The Cosmic Game

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Cosmic Game © Douglass A. White, 2012 v151207 161 The priest could then use his Eye of Horus crystal to focus the sunbeam on an altar to ignite incense that contained a large proportion of natron (sodium bicarbonate or baking soda). Natron was a sacred mineral used in ancient Egypt for many purposes -- the preparation of mummies, as incense, toothpaste, and perhaps also as a form of soap. The name natron comes from the Egyptian word "neter" which means divine -- literally, "that which is beyond". As the priest performed the ritual, all four elements would be involved: the sunbeam passing through air, the water in the crystal eye, the mineral earth expressed by the natron, and the fire that arose from the focused light. Here is a photo (on right) from the Wikipedia "Sodium" article of a flame test done on a bit of sodium held in a hot flame with low luminescence. The flame flares up with a bright yellow color which is characteristic of sodium. 1 2 3 4 Sodium Flame The photo on the left shows the various types of flames produced by a Bunsen burner. The purplish tint to flame #3 is an artifact of the photo and should be bluish. As the air valve opens, the flame becomes tighter and bluer. The bright yellow on the right is due to the ionized sodium as the blue flame is visible below the sodium. 1. air valve closed 2. air valve nearly fully closed 3. air valve semi-opened 4. air valve maximally opened The flame images were created by Arthur Jan Fijałkowski (WarX) using Open Source software and released under GFDL. Photos are by Garett. (GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation) In this manner the priest expressed the creative energy of the sun and mastery over the four elements. He would also notice how the Eye would generate little rainbows of color from the pure beam of sunlight.
Cosmic Game © Douglass A. White, 2012 v151207 162 Since the sacred fire was kindled in the dark and hidden depths of the temple by the magical power of the Crystal Water Eye, it might also occur to the priest to repeat the process on a smaller scale. Once the sunbeam had passed and the fire was lit in the dark room, he might then place a canopy over the sacred glow of the natron and use the Crystal Eye to focus the captured light of Amen Ra a second time. This time he would not get a perfect rainbow. He might notice that within the rainbow some bars of various colors stood out more brightly, particularly a yellow bar. He would have discovered in a very limited way what we today call an optical spectrum. Unless he could view the spectrum of the burning natron in the state of a thin gas, he would not merely see the spectral lines, but would have a more spread out spectrum. However there would be a bright yellow bar part way across the spectrum. The sodium spectrum has bright lines at 589 nm. There are actually two lines, one at 588.995 nm and another at 589.5924 nm. The one closest to 589 nm is much brighter, and so the secondary line probably would not be noticed by the ancient Egyptians, or they may have seen them as one thicker line. Gustav Kirchhoff and Robert Bunsen identified many elements using optical spectroscopy aided by a specially designed burner developed by Bunsen. The Three Laws of Spectroscopy (from Wikipedia, "Kirchhoff" article) 1. A hot solid object produces light with a continuous spectrum. 2. A hot tenuous gas produces light with spectral lines at discrete wavelengths (i.e. specific colors) which depend on the energy levels of the atoms in the gas. 3. A hot solid object surrounded by a cool tenuous gas (i.e. cooler than the hot object) produces light with an almost continuous spectrum which has gaps at discrete wavelengths depending on the energy levels of the atoms in the gas. Above is a drawing of the Kirchhoff-Bunsen spectroscope. The device does not make use of anything unknown to the Egyptians. It includes a box with a blackened interior, a triangular prism, tubes with lenses for directing and observing the light, a flame, and a material to study -- e.g., natron.
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The Cosmic Game

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