
Two things inspired this — first was the privilege of meeting Kent Weeks and his wife Susan in Egypt. Weeks found the tomb known as KV5 in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor in 1989 — called the greatest find since the discovery of the unraided tomb of Tutankhamun. His book “The Lost Tomb” reads like a novel.
The second inspiration was an essay in Time magazine about Daniel Pearl, the journalist who was kidnapped and killed in Pakistan by terrorists. Lance Morrow wrote that Pearl was the sort of journalist who had curiosity, “the noblest form of intellectual energy.” He also mentioned what novelist John Hersey said about Henry Luce, “He was amazed and delighted to learn whatever he had not known before.”
Kent Weeks, a beaming and happy person, told me he had been interested in Egypt since he was a child, that he’s been an archeologist for decades and “never wanted to do anything else.” He takes obvious pleasure in his lifework, appreciating his wife and her contribution as project artist. His love of Egypt and the Egyptian people — ancient and present — is evident. At the risk of waxing too eloquent, they seemed like a couple of angels there — always dressed in white (due to the heat, I’m guessing).
He and his wife rise early and drive their dated Toyota Land Cruiser out to the site for another day of discovery and hard work. Their home is in Cairo but when they are on site in Thebes (the ancient name for Luxor) they stay at the same modest family hotel where I stayed. When they introduced themselves to my friends and me on the roof of the hotel where we had gone to watch the sunset, my mouth dropped and I said, “The well known person.” He smiled and kidded modestly, “I don’t know – my wife knows me well.”
The story of the extensive Theban mapping project and discovery of KV5 — the agony and the ecstacy of it — is too lengthy for this column. For anyone interested I would recommend his book that was excerpted in a wonderful National Geographic article in 1998. They also have an interesting and well done website where one can take a virtual “fly through” tour of the tomb, the largest of all tombs discovered so far in the valley.
It was inspiring to meet someone face to face, so dedicated and committed to what he was doing — and a kind and positive person at that. I bought a copy of his book and asked him to sign it for my friend which he did graciously. I apologized for being a “groupie.” He said, “That’s O.K., groupies are my life.” I know what he meant since the work he is doing is costly and they need financial support from people who also believe in what they are doing.
Another interesting thing — I had no desire to join his group or go back to school to study archaeology. What I took away from that exciting encounter was a renewed dedication to my own curiosity. I, too, love finding out things.
This is a gift we can give our children — the love of pure learning and discovery. As parents we can model interest in the world around us and share exciting discoveries of our own. Nurture curiosity.
“The Lost Tomb: This is his incredible story of KV5 and its excavation” by Kent R. Weeks, Ph.D., Harper Collins, 1999.
This is a view of the Valley of the Kings in Thebes this February. The large opening into the hillside is an entrance to a tomb. People who have visited the area in the past will note the small number of tourists due to the aftermath of 9/11.
“Dr. Kent” Weeks as he is fondly called,
Susan Weeks, project artist, gluing together pot sherds. She works at the tomb entrance under the scrutiny of hordes of tourists. She was patient with them all including me. She talked a little to us while she worked and recommended a good tomb to visit.
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(photos of Kent Weeks and Susan Weeks courtesy of the Theban Mapping website)
******Upon arrival at Luxor, there was my friend Ahmed Soliman to meet us as if I had only left yesterday. Yasmine didn’t have a place to stay and she was ill from the motion of the train – Ahmed said of course she could come along and he found her a room in his hotel, although not one of the great rooms like the two we had – he was full. Which I was actually glad to know because I was wondering if 9/11 had become a problem for his business. I recalled, though, most of the people staying there were German.
The next amazing thing that happened was meeting famous person Kent Weeks and his wife Susan who stay at Ahmed’s hotel during the time they work at excavating KV5 in the Valley of the Kings. I wrote a column about this:
Visiting the tombs and temples in Thebes (Luxor) was much more pleasant than last time. The time of year (February) meant that the weather was bearable and unfortunately for the Egyptians but fortunately for us 9/11 meant very few tourists in the sightseeing spots.
We could relax, feel at home and safe here in this little hotel in the village. When we did venture out to sightsee Ahmed arranged the same wonderful driver, Abdul, who chauffered us around last time. Looking back it was at this time that a deep shift settled in for Scott and me too. Talking to him on the phone when we got back he said it felt like he had undergone a change that was something like “developmental.”
I know what he meant. Things changed for me too. I will try to describe it. Something basic, like a deeper acceptance of who I am, and maybe the beginnings of grieving for what I am not or won’t be again. One way this manifested is the mundane issue of my body image, dieting and food issues, and evidence of aging. I had been going to Weight Watchers and feeling determined to lose weight and had images of myself in my mind of being thin and how I would feel then. I was able to lose about 15 to 20 pounds, but hoped to lose a lot more. I began, after Egypt, to let this go, after coming back from a place where I was so accepted for myself, and could be nothing other than myself. I have been experimenting with eating what I want and only trying to be aware of what I REALLY want to eat or drink — not eating for “medicine” or boredom or out of habit.
We are redoing the format of the newpaper at work and all us columnists were having our picture retaken. I had been dissatisfied with mine. The other day (A.E. – after Egypt) I joked with my editor that I guess there is not a camera in the world that will make me look 25 again. And, really, that is something to grieve over, never being 25 again — I don’t think I have done any of that grieving. It’s the point that no matter how much weight is lost, how many new pretty clothes, make-up, etc. ad nauseum – I can’t be young again, and will never be.
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dropped off at Qerna, terrorist territory and Nag Hammadi
We got on the wrong train from Luxor to Cairo on our return. It seems we should have waited for the next train but got on one that was in the station at the right time and found our assigned seats in car number 5.
After two more stops a bunch of Egyptians piled in and it quickly became obvious (although not through any language communication) that our seats were not ours. A patient Egyptian couple and others calmly repeated Arabic words to us over and over more slowly than the last time, hoping that we would finally understand. Finally a man who spoke English way back in the car interpreted – “This train not for you.” — We had gathered that but were reluctant to get off in the middle of Egypt in the middle of the night — (night train, of course). “No,” he said, “if you get off at next stop you can get train that is for you.”
At this point the conductor in a scruffy green jacket, obviously inebriated, came to help us with our stuff and we vacated our seats to stand in the little doorway to wait expulsion at — Qena.
When we disembarked at Qena we were relieved to see it seemed like a real train station and town. Scott said the worst that could happen is that we would have to find a hotel and then deal with the whole thing the next morning. Voice of reason — good guy!
Then I made the mistake of reading the Lonely Planet guide to see where we were — about 1 a.m. in the middle of Egypt. Wouldn’t you know this part of Egypt has a bad reputation for terrorist activity – the government had found it difficult to control the extremist groups in this area because of the ease of hiding and escaping into the desert. Tourist travel is not recommended.
Well, we did finally get the train that “is for you” everyone had been patient and kind. I thought of what would have happened we had taken someone’s seat elsewhere in the world, I don’t think “kindness” would have come to mind.
Nag Hammadi
Nag Hammadi, down the railroad track from Qena, is the site where a collection of thirteen ancient codices in a Coptic dialect was discovered in 1945. These are “primary Gnostic scriptures” texts once thought to have been destroyed during the early Christian struggle to define “orthodoxy.” These texts, along with the Dead Sea Scolls found about the same time but in Palestine, make up a body of work that were repressed or hidden for their preservation by two groups — the Essenes in Palestine and the ancestors of the Ancient Egyptians, probably a Coptic sect.
The Coptic Christians make up about ten percent of the present population of Egypt and many think they are the best remnant of the Pharaonic Egyptians left, with their sacred language a “survival” from ancient times.
When we were waiting in the train station at Qena, Scott saw what must have been a Coptic bishop also waiting for a train. Scott said people were coming over to kiss his hand.
So – Qena/Nag Hammadi — terrorist stronghold or sacred ground — Both, is my guess, which brings me to a fascinating book I found online (ain’t the internet great?) Jung and the Lost Gospels: insights into the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi Library. This book talks about how at the darkest times – comes the light,i.e. these texts found following World War II, the Holocaust and the atom bomb. Maybe now again we are having a dark time when there will be another leap forward. I also found, before I left, a wonderful book The Pharaoh’s Shadow: travels in ancient and modern Egypt by Anthony Sattin and only available from Amazon.co.uk. Sattin is in search of culture that has survived from ancient times in Egypt and the Coptic connection is well described.