Thotmes and Sekhmet

As we know, the worship of the lioness-headed Goddess Sekhmet was widespread in dynastic Egypt, and She seems to have held quite a special position in the Ancient Egyptian pantheon of gods and goddesses. One of the most famous Royal worshippers of Sekhmet was the Pharoah Thotmes or Tehutmes III in the XVIII Dynasty, circa 1450 BCE.

Thotmes was that rare combination, a warrior mystic. During his reign he transformed Egypt into a world power, establishing Egyptian colonies in Syria, Palestine and Nubia. Despite his warlike image Thotmes was a civilised ruler who cultivated the arts and sciences in his native land. The Pharoah was also responsible for creating botanical gardens and founding zoos supplied with birds, animals and plants he had gathered on his military campaigns in the lands he conquered.

When he passed to the Halls of Amenti the court poets praised Thotmes as a "fiery comet in the heavens", and he was worshipped by the common people as the personification of the ibis-headed Moon God, Thoth (pronounced Tehuti) after whom the Pharoah had been named.

On an esoteric level Thotmes holds an important position in occult history. He is credited with founding the Order of the Rosy Cross (the Rosicrucians) which allegedly existed for thousands of years before its manifesto was made public in the early 17th century. Thotmes was also responsible with his son Amenhotep for building many of the great temples at Karnak which included a shrine devoted to the worship of Sekhmet. This shrine can be found within the Temple of Ptah, the Great Architect of the Universe.

According to Margaret Murray in he book "Egyptian Temples" (Sampson, Marston & Co, 1939), the Sekhmet shrine was designed to produce some interesting light effects, and what she describes as optical illusions. If a person enters the shrine from the harsh sunlight of the Egyptian day the chamber appears to be in darkness. However as the eye adjusts to the inside of the shrine the effigy of Sekhmet within it gradually becomes visible.

Murray says that this is because the statue of Sekhmet is constructed of black granite, and the lighting of the shrine is derived from an opening in the roof above the head of the goddess. Sekhmet is depicted in this shrine in Her traditional form as a nubile young woman with the head of a lioness. The lighting in the chamber has been designed so as to provide the would-be worshipper with a vision of the goddess apparently materialising out of the darkness.

This is not the only strange light effect in the shrine. An archaeologist records how he entered the chamber and was surprised to see a ray of white light pass from the head of the statue of Sekhmet, travel down her body to her feet and then cross the floor towards him before vanishing. This happened in a sequence several times until the shrine seemed to be full of waves of light. He had noticed before entering the chamber that the sky was full of scudding clouds driven by a high wind, and decided that the light effect was a reflection of the cloud strata. To prove the point the archaeologist proceeded to cover the aperture in the roof of the shrine until only a small hole was left. He then saw that the image of the clouds was now projected into the chamber in the manner of a camera obscura.

According to Murray, the stature of Sekhmet had an evil reputation in the village of Karnak. In the past an Egyptian decided to excavate the shrine which had been covered by sand. As was the usual practice he employed several young village boys to move the baskets of stones and sand from the excavation. Unfortunately there was a fall of earth from the roof of the shrine chamber and seven of the little boys were buried. Although the pile of earth was removed, no trace of the boys' bodies was ever found. The obvious (?) conclusion made by the superstitious villagers was that Sekhmet, who they believed was the central focus of a cult of human sacrifice in ancient times, had devoured them!

Whatever the truth about the little boys, it is certain that Thotmes III would have been aware of the occult uses of light. Similar techniques were used in Christian churches and especially by the medieval masons who designed the stained glass windows of the Gothic cathedrals of Christian Europe. These created spiritual changes in the interior atmosphere of the cathedrals by the combination of sunlight (and probably moonlight as well) with the specially treated glass in the windows. Earlier uses of light for occult/spiritual purposes is recorded from the megalithic burial chambers, such as Newgrange in Ireland, which were used for initiation purposes in the shamanic mysteries of prehistoric times.

Michael Howard is author of numerous books, including Practical Magic (Javelin 1987), Traditional Folk Remedies (Century 1987), The Occult Conspiracy (Arrow, 1988), Angels & Goddesses (Capall Bann, 1994). He is the editor of The Cauldron magazine, which has been published regularly since 1976.

Thotmes and Sekhmet by Michael Howard was published in Children of Sekhmet, Candlemass 1988