WHERE IS THIS GODDESS IN EGYPT?

Long, narrow, bare feet were typical of goddesses, fashioned to increase connection with the ground and charge the ground with her musk. But where is she located? Answer next post.

 

UPDATE: Egypt’s Forbidden Stone Book of Thoth…

The first books were written in stone... and so is the fate of the world.

The esoteric and forbidden Stela of Destiny was the most powerful tome ever written and sought by conquerors from time immemorial, including Rameses the Great, who incurred the anger of the god of Moses through its discovery by his son Khaemwaset. Features in my book The Ibis Apocalypse (Kindle and paperback, 3rd in the Anson Hunter Egypt series).

 Today the Stela of Thoth is the great secret of secrets that everybody wishes to find; there have been several well-financed expeditions into Egypt to seek it. It’s the Holy Grail for Hermetic and New Age adherents and some even believe that it is not just a metaphoric Grail, it is the mother of all Grail legends and that its appearance will be the harbinger of new enlightenment as well as a new order of the ages.

What is the power of the Stela? It’s a work of rather frightening thaumaturgy, a forbidden tome on stone said to have been composed by the Lord of Divine Words, Thoth, the god symbolised by an ibis, or by a cynocephalus baboon, ‘Mighty in his Wonderworking Formulae’. Thoth was the mysterious source of power of all amulets, spells and invocations of the gods, and inside this book was said to be all the magic of the world, the source of spiritual technology and power. It came with a reputation, a blurb along these lines…

When you read this work, you will behold and possess the powers of the earth, the sky, the waters, the infernal regions of the abyss - the underworld, that is - the mountains, beasts, birds, creatures, reptiles, the fishes of the darkest sea, as well as the magical powers of the gods of Egypt themselves...

 

In short, you would be established on high in this world and, in the Egyptians’ words, have the ability to work great wonders. It’s my belief that this forbidden Stela not only exists but its contents have resurfaced at several stages in history, all convulsive periods. I am convinced that they may be re-appearing in our time, judging by the current state of the planet.”

The individuals who found the book surged in worldly power and achieved astounding success. For a time. But there was a catastrophic catch… their fortunes followed a sharp trajectory. In the end disaster struck them. Why?

There was a price to pay. The forbidden Book of Thoth came with a backlash. 

Screen grab - opening scene of The Ibis Apocalypse, Amazon Kindle edition.

Prince Khaemwaset and his father Rameses discovered this truth after Moses called down assorted plagues on Egypt, culminating in the death of the firstborn. Then we come to Hitler, who learnt about the Texts’ repercussions after the Allied invasion. All who found the tome were ultimately beset by the compulsion to restore it to its rightful place.   UPDATE: Now all 10 Anson Hunter titles on Amazon with new "The Great Pyramid Eternity Key"

Terrifying ancient Egyptian Sekhmet-Hathor features in 2 of my novels

 

UPDATE: NOW 9 NOVELS IN THE SERIES (ALL ON AMAZON KINDLE AND PAPERBACK)

SCREEN GRAB from my iPad - showing opening pages of Hathor'S Holocaust, Amazon Kindle edition

KIDS WITH KINDLES???? IPADS???

Fun E-gypt E-reading!

Egypt, animals, mummies, laughs, scares...

"Harley's Really Scary Egypt Project" is a fun adventure set in a fantasy animal mummy kingdom of Egypt.

Harley has a Class Egypt Day that goes horribly and humorously wrong!

I piloted this idea a few years ago, offering the first few chapters online and it attracted strong interest from children, schools and parents in the US.

So here it is in a Kindle edition, adding to my Egypt collection for young readers "The Princess Who Lost her Scroll of the Dead"."Egypt Breakout - Soldiers of an Endless Night" and "The Egypt Tomb Machine"! (Kindle & Paperback)

NOW 4 eGYPT eTHRILLERS FOR KINDLES, IPADS...

There are now four novels in my Egypt adventure fiction collection for adult readers - three adventure thriller novels and a new adventure romance novelette.

Fall under the spell of Egypt at Amazon Kindle with the ‘THE SMITING TEXTS’, ‘THE HATHOR HOLOCAUST’ and ‘THE IBIS APOCALYPSE’ by Roy Lester Pond.

NEW:

The DELTA DILEMMA

“Choose! Your wife in ancient Egypt, or now?”

The Delta Dilemma is a suspenseful, fantasy romance adventure novelette with supernatural elements and takes place amid the turmoil of post-revolutionary Egypt.

Jed is a time-torn archaeologist enamoured with both his young archaeologist wife and with an image of the Lady Tetisheri in an Egyptian tomb.

Then chaos strikes across time and Jed is launched on a dangerous mission to stop the return of primeval chaos. He must penetrate a nightmarish sanctuary of The Ogdoad, Egypt’s Eight gods of chaos and creation, where he will also face the terrible, ultimate dilemma - save his passionate wife in ancient Egypt… or his glamorous, yet independent wife of today…

Best Opening Pages 2010 - UK Authors' Int. Writer's List for Egypt adventure thriller 'The Smiting Texts'

Chapter 1 THEY INTERCEPTED him as he came out of Baltimore-Washington Airport, two men wearing suits and an air of officialdom like a brisk cologne. “Mr Anson Hunter, the British Egyptologist?” Egyptologist? That sounded good. Very establishment. Anson stood a bit taller, which placed his beanstalk elevation a few inches above theirs. The man could have said independent, renegade Egyptologist and phenomenologist, lecturer at out-of-town hall and auditoriums, writer, blogger and alternative theorist as well as leader of occasional, fringe tour groups to Egypt. But instead the man had said ‘Egyptologist’. “Who wants to know?” “You are invited to Johns Hopkins University. They wish to hear you speak.” Anson goggled. Johns Hopkins and Anson Hunter? His moment of elation quickly faded. They didn’t belong in the same sentence. “A nice thought, gentlemen, but venerable institutions like Johns Hopkins don’t wish people like me to speak. They would prefer us not to breathe.” Anson had arrived to give a lecture on ancient Egyptian ritual smiting power and execration texts at a hired Masonic hall that evening. He tried to move past, but the men blocked his way, smiling with steely politeness. “Please come with us, Sir.” “There must be some mistake.” The spokesman frowned and reached inside his coat. Hell, Anson thought, what is this? Has mainstream Egyptology finally sent a hit squad? The hand came out of the coat. Anson resumed the business of breathing. The man flipped open a wallet, by way of introduction. Anson glimpsed a crest – an eagle inside a circle and the words: U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Also a name, Browning. He was a broad-faced man with steady eyes. Why me? Anson’s ex-wife May had always said that he had the burning eyes of fanatic. Had they picked him out as a likely threat to the US homeland? This Johns Hopkins stuff was just a cover for an arrest. He suddenly felt very alien. “I’ve been a mild threat to conventional Egyptology for years,” he said, “but I hardly rate as a security risk.” “We need your help, Mr Hunter.” The other man relieved him of his suitcase and also took his briefcase containing his laptop. “Careful, there’s an explosive PowerPoint presentation in there,” Anson said. Browning flicked a glance towards Anson’s briefcase, but a sense of humour overtook his instinct to protect the homeland. He allowed himself a flinty smile. “Ah, yes. Almost had me going there.” “Would you please explain why Johns Hopkins Near Eastern Studies Department would be even faintly interested in my theories?” The man lowered his voice. “It’s not that Department that wants you. Johns Hopkins is also the Centre of Excellence for a new Homeland Security Centre. Goes by the full name of the Centre for the Study of High Consequence Event Preparedness and Response. You’ll be addressing a consortium that’s studying how the nation can best prepare for and respond to a range of unexpected large-scale incidents or disasters.” “Me?” The only large-scale disaster he was familiar with was his own career – his failure to swing the world of Egyptology, with very few exceptions, to his alternative theories. But maybe his luck was changing. Any invitation to speak at Johns Hopkins – anywhere at Johns Hopkins, even in a restroom - was too intoxicating to pass up. Not that his abductors were giving him much choice in the matter. They led him to a waiting black sedan that purred on the kerbside He shrugged, climbed into the back with one of the Homeland men and sank into baffled acceptance. The sedan slid away into traffic. This was the smoothest of smooth abductions. But they had his attention. He decided he quite enjoyed being whisked away into intrigue. He was still troubled however. “I’m not exactly sure where we’re going with this. What has US Homeland Security got to do with ancient Egypt? Or me?” The Homeland man who sat in the front beside the driver, threw a mystified look over his shoulder. “Beats me, I’m a practical man. I’ll leave it to others to explain.” “Then there’s the small matter of my engagement. I’m booked to give a lecture tonight. Hundreds of people will be disappointed. Well, dozens.” “Cancelled already. Just consider it a change of venue.” It was quite a turnaround from out-of-town Masonic hall to Johns Hopkins University. A bit presumptuous of them, but he could be flexible.

Author who movie-storyboards key scenes before writing his Egypt-based mystery adventure thrillers...

How I visualized the opening to The Smiting Texts Egypt adventure novel.

What comes first - the book or the movie?

As a Creative Director in advertising, I've learnt to think visually. As a result, I like to do a book storyboard using Googled photos - like this opening scene from The Smiting Texts. As the storyboard shows, I visualized a Hugh Laurie type as my witty British rogue Egyptologist Anson Hunter.

I did the same with the next books in the Egypt adventure series: "The Hathor Holocaust" "The Ibis Apocalypse" and the rest in the series.

This approach helps to achieve a heightened sense of reality - as important for the author in writing as it is to the reader living the story.

I've almost shot the movie BEFORE I've written the book.

SAMPLE THE SERIES HERE (click)

e Ibis Apocalypse. The trilogy is now a series...

A DAZZLING RIVAL CIVILIZATION TO EGYPT (UPDATE: Maybe of interest after the Cleopatra 'black pharaoh' TV show controversy)

Nubian King Taharqa, XXV Dynasty (photo: Wikipedia)

The African Kingdom even toppled the might of Egypt.
Photo from a research trip to Nubia.

Not long ago I was lucky to attend a lecture by visiting German Professor Wildung on the Rediscovery of Ancient Sudan. It raised the question for me: why aren’t the so-called Afrocentrists content to claim the dazzling rival civilization to Egypt, Nubia/Sudan?

Here, my renegade fiction hero Anson Hunter touches on the controversial issue in a scene ('Hathor's Holocaust').

2nd novel in the 9-novel series (AMAZON KINDLE)

(excerpt)

Chapter 11

Gebel Barkal, Nubia

ANSON SAT next to the driver, thrown around in the cabin of the Land Cruiser, as they approached an isolated butte rising in the shimmer of the desert.

Here the great Nubian kingdom of Napata once flourished at a place where the River Nile, slithering like a snake on a scorched belly across the largest desert on earth, loses its way. Stunned by the smoking heat of the Nubian sun, it twists back on itself, flowing in the wrong direction for 270 kilometres - back towards the heart of Africa, before winding its way into Egypt.

And here, too, the design of pyramids changes direction. Unlike those of Egypt, they were smaller, clustered together and tapered, with steep-sides inclined at seventy degrees, as if stretched in a heat haze, or as if viewed through the eyes of a Modigliani.

“That’s the holy mountain of Gebel Barkal over there, near the town of Karima, where we’ll camp. It marks the most important religious complex in Nubia and the second most important to the Egyptians,” he said for the benefit of Gemma. “It was the southern home of the God Amun-re.” He pointed into the haze. “The Royal Necropolis of the ancient city of Napata, the Nubian capital before the Meroitic period, lies over there to the north. There are also large pyramid fields at El Kurru, a few kilometres southwards from the mountain, and at Nuri, on the other side of the Nile.”

Gemma, in the back seat, commented:

“I suppose with such an influential neighbour as Egypt, Nubia was bound to become a mirror society instead of a stand-alone civilisation.”

The Nubian driver growled.

“Let me tell you something. Nubia not only stood alone. One of our great Nubian kings, Taharka, formed an alliance with ancient Israel and defended Jerusalem from a siege by the Assyrians, driving them away. He is even mentioned by name in the Old Testament.”

The driver was no mere driver. The shiny headed man, as dark as the image of a shade in an Egyptian tomb, was a former inspector of Nubian antiquities. Ali had a degree in Egyptology and was now a specialist tour operator and something of a renegade as well as a friend of Anson’s.

Anson added: “The Nubian Taharka may have done more than save Israel’s bacon. He may have rescued the entire Jewish culture and religion. The Assyrians under Sennacherib were intent on destroying Jerusalem and deporting its people. Consider this. The Old Testament had yet to be written and they were still wrestling with the concept of Yawveh. Where would the Abrahamic faiths Judaism, Christianity, and Islam - be, if the Nubians hadn’t stood by Jerusalem? It was a turning point for the Western world and the Middle East.”

“I’m no Afrocentrocist, by the way,” Ali said, softening. “I’m not claiming that Egypt was a black civilisation. It wasn’t, although there certainly were black elements and black pharaohs. No, we have our own civilisation to be proud of.”

“Indeed the Nubians had a long and intricate relationship with Egypt,” Anson said, smiling. “From New Kingdom times they were admired for their loyalty and honesty and hired as the police force of Egypt and also as mercenaries because of their prowess with the bow. The Egyptians felt they could rely on the Nubians - right up to the point where they invaded and took over the country in the eighth century BC. These guys did a reverse takeover and ruled Egypt for almost a hundred years! They became the pharaohs of the twenty-fifth dynasty, with their capital at Gebel Barkal.”

Ali laughed.

“And Anson trusts me!”

2 Egypt Action Adventures for Young & Old - New Paperbacks

Egypt fantasy action adventure for young adults/juveniles with photos (Amazon Books)

Egypt action adventure thriller - 3rd in series
after The Smiting Texts & The Hathor Holocaust (Amazon Books)

THE IBIS APOCALYPSE

Egypt’s forbidden power…
The fate of the world written in stone.

Third in the Egyptology thriller series after 'The Smiting Texts' and 'The Hathor Holocaust'...
Was Egypt's magical Book of Thoth originally carved in stone - on a stela - rather than written on a scroll?
Anson Hunter, controversial alternative Egyptologist and theorist, is obsessed with locating the forbidden Stela of Destiny before the wrong people get hold of it.

The Stela, or stone book, of Thoth, Egypt’s god of magic, is the most powerful and malefic source of esoteric texts ever written. The texts bring frightening power but also a terrible backlash. Twice in history the contents have come to light – the first time in the reign of Rameses the Great, linked with the Plagues of Egypt and the suffering of the Hebrews, and in 1939 when a German Egyptologist took rubbings of the stone texts to Hitler’s Germany before the horrors of World War II.

Israeli Intelligence and its allies in the USA become alarmed when the Destiny Stela threatens to break into history once again. As they are all too aware, the Stela of Destiny is the Holy Grail for organisations and conspirators with dangerous political and religious agendas, both in the USA and in Europe.

Anson embarks on an investigation under the cover of shooting a screen documentary, pursued by enemies and shadowed by striking Israeli Mossad agent Zara Margolin and suspicious Egyptian authorities, in a hunt that covers USA, UK and secret archaeological sites in Egypt.
Can he find and penetrate the deadly series of chambers of the Sanctuary of Thoth that guards the Stela of Destiny before a dangerous new dawn breaks for humankind?

‘The Ibis Apocalypse’ is a danger-fraught adventure that unfolds against the background of ancient Egypt’s enthralling legend and mythology.

EGYPT BREAKOUT - Soldiers of an Endless Night

"Egypt Breakout" is a photo iillustrated story for young readers and adults about a break out from the Egyptian gallery of a museum. A little wooden spearman, Karoy leads a breakout during a children's flashlight tour of a museum, along with three comrades and a crew of boatmen.
The event that triggers his decision occurs when the Lady Tiy, a sycamore girl that Karoy has admired for three thousand years, (without ever speaking his heart to her) is stolen from the display case by the young daughter of the museum keeper during the flashlight tour of the museum. Karoy faces urgent time pressure. Outside of the climate controlled case, how long can Tiy survive? And how is the jealous magical figurine Heka involved in her disappearance?

Egyptology thriller series out soon in paperback - cover thumbnails

New rogue Egyptologist Anson Hunter adventure series already out on Amazon Kindle will soon be available in paperback. Here are the new paperback covers - thumbnails.

THE HATHOR HOLOCAUST - New Egypt adventure thriller

Out now on Amazon Kindle http://amzn.to/cW9a70
(also on on free Amaz. Kindle apps for iPad, Mac, PC, iPhone, Android and Blackberry.)

Can a renegade Egyptologist stop the re-activation of an ancient Egyptian apocalypse of plague, pestilence and global scorching?

An apocalyptic danger has arisen from the ancient past in Egypt today bringing a threat to the Middle East and also to the West - of plague, pestilence, fiery destruction and global scorching. Anson Hunter, controversial, alternative Egyptologist, theorist, blogger and phenomenologist is the hero of this historical adventure novel with a rich mythological vein. Followed by Western Intelligence organizations, shadowed by a mysterious androgyne assassin, he must race to avert a crisis in a quest spanning USA, Britain and Egypt. Who is behind the plan to trigger an apocalypse? Neo-religionists, Torchbearers with a dangerous New Age agenda, Christian dispensationalists who are eager to bring on the ‘end times’ or radical Islamists with a hatred of the West? In mythology, Ra Egypt’s sun god, hurled an execration upon a rebellious humankind and, in a hot rage, despatched the scorching Eye of Ra, a holocaust sun in the form of the goddess Sekhmet, to destroy them. A marauding lioness, her breath spread pestilence and plague and her claws and teeth death as she swept through Egypt in an orgy of killing. Then Ra had second thoughts and halted her apocalypse. But the execration had been uttered and it was always feared that the inherently unstable agent of destruction – the Female Soul With Two Faces – would one day return to finish off what she had started, cleansing the earth.

THE HATHOR HOLOCAUST follows "The Smiting Texts" (which also featured Anson Hunter and was published in hardcover and paperback, available online at Amazon, WH Smith, Blackwell etc).

Egyptologist Kanawati on novel "The Smiting Texts"

Professor Naguib Kanawati, Australia's top Egyptologist, from Macquarie University, read "The Smiting Texts", my Egypt-based thriller and said: "Congratulations! I really enjoyed your book."

Nice from such a respected field archaeologist who allowed me the creative licence to depict the discovery of the Great Lost Labyrinth of the Faiyum, the legendary hypogeum described by Herodotus, Strabo and others and one of the wonders of the ancient world. Interestingly, the French Egyptologist Pierre Montet of Tanis fame, died believing the Labyrinth was still to be found.

Naguib Kanawati, among many discoveries and achievements, spent several years working on the tomb of the Vizier Mereruka at Sakkara, scene of a dramatic episode in "The Smiting Texts".

I'm relieved that the professor allowed me to take such liberties with a pet tomb and that as a mainstream Egyptologist he was able to indulge my renegade alternative British Egyptologist, theorist, phenomenologist and avid blogger, Anson Hunter!

An Actual Example of Egyptian "Threat Formulae"... metaphysical warfare

Threat formula used in the novel 'The Smiting Texts'

There are many examples of chilling inscriptional violence used by the ancient Egyptians as a state weapon of warfare against enemies. Here is a flavour of threat formulae - you can view the video on You Tube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDYRJ9rCtGs

The eerie, menacing music track was created on synth.

THE ROSETTA STONE IS A "WORLD MILESTONE"

The British Museum - for all the world

Now Egypt (or Zahi Hawass) has returned to making a grab for the Rosetta Stone!! Without Western decipherment (thank you, France) there’s be no Zahi Hawass (not to mention his American degree) or the ancient Egyptian “industry” as we know it. There’d probably no famous Cairo museum either. (And even if there were one, and they possessed the stone in question, it would be gathering dust in the basement somewhere!) My alternative Egyptologist character Ansor Hunter expresses his feelings on 'who owns the past'...

I was haunting the British Museum again and fell to wondering, as I looked around the Egyptian hall of sculptures: if extremists had their way, would they obliterate these remains from the so-called age of ignorance before Islam? Modern Muslim Egyptians live in fearful tension with their ancient past, it occurred to me, looking up at a colossal head of Rameses. Not long ago, Egypt's Grand Mufti issued a fatwa against sculpture. Egypt's ancient sculptures are forbidden by Islam, he said. Sculptors are doomed to receive the harshest treatment on Judgement Day. Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities distanced itself from the fatwa, saying that the sculptures they preserve and showcase are not for the purpose of idolatry but to provide a window on history. "We display statues so they can be studied and so people can get to know their heritage. This is Egypt's national heritage. We don't display them for worship." A number of influential sheikhs supported the mufti, however, while intellectuals and artists in Egypt were said to have called the fatwa laughable. And yet... Could firebrands one day use this as an excuse to harm treasures of history that belong to all of humankind? The Taliban in central Afghanistan demonstrated the peril of antiquities in the hands of idealogues. They used explosives to destroy the sixth century Buddhas of Bamyan, a pair of colossal standing Buddhas carved into the side of a sandstone cliff, irreplaceable examples of Indo-Greek art. Antiquities authorities in the Arab Republic of Egypt wonder why Western museums are less than eager to repatriate their Egyptian collections to Egypt, yet who can see what lies ahead for this Islamic nation? In spite of recent hectoring by Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities to return artefacts to Egypt from the museums of the world, modern Egypt's exclusive claim on the civilization of the pharaohs is shaky. Where is the link of this 21st century Arabic society with ancient Egypt? Not religion, not language, not politics, probably not even temperament, certainly not philosophy or social structure - let alone shared basic assumptions about equality between the sexes - not artistic tradition, not even the rhythm of life regulated by the ebb and flow of the Nile... the construction of the Aswan High Dam severed that link forever. Today's new antiquities grab is as questionable as the first rape of the Nile by colonial powers. It's a form of rampant nationalism and, in more enlightened times, disagreeable in my view. It's also counter-productive for today's Egypt. The very presence of ancient Egyptian antiquities in the museums of the world spurs thousands to visit Egypt every year. Why kill the goose that laid the golden sarcophagus? Feeling a surge of protectiveness for the civilisation I love, I suddenly - unreasonably, perhaps - wish that the British Museum's ancient Egyptian galleries were ten times their present size, along with those of the New York Metropolititan Museum of Art, The Louvre, Berlin Neues Museum and Turin Museum. And yet I like a great many Egyptians very much and I love the land of Egypt itself and its sites of antiquity and I value the feeling of place that connects me with the past. The Nile Valley is still the biggest and best museum of earth. The issue of who owns the past is a complicated one...

MORE OF MY ANCIENT EGYPTSNIPPETS From Twitter

Snippets of the ancient past

Hatshepsut sent her statue to Punt. Imagine a milky stone queen in African bush sparking legends like She! http://bit.ly/NnrrK

Ancient Egypt coded sex 1: scented delta of lotus blossom under nose, ducks and geese, monkey playing under a chair

Ancient Egypt sex code 2 Girl: 'I'll go into water & come up with red fish who will quiver with happiness in my fingers' http://bit.ly/Xhlbz

Ancient Egypt coded sex 3: wife's possessive arm around husband, intent eyes of a goddess taking pharaoh’s hand http://bit.ly/I45ep

Ancient Egypt subtle sex code 4: King Tut sits in a swamp shooting birds. Queen hands him an arrow in a languid hand http://bit.ly/gjNeP

Ancient Egypt subtle coded sex 5: queen receives liquid from a flask poured into her cupped hand by king Tutankhamun http://bit.ly/1vu8Qr

Pharaoh’s sandals bore images of wretched enemies to trample, walking stick handles had bound captives http://bit.ly/3mVU2g

Hathor-Sekhmet, Mankind's Destroyer. In THE SMITING TEXTS she flips between love goddess & marauding lioness http://bit.ly/QTX2i

Did Egypt invent heaven? Before Egypt's vivid afterlife images, Israel’s Sheol a realm of gloomy nothingness http://bit.ly/oQPtW

Ancient Egypt love affair starts young. Take children to a museum & 2 things they want to see - dinosaur and mummy http://bit.ly/mlk4X

For many Egyptology greats ancient Egypt love began as child. Mine perhaps ignited by Nefernefernefer in The Egyptian http://bit.ly/OEcCB

Was Ancient Egypt afterworld a virtual reality created by a civilisation's collective unconscious sustained by religion? http://bit.ly/YqJbK http://twitpic.com/cc4bi -

Ancient Egypt est av pop over 3500 yrs 5.25 b people lived & died on Nile. Many secrets hidden under sands

Love the wondrous horizon where ruins emerge from ancient Egypt's empire of sand to send us text messages from eternity http://bit.ly/1e6BZk

Childrens’ art is eerily ancient Egyptian. Objects float, people stand side-on. Timeless, eternal, perspective-free - how they see the world

Potiphar's wife, Cleopatra, Nefernefernefer, & Sesheshet in The Smiting Texts novel - a tradition of fatal females

Tutankhamun discoverer Howard Carter told King Farouk he knew Alexander's tomb location, but would take secret to his grave

Scurrilous legend says last pharaoh magician Nectanebo ended up in Greece and in bed of Olympias, fathering Alexander

SCA's Zahi Hawass guards pharaohs DNA details: ‘National security’. Conspiracy crazies wonder Nubian, Hebrew, alien lineage?

Physicians applied mold from bread and the underside of lily to wounds. Pencillin thousands of years before Fleming?

After The Smiting Texts, I've made my Author's Corrections to The Armageddon Glyphs my next Egypt adventure thriller

Remote-killing execrations or curses were state instruments of warfare dramatised in the thriller The Smiting Texts

Pierre Montet, great French discover of Tanis tombs, died believing the Fayoum Great Labyrinth is still to be found

Should mummies in movies lurch? Or limp? Early sources say embalmers dislocated one ankle to slow the pursuing dead!

ANCIENT "EGYPT SNIPPETS FOR THE TWITTER AGE"

NOT ONE, BUT TWO GREAT SPHINXES?

One of a pair?

Were there once two great sphinxes spanning the Nile?
A curious statement appears in older books on Egypt, without reference, that the Giza Sphinx was originally faced by another on the east bank of the Nile, forming a guardian leonine pair to the entry of Egypt. Never verified, it would certainly add to our understanding of the Sphinx, if correct.


EGYPT "THE MOST IMPORTANT"

Napoleon smitten by Egypt

Napoleon said it all about Egypt: In exile, Napoleon said emphatically in his first interview with the Governor of St. Helena: "Egypt is the most important country in the world."

It certainly is to me, and to the alternative archaeologist, Anson Hunter, in 'The Smiting Texts'.

DID ‘APOCALYPSE SCROLL’ TRIGGER RAMESES PLAGUES?

Legend tells that a son of Rameses the Great found the scroll

Does the amazingly powerful Scroll of Thoth keep turning up in history at times of disaster for humankind?

This is the latest controversial theory of alternative archaeologist Anson Hunter in ‘THE ARMAGEDDON GLYPHS’ (a new ancient Egypt based adventure novel out in the UK later this year)

As Anson tells it…

“The re-emergence of the scroll from its ancient past all started with a son of Rameses, a young magician-prince and priest called Khaemwaset, the 'First Egyptologist'. He liked to dig around the Memphis area in search of forbidden knowledge. One day, after entering a tomb in the great necropolis and engaging in a mighty tussle with the ghost of a long-dead magician, he gained the lost scroll.
“The story goes that Khaemwaset opened a series of boxes, rather like the nest of coffins and shrines found inside the tomb of the boy king Tutankhamun. He opened an iron box and found a bronze box inside. He opened the bronze box and found a keté-wood box. He opened the keté-wood box and found an ivory-and-ebony box. He opened the ivory-and-ebony box and found a silver box. He opened the silver box and found a gold box. He opened the gold box and found the Book of Thoth, a scroll of papyrus covered with ancient hieroglyphs.
“As an aside, you may notice how the sequence of metals - iron, copper, gold - echoes the alchemical process of transmutation and of higher illumination. The very word ‘alchemy’ has an Egyptian root, of course, coming from khem, the ancient word for Egypt, meaning black earth or the silt deposits left by the inundation of the Nile. It also stands for the base, black first matter out of which all things came and applied to a spiritual development of a very special order.

“What exactly were these boxes that Khaemwaset found? And were they in fact boxes at all? Why do I raise this question? There’s a pointer in another scroll called the Westcar Papyrus, about an early pharaoh, Khufu, builder of the great pyramid. In it we discover that Khufu is anxiously seeking to discover ‘the number of the secret chambers of the sanctuary of Thoth’ so that he can incorporate the number inside his own tomb. Was this statement a garbled version of what he actually sought? Was his quest to find ‘the number of the secret chambers of the Sanctuary of Thoth’ or simply to find ‘a number of secret chambers of the Sanctuary of Thoth?’

“Just a difference of a definite article, but a definite difference in substance. My question is this. Are we talking about boxes, or about precious chambers - a number of them, one within the other, or after the other, of iron, bronze, kete-wood, ebony-and-ivory, silver and, ultimately gold?

“Whatever the containers were, Khaemwaset’s discovery brings him great power. He becomes ancient Egypt’s most famous magician, while his assertive father Rameses, who doubtless commandeers the scroll, elevates himself to the status of a living god and to an exalted position among the kings of Egypt.

“Rameses embarks on superhuman projects to proclaim his apotheosis and the evidence of it dominates Egypt to this day. His power and vanity know no limit. He fathers a small nation on his own, some estimates putting his progeny as high as one hundred sons, and sixty daughters, and if that doesn’t tire him out he marries at least three of his own daughters too. The most casual glance at the number and scale of the temples and colossi of this king confirms his megalomania. His ambition includes the construction of a whole new city, which in typical bombastic style he names after himself, afflicting the Hebrews in the process.

“How could the appearance of this source of power invoke holy wrath? You’ll recall that the god of Moses abhorred Egypt’s ‘false’ gods, and the source of their power, heka. ‘Against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment - I am the Lord,’ he says in Exodus. When the serpent-staff of Moses swallowed the serpents of pharaoh’s magicians, Jehovah was symbolically smiting the magical serpent goddess that adorned pharaoh’s brow. The royal uraeus or cobra on the pharaoh’s brow embodied the most potent symbol of the pharaoh’s magical power and bore the name ‘Great of Magic.’

“When Moses turned the river to blood, God was striking against Hapi, magical god of the Nile. When he plunged Egypt into darkness, he struck against the magical power of Ra, the sun god… and so on.

“I have chosen the title The Armageddon Glyphs for the Scroll of Thoth, conscious of its biblical associations. I am not alone in making religious associations with the scroll. There are groups who see the re-emergence of this forbidden knowledge as the precursor to a messianic event - the Second Coming.

“Could it be that these glyphs were a red rag and that their re-emergence in history acted as some kind of Pandora’s box, or worse, an Armageddon trigger? Khaemwaset’s discovery brought disaster upon the land of Egypt, the royal family, and great affliction on the Hebrews.

“Will disaster again be unleashed as it was on Rameses the Great, on Nectanebo and on Hitler’s Third Reich, but this time on today’s people in the Middle East, and ultimately the whole world?

'THE ARMAGEDDON GLYPHS' is the follow up to the esoteric thriller ‘THE SMITING TEXTS’.

THE RETURN OF THE ALTERNATIVE ARCHAEOLOGIST

Book number 2 is written - now working on number #3 in the Anson Hunter series

The eternal allure of Egyptology

Philae temple - window on the ancient past

Look inside 'THE SMITING TEXTS'

Chapter 1


THEY INTERCEPTED him as he came out of Baltimore-Washington Airport, two men wearing suits and an air of officialdom like a brisk cologne.
“Mr Anson Hunter, the British Egyptologist?”
Egyptologist? That sounded good. Very establishment. Anson stood a bit taller, which placed his beanstalk elevation a few inches above theirs. The man could have said independent, renegade Egyptologist and phenomenologist, lecturer at out-of-town halls and auditoriums, writer, blogger and alternative theorist as well as leader of occasional, fringe tour groups to Egypt. But instead the man had said ‘Egyptologist’.
“Who wants to know?”
“You are invited to Johns Hopkins University. They wish to hear you speak.”
Anson goggled. Johns Hopkins and Anson Hunter? His moment of elation quickly faded. They didn’t belong in the same sentence.
“A nice thought, gentlemen, but venerable institutions like Johns Hopkins don’t wish people like me to speak. They would prefer us not to breathe.”
Anson had arrived to give a lecture on ancient Egyptian ritual smiting power and execration texts at a hired Masonic hall that evening.
He tried to move past, but the men blocked his way, smiling with steely politeness.
“Please come with us, Sir.”
“There must be some mistake.”
The spokesman frowned and reached inside his coat.
Hell, Anson thought, what is this? Has mainstream Egyptology finally sent a hit squad?
The hand came out of the coat. Anson resumed the business of breathing. The man flipped open a wallet, by way of introduction.
Anson glimpsed a crest – an eagle inside a circle and the words:

U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Also a name, Browning. He was a broad-faced man with steady eyes.
Why me?
Anson’s ex-wife May had always said that he had the burning eyes of fanatic. Had they picked him out as a likely threat to the US homeland? This Johns Hopkins stuff was just a cover for an arrest.
He suddenly felt very alien.
“I’ve been a mild threat to conventional Egyptology for years,” he said, “but I hardly rate as a security risk.”
“We need your help, Mr Hunter.”
The other man relieved him of his suitcase and also took his briefcase containing his laptop.
“Careful, there’s an explosive PowerPoint presentation in there,” Anson said.
Browning flicked a glance towards Anson’s briefcase, but a sense of humour overtook his instinct to protect the homeland. He allowed himself a flinty smile.
“Ah, yes. Almost had me going there.”
“Would you please explain why Johns Hopkins Near Eastern Studies Department would be even faintly interested in my theories?”
The man lowered his voice.
“It’s not that Department that wants you. Johns Hopkins is also the Centre of Excellence for a new Homeland Security Centre. Goes by the full name of the Centre for the Study of High Consequence Event Preparedness and Response. You’ll be addressing a consortium that’s studying how the nation can best prepare for and respond to a range of unexpected large-scale incidents or disasters.”
“Me?”
The only large-scale disaster he was familiar with was his own career – his failure to swing the world of Egyptology, with very few exceptions, to his alternative theories. But maybe his luck was changing. Any invitation to speak at Johns Hopkins – anywhere at Johns Hopkins, even in a restroom - was too intoxicating to pass up. Not that his abductors were giving him much choice in the matter.
They led him to a waiting black sedan that purred on the kerbside.
He shrugged, climbed into the back with one of the Homeland men and sank into baffled acceptance. The sedan slid away into traffic.
This was the smoothest of smooth abductions. But they had his attention. He decided he quite enjoyed being whisked away into intrigue.
He was still troubled however.
“I’m not exactly sure where we’re going with this. What has US Homeland Security got to do with ancient Egypt? Or me?”
The Homeland man who sat in the front beside the driver, threw a mystified look over his shoulder.
“Beats me, I’m a practical man. I’ll leave it to others to explain.”
“Then there’s the small matter of my engagement. I’m booked to give a lecture tonight. Hundreds of people will be disappointed. Well, dozens.”
“Cancelled already. Just consider it a change of venue.”
It was quite a turnaround from out-of-town Masonic hall to Johns Hopkins University. A bit presumptuous of them, but he could be flexible.

© Copyright Roy Lester Pond 2008/2009