Hknw n ra qAi sxm (Praise to ra exalted power)

Kofi Piesie 2019   Late 2015 I begin to research online and purchase a few books on Ra and the other ancient Egyptians deities known as the netcherew, and as time pass, I felt like I collected enough data were early 2016 I begin to write an article on the most revered deity in Egypt which is Ra. Threw my research I became so fascinated with Ra, I wanted more resources, so I bought any book that mentions the deity Ra. This article that was supposed to take me a few days turn into a few months because I now have enough information to write a book instead of an article. I sent 16 to 20 pages to my Seshew Maa Ny Medew Netcher family, Benjamin Nije, Asar Em Ka and another brother name I will not mention at this time to review and give me some feedback. The feedback was positive and I went on to write the chapters for my book The Ra Document: The Understanding of Ra and His Many Manifestations.  

  Completion of the Book 

The book was completed late 2016 but I had a few issues, the first issue I had was the artwork for the front and back cover, the second was relationship problems with my son mother and me relocating, the third was me feeling it wasn’t good enough, and then I heard Asar Imhotep was in the process of writing a book on Ra, or dedicating a chapter on Ra as a rebuttal to Wesley Muhammad Ra Iz Allah book, so now I really wanted to wait to see Asar Imhotep work on the Egyptian deity Ra before I published my text. 

Where Is The Book? 

Everyone has been asking me Kofi where is the book, Kofi publish your book but I have yet to do it. I wrote the book in 2016 and it is 2019 and my research mythology is better than it was in 2016, plus I have a bunch errors to correct, a little more information to add, and I’m possibly leaning toward eliminating the last two chapters. Now let’s look at a few excerpts from each chapter in my unpublished text. 

Chapter 1: WHO IS RA 

Ra was the primary name of the Ancient Egyptian sun deity that represents the sun, and the sun is the giver of life, controlling the ripening of crops which were worked by man. Because of the life-giving qualities of the sun, the Egyptians worshiped the sun as a god. The creator of the universe and the giver of life the sun or Ra represented life, warmth, and growth. Since the people regarded Ra as a principal god, creator of the universe and the source of life he had much influence over the people which led to him being one of the most worshiped of all the Egyptian gods and even considered King of the Gods (Alan W. Shorter 05). 

Ra was described to rmT ny km.t (the people of Kemet) to be the creator of everything and revered him high above all Egyptian Deities that are called the netcherew. Ra means sun and now let’s go into why they revered and honor the sun.  

What does the sun do for humans?

The sun helps humans in several ways! First of all, it is a source of warmth, which allows human bodies to function. Without the warmth of the sun, the surface of the planet would be very cold, and the various cells, tissues, and organs in our body would cease to function. Furthermore, recall that the sun facilitates photosynthesis. One of the by-products of photosynthesis is oxygen, which is necessary for humans to breathe and live. Another way that the sun is important is that it helps to warm the oceans, which after many steps eventually results in the weather patterns we see.

The sun gives us energy in its light rays — think of the heat you feel when you sit in the sunshine (or get a sunburn). Heat is a type of energy. Plants use the energy in sunlight to grow. Plants use energy from the sun instead of eating as we do. This process plants use to make energy from sunlight is called photosynthesis.

Humans eat plants, so we indirectly use the sun’s energy by eating plants which have used the sunlight to grow. We also use sunlight to get our vitamin D — we need enough hours in the sun’s energy or we don’t get enough vitamin D!

http://scienceline.ucsb.edu/getkey.php?key=4646

-Ra as a falcon-headed man:

 The God Ra usually is represented semi-anthropomorphic as a man with the head of a falcon and wearing the Solar disk with the Uraeus; this is the most common form of Ra. In addition to the Solar disk with the Uraeus, sometimes Ra is represented also wearing the ‘Atef’ Crown; in few scenes, Ra wears the Triple-‘Atef’ (the “Roaring One”) and the Double Feathered Crown with the Solar disk, and very rarely He is associated with the Double Crown. Moreover, in a relief from one of the Chapels of Osiris on the roof of the Temple of Hathor at Nitentore (Dendera), Ra is represented with two human-shaped bodies which merge into each other at the back, and with two falcon-heads. Concerning the Solar barques, Ra is depicted as a falcon-headed man in all the Solar barques represented in the “Book of the Day” and as the form of Ra during the V hour of the day (that is the hour proceeding the noon).

-Anthropomorphic form of Ra: 

The God Ra is also represented in fully anthropomorphic form, usually wearing the solar disk. In His form of Divine Child, Ra is always depicted in fully anthropomorphic form, usually”; inside the Sun; moreover, in some scenes, He is represented seated upon the Primeval Lotus flower. The form of Ra in the first two hours of the day is the Divine Child inside the Sun.

-Zoomorphic and combined forms of Ra:

Ra is one of the Egyptian Gods with the largest number of forms, and in fact, there are many sacred animals that are associated with Him in the iconography: the falcon, the cat, the lion, the calf and the bull, the baboon, the serpent, the crocodile, and the ram (Tripani, 2015: 1).

Chapter 2: RA HISTORY 

Ra was an ancient god, but not the oldest of the gods; the cult of Ra is attested throughout Egypt at least since the Old Kingdom, that is, from the fourth Dynasty onwards. Beginning with the Old Kingdom, Ra was depicted as a human being with a sun disk on his head. Ra was paramount importance for the ideology of rule, as was emphasized, for example, by an epithet or title that was given to Egyptian kings: sa ra, which means “son of Ra.” In addition, royal names were compounded with the element Ra; for example, the name Ra-djedef, the third king of the Fourth Dynasty (around 2525 BC), means “Ra, He Endures.” This king is usually said to be the first with such theophoric name incorporating the name of the sun god Ra.  The date of this Old Kingdom king is important because it is now commonly accepted that sun god Ra did not become a deity in Egypt until the Third dynasty (Kahl, Verlag, 2007: 1). However, by the Fifth Dynasty, he was a powerful god who was closely associated with the King. The King was already seen as the embodiment of Heru and so the two gods became linked, sometimes as the composite deity Ra-Horakhty (“Ra is Heru of the Horizon”). Ra also came to be associated with Atum (the creator god of the Ennead (psDw) in Heliopolis (iwnw) as Atum-Ra.

 The King bore the title “son of Ra” and this interpreted literally in a literary tale of about 1600BC and in the famous cycle of narrative art first found in the temple of the queen who made herself king, Hatshepsut(about 1450 BC). The sun god choose the woman to bear his next manifestation, takes, the form of her husband, impregnates her, and supervises the birth of the child and its ka or sustaining energy. Taken literally, this implies that the king is not a human being, but a manifestation of the sun god with the outward form and mortal lifespan of man (Quirke, 2001: 17-18).

Before I move on to the excerpt from Chapter 3 in my unpublished text, chapter 2 mention that before Ra became the primary deity the King was already seen as the embodiment of Heru and that is because in 1st and 2nd dynasty Heru and Seth was the divine power. 

Chapter 3: Cosmology Process 

Chapter 3 I wanted to deal with Ancient Egyptian or rmT ny Km.t (people of Kemet) few cosmology stories on how everything came into existence. Let’s look at the Bremner Rhind Papyrus with transliteration and translation 

Now let’s look at the rw nw prt m Hrw(the utterance of coming forth by day) or what most people call it by its misnomer name the book of the dead chapter 17 with transliteration and translation 

The ancient Egyptian view was quite the contrary. Egyptian thinker’s posited a state of matter before God and all his creation. Better still, God the artificer and creator himself emerged from this primal matter, itself un-created. The ancient Egyptians posited un-created reality before God the demiurge; Saint Augustine posited con-created matter, centered by God at the same time as other creatures. Between the two conceptions, that of the un-created matter is more is materialistic than that of con-created matter (Obenga, 2004: 40). 

Chapter 4: Great Litany of Ra 

Litany – 1) a ceremonial or liturgical form of prayer consisting of a series of invocations or supplications with responses that are the same for a number in succession. 2) The Litany, the supplication in this form in the Book of Common Prayer. 3) A recitation or recital that resembles a litany.        https://www.dictionary.com/browse/litany

The “Litany of Ra” is one of the most important religious texts dedicated to the God Ra and His worship: it is a litany of divine names that accompanies the figures of 74/75 forms of Ra. Among the various forms of Ra listed in the Litany, there are also some Deities that here are praised as aspects or manifestations of Ra: Shay, Khepry, Nun, Atum, Shu, Tefnut, Nut, Geb, Aset, Nebt-Het and Heru. Concerning the iconography of Ra in the Litany, most of His forms are represented with a mummiform body; of these, most are anthropomorphic, and the others are composite anthropomorphic forms (for example, ram-headed, falcon-headed, and scarab-headed). Among the other forms of Ra represented in the Litany, there is the ram, the cat, the scarab, the Solar disk associated with other forms, the Eye of Ra, and also a Stake to which is tied a prisoner (Tripani, 2015: 95).

The “Litany of Ra” is known in two different versions: the “Great Litany” and the “Little Litany”. The names of the forms of Ra in the two versions are the same, and the images are almost identical. The only difference is the order in which they are listed.

The “Great Litany” is composed of two sections: in the first section are eulogized 75 forms of Ra, each one with an invocation and a praise; the second section is devoted to the worship of Ra in Amente and to the union of the King with Ra and Osiris: “King is Ra,” and reciprocally. He is the “Ba’-Soul of Osiris”. The oldest known text of the “Great Litany” is represented on the shroud of King Thutmose III, a gift dedicated to Him by His son and successor, King Amenhotep II. Its first complete representation is from the “House of Eternity” of King Seti I; others copies are from the tombs of Ramses II, MerenPtah, Amenmesses, Seti II, Ramses III, Ramses IV and Ramses IX (in a shortened version); and some parts of it are inscribed also on the sarcophagi of the Late Period (Tripani, 2015: 93).

-The forms of Ra in the “Great Litany”(The images are from the Temple of King Ramses II at Abydos; drawings from “Abydos: description des fouilles, Band 2”, by A. Mariette. The translations of the invocations are taken from “The Litany of Re” by A. Piankoff)

From right to left:
1, “the One Joined Together” ; 3, “He at the head of His Cavern” ; 5, “He Who protects the ‘Baw’- souls” ; 7, “ the Wind to the ‘Baw’-souls” ; 9, “the Darkened One” ; 9a , “The ‘Ba’-Soul of Ra”(without invocation) 

From left to right: 

2, “the Becoming One” (‘Khepry’); 4, “Ra of the Solar Disk”; 6, “Severe Face”; 8, “He Who punishes with the Stake”; 10, “He Who gives the light to the bodies”

From right to left,

11, “Atum” ; 13, “Shu” ; 15, “Geb” ; 17, “Isis” ; 19, “Horus”

From left to right,

12, “the Becoming One” (‘Khepri’) ; 14, “Tefnut” ; 16, “Nut” ; 18, “Nephthys” ; 20, “Nun”

From right to left,

21, “the Weeper”; 23, “Those of the ‘Adw’-fish”; 25, “Netwty”; 27, “Amente (the West/Netherworld)”; 29, “the Mourner”

There are more images from the Temple of King Ramses II at Abydos but I only wanted to share a few of them from this chapter. The Great Litany shows Ra different manifestations are praise highly. The Title of the “Great Litany” is: “Beginning of the Book of the Adoration of Ra in Amente (The West/Netherworld) and of the Adoration of the One Joined Together in the  Amente” (The West/Netherworld). The function “When this Book is being recited, it said that these images must be painted on the ground, at night. This Book speaks on Ra defeating his enemies in Amente (The West/Netherworld) . It is useful for a man upon Earth, and it is useful for him after his burial”.

Chapter 5: Little Litany Ra 

The “Little Litany” is a shortened version of the “Great Litany” with 74 names and forms of Ra but without invocations. The “Little Litany” is represented in the “Houses of Eternity” of many Kings, such as Thutmose III, Seti I, Rameses III and others.

The Litany of Ra (or more fully “Book of Praying to Ra in the West, Praying to the United One in the West”) is an important ancient Egyptian funerary text of the New Kingdom (Hournung, 1999: 137).  Like many funerary texts, it was written on the inside of the tomb for reference by the deceased. Unlike other funerary texts, however, it was reserved only for nsw bity (King) or very favorer wrr (noble one) it is a two-part composition that in the first part invokes the sun, Ra in 75 different forms.  

The Burial Chamber from the House of Eternity of King Thutmose III

From right to left:

From right to left:

From right to left:

From right to left:

There are more images from “House of Eternity” of the King Thutmoses III burial chamber but I wanted to share a few of them from this chapter also. The “Little Litany” is a shortened version of the “Great Litany” with 74 names and forms of Ra. 75 different aspects of Ra are praised, each one with an invocation) accompanies the figures of the 74 forms of Ra inscribed in many “Houses of Eternity” (tombs) of the greatest Kings of Egypt, such as Thutmose III, Seti I, Ramses III and others. It is a nocturnal Litany to be recited during the night, “every day when Ra goes to rest in the West.

My Summary and Conclusion: 

Nwn represent the un-polarized state of matter.  Every rmT (remetch)) creation text begins with the same basic concept that before the beginning of things, there was liquidize primeval abyss-everywhere, endless, and without boundaries or direction, the rmT (remetch) called this cosmic ocean/watery chaos nwn. In the rw nw prt m hrw (Book of the dead) Chapter 17 The Primal Waters Nwn is Ra as the text states the primal water I am Atum when only I exist being alone in nwn and I am Ra when he appears in glory when he commands and governs that which he has created. Who is it, it is Ra. 

Scientist agrees with the ancient rmT (remetch) description of the origin of the universe as being an abyss. Scientist began to recognize that everything in the universe is made out of energy. Quantum physicist discovered that physical atoms are made up of vortices of energy that are constantly spinning and vibrating, each one radiating its own unique energy signatures.

 We are Ra, Ra is everything, and Ra is in everything.  Nothing can exist without Ra, Ra is one of the most important deities in rmT (remetch) Cosmology and who is the supreme power in the universe.  The giver of life, he was often merged with the god Imn (Amen) as Imn- Ra(Amen-Ra). Some myths present Ra as the head of the rmT(remetch) pantheon and ruler of all the nTrw (netcherew). Others say that he was the only nTr (netcher) and that all other nTrw (netcherw) were merely aspects of Ra. Those nTrw (netcherw) are manifestations of Ra, those nTrw (netcherw) are the elements, and the building blocks to life and existence, Ra separated himself from himself to know himself. 

January 3, 2018, I did a presentation on my platform Kofi Piesie TV, and the presentation was called the 75 Names of Ra, which touch on the sun deity Ra and the Little Litany of Ra which is forms of prayers for the different manifestation of Ra.  I have provided the link below for those who may be interested in looking at the presentation. 

Prior to putting out and after my presentation The 75 names of Ra I had no interested in getting my book published because I believe it wasn’t good enough but I want to thank my Mossi Warrior Clan brothers Benjamin Nije aka Blak Pantha, Ini Herit Shawn Khalfani, Amen Maat Ra and My Seshew brother Setepenre Meri Amen for encouraging me and telling me to put the book out , so now that I am back inspired, motivated and believing in my work, I hope this article interested my good brothers and sisters to support the book The Ra Document: The Understanding of Ra and his many manifestations text when it comes out soon. 

Sources: 

• The Ra Document: The Understanding Of Ra And His Many Manifestation by Kofi Piesie 
• Ra is my Lords by Jochem Kahl, Harrassowitz Verlag 
• The Cult of Ra by Stephen Quirke
• Ancient Egyptian Book of The Afterlife by Erik Hornung
• African Philosophy the pharaonic period: 2780-330 BC by Theophile Obenga
• Litany of Ra by Kartikeya Senapati
• THE GOD RA: ICONOGRAPHY (WITH ALL THE FORMS AND NAMES FROM THE “LITANY OF RA”) by Luigi Tripani
• The Litany of Re” by A. Piankoff 
• The Egyptian Gods: Handbook by Alan W. Shorter 
• http://scienceline.ucsb.edu/getkey.php?key=4646