Now the displaced wanderers were eager to settle down in more permanent locations. Mixed bands of people from both the Upper and Lower Kingdoms flocked to the Nile Delta. At first they lived in small disorganized communities which, in the course of time, grew into towns, then into the nuclei of political divisions, called nomes, which came to be the traditional characteristic of Egyptian political geography.

From a geographical standpoint, Egypt, at this time, was isolated from the world at large by a vast expanse of water to the north, near arid desert to the west, and a distant boundary of hills to the east, beyond which lay another stretch of salt-water-soaked marshland extending as far as the eye could see.

Upper or Southern Egypt appeared as a long narrow canyon cut into a plateau by the Nile, with a comparatively narrow strip of fertile land along the riverbanks.

Lower or Northern Egypt was more like a broad fertile plain which continued to the "Red River" and beyond into the eastern foothills. In time, the settlers introduced a system of irrigation that soon made Lower Egypt the "bread basket" of the country, and its capital city, Noph, became the centre of great commercial activity.

Although Thebes in the South was the true capital of Egypt, ruled by the direct descendants of the ancient Pharaohs of the City of Pillars, the pace in Thebes was conservative and moderate compared to the stream of activity in the northern capital.

In supervising the reconstruction of Lower Egypt, the priests selected a leader (let's call him a king for the sake of differentiation between the leaders of the Upper and Lower Kingdoms). The king was a direct descendant of ancient Khe heritage, probably every bit as "royal" as the Pharaoh.

The new leader changed the name of the old capital, Noph, to Memphis. Memphis soon became the hub of a vast trading area with most of its activity centring directly around the king and his court.

The King, as indeed the Pharaoh in Upper Egypt, had a dual capacity. He was both head of church and head of state. It was at Memphis that the King, in his capacity as head of state, kept his storehouses, scribes, his civil service, his arsenal, and the enormous retinue of servants who governed his domain.

As head of the church, the monarch lived in another city, Heliopolis (Or), on the opposite bank of the Nile and here, over the centuries, built the most extensive and beautiful temples in all Egypt, establishing what might be termed a holy city.

At this time in Egyptian history there was a multitudinous retinue connected with the court, so that the King needed not just a palace, but an entire city to meet his domestic requirements.

In Memphis, the King's actual apartment was easily distinguishable by its projecting balcony from which he could watch the daily drilling of his guard, the stately approach of foreign envoys bearing gifts, feudal nobles seeking audience and numerous officials coming and going about their business.

Visitors would advance from the far end of the courtyard to stop before the balcony and prostrate themselves. Then they stood up wringing their hands, chanting the King's praises, imploring his attention to their cause.

The great halls in which the King dealt with state affairs were enormous. The ceiling was supported by long rows of tall columns carved out of rare wood and painted with intricate designs in bright colours. The doors in the palace were massive, inlaid with gold and silver, encrusted with malachite, lapis lazuli and other semi-precious stones.

The king's private quarters were entirely separate. They were connected with the Queen's dwelling (unless she was sufficiently illustrious to have her own separate palace) and with the harem of wives of inferior rank.

The royal children, who numbered a legion, once beyond the nursing age, lived in quite separate quarter under the care of tutors in "The House of the Children". Later they had their own houses and a train of servants proportionate to their rank, age and the fortune of the mother's family. The nobles who had appointments at court and the highest of royal domestics lived in the place proper. But the offices of the different employees, the storehouses for provisions, the homes of minor functionaries, formed a distant village outside the palace area with small passageways and a labyrinth of connecting courtyards spread throughout the entire area.

(Note - in Book there are 6 pages of pictorial graphics)

Such a city was Memphis at the height of its greatness. The inhabitants of the city were the most varied craftsmen imaginable and represented every ethnic origin in the known world. First there were the people immediately serving the King, the palace retainers and statesmen, each with a highly complex degree of rank and status. It was as if the King's person was minutely subdivided into departments, each requiring a retinue of attendants. Ra was treated in much the same manner.

The King's toilet alone gave rise to a score of different trades. There were royal barbers, manicurists, perfumers, massagers, cosmeticians, shoemakers, beltmakers, tailors. Each of these royal appointees had his own establishment and sub-establishments. There was a legion of laundresses, for example, who took the linen to laundries on the banks of the Nile where it was rinsed, starched, pleated and smoothed, to fill the incessant demands of a royal family who regarded white as a symbol of purity and who definitely associated cleanliness with godliness.

The jewellers and metal craftsmen also represented a major section of the royal community, especially as the Kings were in the habit of expressing their favour with necklaces and jewels. The tasks of the jewellery craftsman was not an easy one when you consider that every piece of work was an original creation and the enormous variety of necklaces, earrings, bracelets, rings, sceptres and diadems, which ceremonial costume required for particular times and occasions. The royal keeper of the crowns was almost on a par with the priesthood in terms of status and dignity.

The Queen required numerous attendants, as did the ladies of the harem. Troops of musicians, singers, dancers, clowns and dwarfs were in constant demand to while away the leisure hours.

The staff of servants required for supplying and serving food exceeded all others in number, for there was no monetary exchange system in Egypt at this time and servants were paid in goods. The King therefore had to supply food not only for his family, civil service and regular servants, but for everyone remotely in his employ, as well as his visitors and their retinues.

The complex status of each of these civil servants is impossible to describe, though our scribe smiles to indicate understanding and implies that a similar situation still exists on earth today among civilian employees who serve the state. There were head-cooks, grocers, game and fruit dealers, pantrymen, pastry cooks, fishmongers, butchers -- the list is nearly endless. The bakers who made the ordinary bread were not to be confused with those who made biscuits. Pancake and doughnut makers took precedence over the cake makers. Those who concocted delicate fruit preserves were socially superior to the common date dryers.

Honorary privileges, which were highly esteemed and jealously guarded, all formed a part of the complex social structure -- idioms of dress for example, such as the right to wear sandals in the palace, while the general crowd of courtiers could only go unshod, or the right to wear a panther's skin or some other symbolical apparel, or the right to kiss the King's feet, or enter his bedchamber. At one time you had similar status symbols among white and blue collar workers in North America.

However humble one was on the civil service status list, it was still a mark of honour so far as ordinary Egyptian citizens were concerned. To have once held a post in the King's household was something to be proud of in life and to boast of in one's epitaph.

Royal favour was the sole means of selection to a higher position. The chiefs, whom this army of servants obeyed, could be of noble or common descent. They could rise from the bottom to the top of the palace hierarchy by a single stroke of good fortune or by years of painstaking service.

Generally speaking, the higher court officials held positions which their fathers and grandfathers had held before them. These men were the recipients of closely guarded family secrets -- of lotions, potions, recipes etc., handed down in much the same way that the priestly hierarchy passed on its own inner secrets.

A few of the most favoured court officials were called "Master of the Secret of the Royal House", which meant the King trusted them and acted less formally in their presence. Often they had been the companions of his early formative years when he had still been living an obscure life in the "House of the Children." He had grown up with them as brothers. He lavished titles and offices upon them and trusted them with the innermost palace secrets.

The King, like all other men and objects, was considered to be not one, but two individuals. If the city of Memphis which housed the elaborate paraphernalia to support the King's mortal aspect could be considered to represent the physical King, then the temples at Heliopolis could be said to represent the King's immortal aspect; while the palace at Thebes could be construed as representing a joining of the dual aspects.

For the mortal man we see the irrigating, ploughing, sowing, reaping, the building of barns and granaries, the fattening of poultry and cattle. This would lead to a group of workmen of all descriptions engaged in many trades -- smelters, glass blowers, carpenters, weavers, artists -- all this activity revolving around the person of the King.

However, in the temples at Heliopolis and in the sacred burial areas, we would find an identical array of labourers and craftsmen all depicted in pictures -- pictures which supplied to the King's double (or essence) those things which his mortal person required on the plane of existence.

Our scribe indicates a desire to translate this into her own terms for greater clarity to modern metaphysicians. Her aura explodes in beautiful little bursts of recognition and eagerness for expression at these times -- which is difficult to resist.

She is saying how wonderful it is that since the dawn of human history man has somehow recognized the duality of his being, as depicted today in the PSI-man symbol. Throughout the ages man has constantly striven to express this concept in different ways, but the meaning never varies. In modern metaphysics, Win teaches of twin realms of essence and existence. A central source of enlightenment pervades the dimension of essence and penetrates the dimension of existence in a form of crude material reality. too often modern man is confused by the illusion that the material world is all there is to reality, and fails to focus his finer powers of discernment to pierce the illusion and experience the dimension of essence.

In ancient Egypt, equal attention was paid to caring for the double and to caring for the physical, insofar as the needs of the double were understood. The King exemplified this concept.

The pyramid-building era was over. During these years in Egypt another kind of monument, comparatively crude and artless, was being constructed in quantity. This was the mastabas, the "Eternal House" or burial chambers of the Egyptian elite. While the bodies of common people were thrust naked into about a three-foot layer of sand, the wealthier classes provided elaborate chambers for their doubles. These were composed of an above-the-ground chapel, an underground shaft and a few subterranean vaults. The mastabas varied in size according to the wealth of the owner. The maximum size was about 30 to 40 feet high, 80 feet deep, and perhaps 160 feet in length. The minimum size ran to about 16 feet square with a height of 10 feet. The four sides of the buildings faced the four cardinal points with usually an entrance door on the east side. At the door there was a smooth flagstone bearing the name of the deceased person, and an enumeration of his works and titles.

Inside the mastabas faithful portraits of the deceased, members of his family, food and other earthly assets were carefully inscribed on the walls of the inner chambers. One scene might depict the deceased seated comfortably at a banquet, with water for absolution and every possible article for the comfort of the double. It was believed that the double would regularly partake of the food and comforts, or rather enjoy the double (or soul) of the bread, meat and beverages. It was not even necessary that these offerings should have a physical existence in order to be useful; the concept could suffice, which is why the walls were so richly inscribed with scenes depicting servants bringing a constant procession of offerings.

Every noble who built an "Eternal House" had to make an agreement with the priesthood to have the chapel served in perpetuity. This particular group of priests were called "Priests of the Double" and their whole lifetimes were spent performing liturgies for the dead. The reward for this service was a steady supply of meats, vegetables, linens, liquors, from the household of the deceased which, at times, could ill afford the constant sacrifice. It eventually got to the point where a young family might be paying for liturgies for ancestors deceased for three or four generations.

In order to ensure that the double could, if necessary, be maintained throughout the centuries, the thoughtful man not only depicted quantities of sustaining goods but made representation of the lands and activities by which more could be produced. There were also scenes to enable the double to more easily re-enact pleasant times in his life -- hunting, eating and drinking with his wife, happy with his family.

Again our scribe wishes to comment. She notes a similarity between these ideas and the things she has been taught by Loliad. At the time of his death, Loliad existed momentarily in triplicate; then quickly the Divine Spark returned to source, leaving his IDentity to reflect on his life errors in outer darkness for a thousand years.

The "Eternal House" of the ancient Egyptians seems to reflect this theme -- even to the point of providing a physical place for the double to occupy during its period of reflection and personal purification prior to that time when it is ready to sever earthly ties and make a final exit from this dimension.

The "Eternal House" of ancient Egypt was much more like a well-appointed residence than a tomb. Families made regular visits and had no shred of doubt that they were actually being received by their beloved. The master of the house, the deceased, was surrounded by everything that made earthly life enjoyable. There would be many statues of him around the chamber, usually depicting him laughing, vigorous, often phallus erectus. The statues were believed to be not merely images but alive and conscious, for as the double of a god could be linked with an idol in the temple, so could the double of a man inhabit an effigy of his physical body. This belief was so strongly taught by the Egyptian priesthood that it still persists in some religious circles today. It was passed down through Atlantis to Egypt, to Mythraism, and survived to become the basis of much of modern Christianity.

It was also believed that the double could endow the statue with all kinds of guardian powers. It could strike out to avenge if its tomb-home was invaded, or punish thieves who might try to plunder the vault. The double's power would be destroyed if the statue it inhabits was broken. Hence arose the practice of hiding away many statues in the tomb. These sustainers of the double insured for him a practical immortality as well as the power to continue operating in the mortal dimension.

During the course of many centuries the mastabas formed uninterrupted lines of burial places, often lining the sides of regular roads up the present day -- a parade of living history.

The question of identity received very serious consideration among my people. The choice of name was of major consequence. Not only did men and animals have names, but even inanimate objects had one or more names. It was believed that no person or thing on Earth attained existence until a name had been conferred. The most ancient names were often a short word denoting some moral or physical quality -- as Faith, Hope and Charity would in your generation.

The names of nobles and royalty were somewhat longer and more meaningful, often consisting of a short sentence, for example, Menkauhoru -- "the doubles of Horus last forever", and my own name Keph-a-Ra, sometimes written Khafra -- "his rising is Ra."

The identity or name having once taken possession of a person at the time of birth never left him, in either this world or the next. In later eras on earth, a person's occupation was often added to their name to complete the identity structure of the double; names such as Smith, Brewer, Shoemaker, Tanner, Hunter, Draper originate in this manner.

While among ordinary mortals the body was considered to be physical and the double divine, the Pharaoh (King) was believed to be divine in both his body as well as his soul. He represented a god rather than a man, a successor of the gods who ruled the two worlds -- for even in those days no problem arose regarding the reality of the world of essence and the world of existence.

The Pharaohs were direct of descendants of Ra from a physical point of view insofar as it was implied that Ra secretly descended to earth to rejuvenate the human race by impregnating a mortal mother. The Kings were thus not only blood relatives of God but in addition each of their "doubles" detached from Osiris to become infused in the royal infant at the moment it received a name. It lay dormant in those princes not called upon by destiny to reign, but awoke to full self-consciousness at the time a King ascended to the throne, and from that moment on the mortal factor, of the Pharaoh was completely effaced. When the royal prince received his first name in infancy, this appendage did not include the whole man. The name of the double was revealed to the prince at the time of his ascension to the throne -- thus the Pharaohs had a "state name" and a "church name".

Because it was believed that the King's double descended directly from Ra, in hieroglyphics the double is often depicted as a bird, frequently a hawk or eagle, to represent power and freedom of the soul.

In the temples an enthroned statue of the Pharaoh, animated by one of his doubles (for it was understood even then that the Spirit was not confined to any one place, but could be in many places at any given time) received worship, prophesied, and fulfilled all the necessary functions of a Divine Being both during his lifetime and after he had rejoined the company of gods in the cosmic dimension.

The Pharaoh, in his role of Head of the Church, acted as a constant mediator between his people and the gods. The King was regarded as being on terms of daily intercourse with the gods who told him exactly how to govern the country and foretold the future. His dreams played a large part in this communication and among the retinue in his "Church City" was a large staff of dream interpreters and minor magicians, each claiming some special powers.

After arriving in this dimension it was a great joy for me to attend classes given by the Cosmic Lord, Loliad-R-Kahn, and realize the origin of so many of the customs and beliefs of my people.

In the beginning when Lower Egypt was strongly influenced by Khe, communication directly with God was available to all by the simple process of turning the mind towards Him and offering a humble heart. There were no temples, no rituals, no priests, and no secrets. Because of this, Lower Egypt did not develop politically in the same way as the Upper Kingdom. In earlier times there was no one great monarch in the south, but rather a series of feudal communities with authority more generally spread among various patriarchs.

Gradually, however, over a period of several hundreds of years this system eroded. Travellers returned with tales of the spectacle and glamour of the Upper Kingdom, and the wealth and power of its gods.

Meanwhile, Upper Egypt, influenced by early Atlantean missionaries seeking personal power, had started common men along a trend which by this time had led to an almost insane way of pomp and ceremony. Nevertheless, a single, comprehensive theme emerged.

For many years prior to the downfall of Atlantis, the powerful priestly sect had taught that they alone could intercede with the gods on behalf of the people. Succeeding generations of ambitious high priests (probably themselves half-believing what they taught, for invariably a high priest was the son of the son of a high priest and trained from infancy to believe implicitly the Church teachings) led the way to soul slavery.

With each passing decade God became more and more removed from the people and supposedly relinquished more and more of his power to the priesthood, while religious amalgamation between sects solidified their ideas.

The myth of the annunciation was one of many taught in order to help invest a single mortal with god-like powers. One of the most tragic aspects, the aspect which had a cosmic classroom rocking with agony, was to see the true beauty of the original grains of spiritual truth which had been passed down to mankind, and the horrible way in which a jungle of ego-twistings had grown up to bend it to suit the ego of the priesthood.

Other books in this series go into full detail of how every PSI is a spark of God in the flesh. Every baby has a physical casing produced by a union of physical parents. Likewise, every baby has a double -- an essence-self -- a PSI, dwelling in the flesh and living on after its mortal causing is dust. This is the true meaning of the story that spirit does indeed cohabit with flesh in producing an infant which is a physical-spiritual hybrid, a facet of God incarnate.

With regard to the Pharaoh's divinity, clever and ambitious priests, vying with each other for power over the years, had realized the value of unity -- one great central source of authority. This concept, under the emergence of the great god, Ra, had served to unite Upper Egypt under a single God-State ruler, making it stronger than the loosely divided system used in Lower Egypt.

It is painful to reflect that free will which is exercised without fear or dogma is a far more difficult force to wield for good than rigid structure and dogma. Some of our students on earth today would like to see metaphysics rolling forward like a steam roller, crushing all opposition in its path.

Only an intelligence and love as exquisite as the Master's could rightly predict, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the Earth," in the face of such mountainous evidence to the contrary, amassed over thousands of years of Earth history.

Each individual will seek personal freedom from the bondage of his inner fears and rigid programming. Then, of his own free will, he can become a lion in the fight to change the present orientation of human thought -- which is the goal of modern metaphysics.

Earlier in this chapter we spoke of the displaced Egyptians' trying to find places to settle, and of the fact that the King of Lower Egypt was of the Khe heritage. We have spoken of the hills which sketched the eastern boundary of Egypt and the marshes which lay beyond.

Thence came Abram and his wandering tribe. Abram claimed kinship with the ruling house of Lower Egypt by virtue of their common Khe ancestry. The evidence would indicate that Abram's claims were valid, for these were hard times, and it would have been almost impossible for such a sizeable community to receive a welcome otherwise. In this story, it was not only Abram and his tribe, but his nephew, Lot, and his people also.

Abram and his family had previously been settled in the land beyond the Euphrates. In seeking richer pastures, Abram's tribe had overcome and captured many of the people already occupying lands which he had passed through and spoiled. Both Abram and Lot had become rich on their journey by the simple expedient of plunder.

They arrived in Egypt rich in cattle, silver, sheep and servants, yet still without the Law of the Ten Commandments.

Times were such that survival of the fittest was the predominant law governing earthlings. Yet even now, Abram paid homage to Yaweh, the monotheistic, all-terrible protector of Israel. Interesting evidence of Abram's adherence lies in the fact that at no time would any of the Israelites recognize by name any authority who represented another church.

Although in the biblical version of these events emphasis is placed on naming servants, places, and the minor rulers of political districts, not once is the Sovereign Head of the Church and State given a name.

The biblical version deals with three crucial events of the times: the tales of Joseph, his family and his predictions of forthcoming famine; the story of Moses, his discovery in the bull rushes and subsequent rise to power; and of the Exodus of the Israelites and the events surrounding the time of their departure. Throughout the whole history, covering more than two hundred years, not one single Pharaoh is named.

As in all human versions of interaction between Spirit and man, the scribes arranged the facts of the matter in such a way as to imply a special status for their people in the eyes of the gods. Actually, Chapters Twelve and Thirteen of Genesis describe the various wiles and deceits practiced by the Israelites to cheat the Egyptians who had actually treated them with fairness and honour.

Finally Abram and Lot quarrelled between themselves and decided to part company -- Lot to occupy the plain of Jordan and Abram the land of Canaan. Thus began two hundred and fifteen years of Israelite sojourn in Egypt.

The Israelites settled in the district of Rameses in a relatively poor pasture area, just north of Or, the religious capital. The land was swampy and often covered with water, which explains why Jacob had no trouble getting permission to settle the land. The Egyptians were hoping that the skills and industry of the Israelites would develop the area and make it fruitful. The results proved much more effective than the Egyptians had ever imagined. The land, the flocks, and the people all prospered even as stated in Genesis 47:27: "And Israel dwelt in the land Egypt in the country of Goshen; and they had possessions therein and grew and multiplied exceedingly."

The rapid growth of the Jewish population was mostly due to their system of inbreeding and the practice of breeding servants to beget servants at such times in the female menstrual cycle that pregnancy was almost bound to occur. This rate was out of all proportion to the general population of Egypt.

In time the land of Rameses because too small to contain all the Israelites, and they started to fan out into a broader area, presenting a real threat to the priests of Egypt who had for some time been eyeing the situation with alarm. The main threat was that the Israelites had a totally different system of worship and spoke out quite frankly against the inadequacy of Ra and his entourage. They also had a very positive identity structure and were apt to outwit and override the regular Egyptian population.

Stern measures to combat the Israelite threat were inaugurated. As they had chosen to use "the war of the cradle" to gain numerical supremacy (a practice repeated time and time again with minority groups to gain power) the priests decided to combat this plan with one of their own.

And so it came to pass that the decree went out that all male babies born to the Israelites would be destroyed. The girls, however, useful for later intermarriage with the Egyptians, would be saved.

Even in those days it was customary for a woman to come to her husband with a dowry and to formally accept his faith as her own. This system was open to all kinds of intrigue. Often the bride gave lip service only and all kinds of religious skulduggery was practiced in the harems among foreign-born wives who secretly worshipped other gods.

The Master and His Cosmic Host must have been sorely tried in those days, trying to help everyone, especially the cause of human evolution. Balancing out all the aspects to get the most for the mostest, and viewing the situation from an empathetic rather than a sympathetic viewpoint must surely have had the heavens humming.

However, in the final outcome, despite every possible hardship and all the cruelties and cross-cruelties, the Israelites survived.

Moses knew, however, the time had to shortly come when his people would have to move on to a new land -- the permanent home promised by Jaweh -- a land flowing with milk and honey.