MYSTERY MURDERER OF FAMOUS EGYPTOLOGIST... (who was behind the veil?)

The Smiting Texts is also a murder mystery thriller with a surprise ending.

Another 'mocked-up' pre-storyboarded novel scene I made using library or Googled shots - this one is from the first in my ancient Egyptian trilogy, The Smiting Texts. A crime mystery is the mainspring of the plot. (Amazon Kindle, $3.99)

A thriller writer’s ANCIENT EGYPT SCRAPBOOK - top Egypt gallery of photos

 

 (Scrapbook version)

Here’s a gallery of our top Egypt photos, mostly taken by my wife Brenda. Images that keep bring us both back to Egypt with its inspiring mystery and magic – and keep me writing.

As my independent Egyptologist hero reflects in The Smiting Texts:

“I often wish I could put all of Egypt back, restore every flake of missing pigment in every painted Egyptian face in every fresco in every tomb and every temple relief, to bring back to the touch and the eye all the seductive allure of this civilization. I couldn’t imagine living in a world without Egypt. In fact, there are times when I can hardly live in today’s world, knowing what little of Egypt remains. It seems as vital to me as rainforests to the earth and the prospect of its vanishing forever is more scary than the destruction of trees. Something great and deeply thrilling happened here once.”

VIDEO EXAMPLE - PRE-STORYBOARDING MY KEY NOVEL SCENES

 

Opening scene from The Ibis Apocalypse

 

Video example of how I like to pre-storyboard key scenes in my fiction, using scrap art or Googled pics to create a scene before I begin writing. 

This is the opening scene from The Ibis Apocalypse (third in a trilogy of ancient Egyptian adventure thrillers).

A rumble of thunder came to deepen his puzzlement and then a screech, the sound of stone moving over stone, grinding, scouring. He felt a tremble under his feet. He spun his flashlight. The abrasion grew to a roar that made his eardrums cower.

A slab of darkness surged out of deeper darkness. His beam flared on a block of granite in a humanoid shape. A man mountain. It was a stone block with a carved head on top… a colossal block-statue of a High Priest of Thoth, weighing tons.

The cubic man, with head, feet and hands protruding, squatted on a base with his knees raised and arms folded across them under a cloak to form a crushing volume in stone.

In the turmoil, the passage trembled and so did Anson.

The wigged and bearded face on top of the block wore a smile that belied the missile’s crushing intent as the statue shuddered over the floor. Hieroglyphs on the front of the block leapt into Anson’s vision like an execration hurled at him, a spell to obliterate an intruder...

Available in Amazon  Kindle edition ($3,99) and in paperback - BUY them here

STONE WRONG-SIDE UP IN EGYPTIAN TEMPLE! WHERE IS IT?

When they moved this temple and reassembled it they placed this temple stone upside down.

Anson Hunter, renegade Egyptologist in my action adventure trilogy isn't the only one who has turned ancient Egypt upside down.

This stone appears inset in a column inside Philae Temple.

As in the case of the temple of Abu Simbel, the rising waters of Lake Nasser threatened Philae too, so the rescuers chose a substitute, the nearby island of Agilqiyyah, which they bulldozed to match the exact shape of Philae. Then they moved the whole thing stone by stone. Somehow, they also succeeded in transporting its mystery to the new location in spite of one upside down stone!

Egypt’s Abu Simbel and a Dangerous New Dawn for Humankind?

A real threat to humankind?

(Excerpt from ‘The Hathor Holocaust’, 2^nd in my Egypt Adventure Thriller Trilogy, Amazon Kindle $3.99), and in paperback.)

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?

"What a great book. Hopefully will reach a far wider readership than the Egyptology Community"...

What would the Egyptology Community think of my renegade independent Egyptologist Anson Hunter?

We first meet Anson Hunter in The Smiting Texts, where he is hired by a Homeland Security Think Tank at Johns Hopkins University, presumably for his unusual skills. 

A 'paid up academic', Dr Melinda Skilling, says to him:

"You’re special, not only because of your grasp of arcane Egyptian knowledge and practice, but because of your standpoint. I must confess that mainstream academics, restrained by what has been termed the ‘agnostic reflex’, are somewhat in the position of outsiders looking in, careful to keep an objective distance from Egyptian religion, mystical texts and esoteric practices. You, on the other hand, are a phenomenologist, one who believes that you must grant value and credibility to the sacred and engage with it experientially in order to appreciate it fully. I have a certain sympathy for that position.”

Professor Kanawati of Australia's Macquarie University, an acclaimed field Egyptologist, said "I enjoyed The Smiting Texts."

“Such a great book! Very imaginative and factual at the same time… hopefully will reach a far wider readership than the Egyptology Community – Egypt Then and Now”

Where is Thoth hidden in Egypt? ANSWER.

The wonderful relief of Thoth stands behind a seated colossus of Rameses in the Temple of Luxor.

In order to view the image of Thoth inside the temple (and a matching image of the goddess Seshat), you have to squeeze between a wall and the back of the pharaoh's throne.

Where is this Egyptian god Thoth hidden in Egypt?

This is the finest depiction of Thoth, god of magic, wisdom and writing, and it's hidden from the view of most visitors and even local guides.

(Thoth appears directly beside, and facing, the paired image of Seshat in the temple of Luxor, hidden behind a seated statue of Rameses II.)


Thoth is at the heart of my novel 'The Ibis Apocalypse'. (Amazon Kindle and paperback.) Here is an excerpt...


 

Chapter 3

WHEN THE WOMAN came into the occult bookshop, Anson forgot about the German book browser and his incredible claims.

She was a dark beauty in a long black leather coat, and, promisingly, she looked quite mainstream, he thought. Definitely not a crank, this one. She swept a glance around the deserted interior.

“Tell me you haven’t just popped in here for directions,” he said hopefully.

“Hello Anson Hunter.” Angelic choirs began to sing inside the occult bookshop, or so it seemed to him.

“Come straight to the head of the queue,” he said.

“No need for crowd control here, I see.”

Crowd control. A strange quip. It had a law enforcement ring, he thought. She wasn’t the law, surely. He’d upset the Intelligence community in the past, but the police?

“Would you care for a signed copy?” he said. She had a calm, self-possessed manner.

“No, thanks.”

“No?” She shook her head and made her black hair swing. 

Not another non-reader. This called for desperate measures. “Look, I’ll give you money outside,” he said in a whisper.

“Meaning?”

“It’s been a bit slow in here today and I’ve got to encourage the bookseller. Let’s make her believe that someone’s going to read my book.”

She smiled. That mouth did not part easily with smiles, he guessed.

“I’ve read your book.” Angelic choirs returned to the occult bookshop. A precious reader. So they did exist. He warmed to the woman. He felt like asking for her signature.

“Zara Margolin,” she said, offering her hand in a surprisingly firm handshake. “You really believe that this ancient stone tablet actually existed?” she said.

“Yes, it actually did and it actually still does.” 

“And it has the powers you fear?” 

“I wrote a whole book in support of that belief.” It was as if a book alone were not enough for her. She wanted to hear it from the author himself.

“You believe the Stela has appeared in history at times before struggles and suffering? In the time of Rameses and the suffering of the Hebrews... and in Hitler’s Germany?”

Suffering - Old Testament - a Jewish woman. Did that account for her interest? She searched his face as he answered, her eyes almost level with his. The intensity of her gaze made him flinch. She was quite rangy, he noted, almost matching his lanky height.

“I’m sure of it,” he said. “In fact, I believe its message is about to resurface, if it hasn’t already done so.”

“This tablet would be very ancient,” she said.

“Exceedingly. It comes from the womb of history – from an age that the ancient Egyptians called Zep Tepi.”

“Zep Tepi,” she said after him. She played with the words.

“An age before the pharaohs, when divinities like Thoth were supposed to have reigned over Egypt.”

A frown briefly disturbed the smoothness of her forehead.

“Yes, but pre- the invention of writing, surely?”

“Not necessarily. They keep pushing back the date of Egypt’s invention of hieroglyphs with new discoveries. I believe writing goes back further than Egyptologists believe.”

“I forget. You’re alternative. But people always called it a scroll - The Scroll of Thoth.”

He shook his head.

“The first books, like the Ten Commandments, were in stone and Egyptian stelae were books in stone. So-called papyrus Scrolls of Thoth appeared later in the New Kingdom.”

“Okay. But to believe in the Stela of Thoth, you’ve got to believe in Thoth. An Egyptian god with a bird’s head.”

“We don’t know who, or what, Thoth may have been,” he said. “But even putting aside the question of whether or not a race called the Neteru, or the gods, actually existed at some distant age, consider it a case of inspired agency. Like the Bible. Egyptian religion and mythology tells us that Thoth was the first example of the divine mind, the logos, or the ‘word’ of creation as Christians call it. He was known as the master of wisdom, writing and time, symbolised by both the sacred ibis and the dog-faced baboon.”

“A bird and a baboon as the god of wisdom?”

“Not so unexpected. Have you ever looked at an ibis? The curve of its beak echoes a crescent moon, or perhaps the rim of an eclipse. Watch the measured way an ibis strides, picking out small fish, snakes, frogs and insects like a master scribe judiciously selecting his words. Thoth was also the god of time and measurement. Picture the way the ibis strides the fields of Egypt, pace by measuring pace, like a scribal surveyor of ancient times re-measuring the land and setting boundaries after mud from the inundation covered the river banks.”

“And a baboon?”

“Before man could utter words, baboons were facing the rising sun and chattering. Look into those deep-set eyes and it’s possible to believe that you’re looking into the depths of mysterious wisdom and it was mainly in the form of a baboon that scribes revered Thoth as the ‘Lord of Script...’”

 'The Ibis Apocalypse' is the third in my Anson Hunter Egypt adventure thriller series of 9 novels (Amazon Paperback and Kindle)

WHERE IS THIS GODDESS IN EGYPT? ANSWER

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS POST. The location of the goddess

is Philae - on a free-standing wall at the back 

of the temple. 

The photographer, my wife Brenda, caught this liminal moment when the sacred and the shadows of Egypt touched.

 

 

The goddess is everywhere of course, defiantly visible even after attacks by zealots over the years, her form in profile, revealed in serpent-like curves of shadow and stone.

 

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