The
hypostyle hall had columns which are invariably very thick and strong,
and were obviously intended to carry a great load upon them.1
These columns were made in the likeness
of a somber tropical forest composed of palm-trees, papyrus stems and lotus
stalks with elaborate capitals imitating the tops of these plants. In most
cases, the solid roof is made in the image of the sky, with the constellations
explicitly represented in it (see Fig.1 (e)).
It is clear to any keen observer that the
hypostyle hall represents a heavily forested underground
realm with its subterranean "heaven" (or canopy) forming the ground floor
of our own world. We shall see below that this subterranean world represents,
rather literally at that, the subterranean realm of Atlantis. What else?
Moreover, the lotus, palm and papyrus capitals of such hypostyle halls
are closed and budding, as they would be at night or before they are a
button ready to open.
Only in the sections usually exposed to
sunlight are the pillars, in contrast, decorated with open flowers and
fronds. Among the constellations represented in the roof of the hypostyle
chamber the Celestial Nile is represented, with the gods navigating across
them in their barques. Clearly, the chamber represents a dual of Egypt,
not indeed Celestial, but sunken underground and infernal, though extremely
beautiful and pleasurable.2
The Hypostyle Hall Portrays a Tropial Forest
Anyone who ever entered a tropical forest in his lifetime will readily realize that the hypostyle hall of the Egyptian temples was designed in order to represent one: the imposing gloom, the trick trunes of the pillars all around, the luscius colors, the vegetation above forming a thick canopy high overhead, and so on.
In fact, even the evergreen forests of the temperate or the cold regions of the world do resemble the hypostyle hall of na Egyptian temple, except for the lack of the colorful vegetation. Keep this analogy in mind the next time you are lucky enough to enter na Egyptian temple like the one of Karnak, and you will readily realize the truth of what we are claiming.
Unfortunately, the gorgeous colours are now mainly gone, effaced by the forocious sun of sub-tropical Egypt. But in the times of David Roberts (1796-1864) - the famous Irish painter who visited Egypt in 1838-9 drawing its many marvel - they were still alive, as can be seen in Fig. 1(e) and 1(f) which we owe to the great artist. Space does not allow a fuller presentation of the many beautiful drawings that Roberts bequeathed us and which portray the interior of the Egyptian temples. The ones of Fig. 1(e) and 1(f) show, the interior of the temple of Isis, in the island of Philae.
On the ceiling of the hall is shown the nocturnal sky, spangled with stars. In it fly the repeated figures of the sacred vulture and the sacred beetle, symbols of death and resurrection. The freshness and the beauty of the colors enchanted Roberts, who also extols the beauty of its majestic proportions. The clearing at the center of the hypostyle hall represents the
temenos, the sacred open space within the enclosure of the temple where the worshippers gathered for the cult.
The nocturnal sky shown in the figure represents the former sky, the one of sunken Atlantis which became the new earth when it fell down over the former land. On that sky sails the sacred ships of the Sun and his attendant in their nocturnal trip back to the Orient, where the day star will start the new day.
In the colorful foliage that forms the capitals of the pillars we recognize several sorts of tropical vegetation: lotuses, papyri, palm trees. Though cultivated in Egypt from remotest epochs, these plants are not originally Egyptian. As we argue elsewhere in detail, they originated in the Far East and, more exactly, in the region of Indonesia, the very site of Paradise (Punt) according to Egyptian traditions.
On the pillars of Isis' temple of Philae can be seen several christian crosses. These were carved in the VI century, when Bishop Theodorus transformed the temple into a Coptic church. Very little transformation was indeed required, the "Christianization" consistingof the carving of the crosses and the construction of na altar for the celebration of Mass. In fact, one of the key factors of the instant sucess of Christianism and elsewhere was the sunchretism of isis with the Virgin Mary and that of Osiris (Serapis) and Horus with the somewhat equivocal figures of Christ and his mysterious Father.
In fact the Immaculate Conception was taken verbatim from the identical one of Horus by the dead body os Osiris. After the great god had been murdered by Seth, his evil brother, Isis sought out his dead remains, which she gathered and mummified, with the exception of the phallus, which could not be found. In her temple at Dendera, Isis is shown under the guise of a bird, beating her wings to insuffate life into Osiris' body, while magically conceiving her Son Horus in the process.
Though far more explicit than most christian renderings of the Virgin Birth of Christ renderings of the Virgin Birth of Christ, there can be no doubt that both motifs represent one and the same primordial concept, whose true meaning seems to have been utterly forgotten with the passage of time. In fact, Isis as a bird hovering above dead Osiris closely evokes the figure of the Holy Ghost doing the same at the occasion of Christ's baptism or, even more closely, the winged angel "announcing" the Immaculate Conception.3
