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The
scene of the baptism by John can be paralleled in the Ritual [Egyptian
Book of the Dead] Chapter 97. Horus claims to be the master of all things,
including the water of the Inundation. When he comes to be baptised, it
is "said at the boat," called "the staff of Anup,"
" Look upon me, oh ye great and mighty Gods, who are foremost among
the spirits of Annu; let me be exalted in your presence." The plea
is very express." Lo, I come, that I may purify this soul of mine
in the most high degree: let not that impediment which cometh from your
mouth be issued against me, let me be purified in the lake propitiation
and of equipoise;:let me plunge into the divine pool beneath the two divine
sycamores of heaven and earth." After the baptism, he says, "
Now let my Fold be fitted for me. I am the only one just and true upon
the earth" (Ritual, Chapter 97, Renouf). The dogma of the incarnation was an Egyptian mystery. Baptismal regeneration, transfiguration, transubstantiation, the resurrection and ascension, were all Egyptian mysteries. The mystery of an ever-virgin mother; the mystery of a boy at twelve years of age transforming suddenly into an adult of thirty years, and then becoming one with the father, as it had been earlier in the mysteries of totemism; the mystery in which the dead body of Osiris is transubstantiated into the living Horus by descent of the bird-headed holy spirit; the mystery of a divine being in three persons, one of which takes flesh on earth as the human Horus, to become a mummy as Osiris in Amenta, and to rise up from the dead in spirit as Ra in heaven. These and other miracles of the Christian faith were already extant among the mysteries of Amenta. [ Massey, Gerald: Ancient Egypt -The Light of the World, Cosimo Classics,1907, p 227 ]
The karast is literally the god or person who has been mummified, embalmed, and anointed or christified. Anup the baptizer and embalmer of the dead for the new life was the preparer of the karast-mummy. As John the Baptist is the founder of the Christ in baptism, so Anup was the christifier of the mortal Horus, he on whom the holy ghost descended as a bird when the Osiris made his transformation in the marriage mystery of Tat tu (Rit., ch. 17). We read in the funeral texts of Anup- being “Suten tu hetep, Anup, neb tser khent neter ta krast-ef em set” (Birch, Funereal Text 4th Dynasty). “Suten hept tu Anup tep-tuf khent neter ha am ut neb tser krast ef em as-ef en kar [Page 219] neter em set Amenta” (Birch, Funereal Stele of Ra-Khepr-Ka, 12th Dynasty). Anup gives embalmment, krast; he is lord over the place of embalmment, the kras ; the lord of embalming (krast), who, so to say, makes the “krast”. The process of embalmment is to make the mummy. This was a type of immortality or rising again.Osiris is krast, or embalmed and mummified for the resurrection. Passage into life and light is made for the karast-dead through the embalmment of the good Osiris (Rit., ch. 162)-that is, through his being karast as the mummy type. Thus the Egyptian krast was the pre-Christian Christ, and the pictures in the Roman Catacombs preserve the proof. [ Massey, Gerald: Ancient Egypt -The Light of the World, Cosimo Classics,1907, p 228 ] |
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