Jeremy Naydler PhD, is a philosopher, cultural historian and gardener. He is the author of Temple of the Cosmos: The Ancient Egyptian Experience of the Sacred; Goethe on Science: A Selection of Goethe’s Writings; On the Divinity of the Gods; Perceptions Of The Divine In Nature: Part One: The Heart Of The Lily & Part Two: Baal-Hadad At Bracknell; and How Caterpillars Acquire Wings. He received his doctorate in religious studies at the University of Kent, Canterbury and lives in Oxford, England.

For those who follow the time honoured tradition of looking toward ancient Egypt as a font of profound mystical wisdom, Shamanic Wisdom in the Pyramid Texts is a very important text. Naydler observes all the scholarly ground rules to convincingly argue against the consensus of most Egyptologists that there is no evidence of a mystical tradition existing in ancient Egypt.

Naydler focuses on the Pyramid Texts, the earliest extant corpus of religious literature from ancient Egypt. Egyptologists generally view the Pyramid Texts as royal funerary texts that were used in the liturgy of the dead pharaoh or to aid him in his afterlife journey. Naydler argues these are actually mystical texts that describe the experiences of the living pharaoh.

Drawing parallels with shamanic wisdom, Naydler concludes the Pyramid Texts are initiatory texts that form the basis of ancient Egyptian mysticism. Within the Pyramid Texts are accounts of various experiential states including astral projection (out-of-body experiences), otherworld journeys, encounters with spirits, initiatory death and rebirth as well states of divine union.

From an esoteric standpoint, all initiation can be seen as a preparation for death. It is thus not surprising that shamanic themes such as “initiatory death and dismemberment followed by birth and renewal, the transformation of the shaman into a power animal, the ecstatic ascent to the sky, and the crossing of the threshold of death in order to commune with ancestors and gods” are all found by Naydler in the Pyramid Texts.

It is possible the Pyramid Texts were practical initiatory texts that doubled as funerary texts. It makes sense after all to have the pharaoh follow the same spiritual path in death as he followed in life.

Naydler’s arguments are in keeping with some of the most important Greek and Roman commentators such as Herodotus, Plutarch and Iamblichus who refer to mysteries, initiation and mystical experience within the Egyptian religion. These commentators saw the central mystical experience as closely paralleling that of death.

Death to the Egyptians was a subtle realm, referred to as the Dwat, which interpenetrated the world of the living. Perhaps paradoxically, the Dwat was also the source of everything in the material world. The role of the pharaoh was to link the visible and invisible realms together. He was the mediator between the worlds.

Naydler convincingly argues the Pyramid Texts are not mere intellectual speculation regarding the afterlife but descriptions of actual encounters with a spiritual dimension of existence. Apart from these visionary experiences, there is a longing for union with various deities.

Naydler theorises that while the pyramids were used as tombs, they were also used prior to death as the focus of secret rites as part of the Sed festival. The Sed festival marked a renewal of kingship celebrated after thirty years of a pharaoh’s rule. These Sed rites effectively paralleled those of the Eleusinian and later Hellenistic mysteries, the dialogues of Plato and certain Hermetic dialogues. While not all of the Pyramid Texts tie into the Sed festival, many certainly appear to.

Naydler points out the Pyramid Texts describe a cosmic rebirth and ascension process that parallels Hermetic literature, Jacob’s ladder in the Book of Genesis, the mystical ladders in Orphic and Mithraic mysteries, and the later Christian depictions of the “ladder of virtues” to be scaled by the soul on its way to heaven. In so doing, Naydler’s arguments effectively show the essential congruence in these apparently diverse systems of spirituality to shamanism.

The Pyramid Texts describe what is simultaneously an inner and outer cosmology. Certain constellations and stars, as well as the Sun and Moon, represent gateways to inner zones of experience. In addition there are less tangible spiritual regions that tie in with mythology which also have a transcendent inner reality.

Naydler ends the book with his dream of an Egyptian-inspired Renaissance where Western spirituality is reconnected to its Egyptian roots. He feels this could well result in paths of inner development that have been neglected for thousands of years. And thus, by studying the past, a new future could open up for us.

– Reviewed by Tony Mierzwicki in New Dawn No. 97