reinterpretations of the ankh symbol part 2 - Asar Imhotep

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convey this message to initiates (anx, smA, Dd, etc): often in combination with other symbols to drive
home the point. It may turn out that humans didn’t evolve from ape-like ancestors, but from trees.
Sounds like a good movie script idea to me.
SUMMARY
As we are beginning to understand here, the anx represents the whole system responsible for the
maintaining of life in the human being. What the different variations of the anx inform us is that the
spine, the lungs, the nerves, the diaphragm and the heart are important in the sustaining of life. The
anx doesn’t represent one item, but a system of processes and components of the body that are
dependent on each other and is fueled by the oxygen we breathe in from the atmosphere.
The ancient Egyptian “artwork” can no longer be seen simply as “religious” texts, but scientific
treatises on various aspects of knowledge known up until the time of the pharaonic records. These
scientific expositions were codified in a way that it was easier to understand the processes by
conveying them through anthropomorphic figures and by borrowing images from the environment
in order to act as mnemonic devices so the priest doctors could see how their “insides” worked by
observing their “outside” representations in nature. The writings on the walls may simply be large
medical encyclopedias. The various items that one sees attached to the foreheads of the “gods” and
priests, or the items that they are holding in their hands, may represent for the reader that these
individuals have a good “grasp” on particular scientific concepts for which those items (a snake, an
anx, a vulture, etc) represents.
It is a known fact that Egyptian doctors were highly skilled and specialized in definite domains.
Herodotus (484-420 BCE) provides direct testimony to this fact as he lived and travelled the length
of Egypt. He tells us:
In Egypt, medicine is subdivided in this fashion: each doctor treats one illness,
not several. The place is full of doctors; some are eye doctors, some treat
ailments of the head, some specialize in dentistry, some treat illnesses of the
abdomen, and yet others specialize in illnesses of unspecified parts of the
body. (Obenga, 2005: 401)
All of the different “priesthoods” were just different wisdom traditions that focused on a particular
science. The “gods” of that science/craft were the personification of the focus of that practice. So,
for instance, if someone is a “son of Ptah” they could be one of two things: a medical doctor or an
architect (or general craftsmen). Imhotep, the famous vizier of the 3 rd Dynasty, was both. Pth
(“break open, open to work, carve, god of craftsmen, to create, to shape”)in the Tshiluba language is
PaDika “open, burst, tear,”; PaTuk(a) “spring forth, arise, out”; KuPanda “build”; Pandish “save,” Mu-
Pandish “savior”; Amarigna baTS’hae “carve, engrave”; Kiswahili patua, pasua “to split open.” One
key term here is Mu-Pandish “savior” and in Africa this is a term associated with medical doctors or
wise sages who are the community’s arbitrators (between fellow man or between the human and
spiritual communities).