3y8u4hFD4

90 THE TREE OF LIFE
to be the " father of the beginnings and creator of the egg(s) of the
Sun and Moon."
In the same category with Ptah, as a correspondence of the same
series of philosophic ideas connected with The Crown, is the god
Amoun or Amen. He was the invisible creative power which was
the source of all life in heaven, on earth, and in the underworld,
eventually making himself manifest in Ra the Sun-God.
The
name itself indicates that which is hidden or concealed, and in
Ptolemaic times the name became associated with a word meaning
" to abide," and also " to be permanent." In one of the sacerdotal
documents the God is hailed in such terms as provide us with a
telling description of his real nature. " The holy soul who came into
being in the beginning . . . the first divine substance which gave
birth unto the other two divine substances; the being through
whom every other god hath existence."
There is, in addition, a considerable amount of evidence leading
one to believe that Osiris might be assigned to this same category.
Thc British Museum brochure on the Book of the Dead makes the
statement with regard to an Egyptian princess that she was able to
regard Amen-Ra and Osiris not as two different Gods but as two
aspects of the same God. She believed that the " hidden " creative
power vested in Amen was but another form of the same power
typified by Osiris. In all accuracy, however, Osiris must be regarded
as the human incarnation of the creative power, the assumption in
manhood of the most High God ; an Avatara, if you will, of the
Supreme Spirit. There is every reason to believe that this viewpoint
of Osiris is the correct one. For he also stood for renewed birth and
a spiritual resurrection, typifying the illuminated Adept, purified
by trial and suffering ; one who died, and after descending to the
Underworld, miraculously rose again glorified, to reign eternally
in the heavens. In so far as this is the case, he will be considered as
a type pertaining to Tiphayas. There is nevertheless one aspect of
him, Asar-Un-Nefer, Osiris made Beneficent or Perfect, in which
deific form he is a most apt representation of that phase of Keser
which is the most real and deepest aspect of selfhood.
The nature of Thoth or Tahuti and the description of the characteristics
which the Egyptians ascribed to him, leave not the slightest
room for doubt as to his immediate allocation to Chokwtah. He is
Wisdom and the God of Wisdom, and as observed by Budge, he is
the personification of the intelligence of the whole company of the