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| The Great Temple of Abu Simbel in Egyptian Nubia. |
Sunrise splintered light over the rim of the
earth and into the temple doorway.
Anson, Neith and her party of New Agers
stood among a throng of visitors who waited in the pre-dawn chill of the Great
Temple of Abu Simbel in Egyptian Nubia.
“Here it comes!” someone in the crowd
whispered.
Light beams ran a gauntlet of sixty metres
between a double line of eight Osiride pillars in the image of Rameses the
Great bearing flails and crooks in their crossed arms, to penetrate the holy of
holies, where a group of divinities sat enthroned in darkness.
There were gasps and sighs from the
international assembly of visitors.
Gasp away, Anson thought. Not in awe at the
mighty works of Rameses, nor in wonder at the achievement of temple axiality
and the symmetry of sun and stone that for thousands of years had produced this
phenomenon on just two days of the year. But rather, in dread at what the
moment symbolised.
The excitement of temple-invading birds rose
to fill the sacred spaces of Abu Simbel’s roof, echoing, high-pitched squeals
and screeches. He imagined the sound came from the statues at the back of the
sanctuary, waking from their sleep and moving stiffened joints - stone
shrieking on stone.
Ptah. Amun. Rameses. Ra-Horakhty.
Over the minutes, as all watched, sunlight
transmuted stone into gold - the flesh of the gods - bathing three of the
images in turn, while the fourth, Ptah, a deity of darkness, remained in
shadow.
Pharaoh Rameses, flanked by Amun and
Ra-Horakhty, transformed in front of their eyes from stone into fire and glory.
The brightness made Anson blink.
The solar drama, taking place in front of
this audience, was meant to celebrate a glory beyond the earthly variety,
greater even than the scenes of triumph carved on the walls of the temple that
showed Rameses smiting a multitude of foes.
This was a physical enactment of divine
illumination, the moment of man seizing godhood, and this event of sublime
transfiguration lay at the heart of the peril that the world now faced.
The warning came back to prod him.
History will soon be made. A new dawn for
humankind approaches. The beginning of the end for today’s world order is at
hand as a force of hidden power will emerge and precipitate the fall. Hear this
prophetic warning to all the nations. On this day, the roots of the old
ideology will wither and die and a new order of the ages will commence. Rise to
a new illumination.
Crank prophecy? Or a real threat to today’s
world?
