1 minute read
Figure 67. Amulets
and wisdom of their ancestors to cope with certain realities, while the dead are reminded that their lives continue to influence the living.
Observance At Abydos, elaborate ceremonies took place during this season that included the fabrication of statues in the image of Asar, which were carefully wrapped and enshrined for a process of alchemical transformation that was provoked by the recitation of invocations and spells. These were kept in the Sokar chapel for the duration of the year.
Advertisement
The observance begins with a reenactment of the journey to the four funerary cities of the Lower Kingdom, the cortege of Asar that v isited Sais, Buto, Mendes, and Heliopolis. This journey is an emulation of the soul's transfiguration, from the departure of the body in Sais (west), the feeding of the Ka in Buto (north), the joining of the Ka and Ba in Mendes (east), to its exaltation in the celestial worlds in Heliopolis (south).
Returning to the northernmost part of the temple, the region of Set and the unmoving force in creation, the polestars are invoked. The action then moves east, where the implantation of seed into the soil of the Sokar bed and the watering rite is performed. Life-giving light is then welcomed into the ritual space. In ancient times, the sacred images were brought from the crypts of the temple to the roof chapels, exposed to the Sun on their sacred days, and symbolically germinated by the cosmic powers.
If there is a Sokar bed from the previous year's festival, it is embalmed in linen, anointed with cypress oil, and placed in a coffin. It is then symbolically buried in the western necropolis of the temple.
The materials used in this rite are water, grain, incense from a tree gum (frankincense, copal, storax), oil extracted from an evergreen source (cedar, cypress, pine), and a Sokar bed. The latter may be an oblong, coffin-shaped tray of stone or clay. In the ancient temple, the bed was fabricated in the reclining image of Asar. The grain may be corn, barley, or the type of wheat known as spelt.
A commemorative feast is traditionally held at the conclusion of this observance, in memory of the departed and with the expectation that Sokar will rise from the soil in the sprouting seed to provide an abundant life harvest once again.
