Izapa Stela 5 Seshat and Early Egyptian Writing

There are several studies that address the early writings of Africa and how they have shown up in the Americas. I will begin to touch on them here. There are also more concrete correlations between Thoth/Seshat and these gods/goddesses represented in the language and script of the early writers in South America. I will go into detail about this aspect in another post.

Izapa Stela 5

"Some researchers claim that the Mesoamerican writing systems are related to African scripts. In the early 19th century, Constantine Samuel Rafinesque proposed that the Mayan inscriptions were probably related to the Libyco-Berber writing of Africa.^[7] Leo Wiener^[8] and others claim that various Olmec and Epi-Olmec symbols are similar to those found in the Vai script, in particular, the symbols on the Tuxtla Statuette, Tao Mask, Cascajal Block, and the celts in Offering 4 at La Venta. These assertions have found no support among Mesoamerican researchers. While mainstream scholars have made significant progress translating the Maya script, researchers have yet to translate Olmec glyphs."

Also, there is an online document called Ancient Mariners in America that is noteworthy that has also addressed the writing that the Libyan women practiced, Tifnag, and its occurrence in the United States.

"Tifinag lettering originated in Mauretania, where it is still in use among the Berbers in the Atlas Mountains. Examples of these lettering forms are scratched on cave shelters and rock outcrops throughout the United States and Canada, and in North Africa. Universities in present- day Algeria, Morocco and Libya, having worked with Dr. Fell, can verify and translate the ancestral scripts housed in the archives and libraries."

Seshat, The Tree of Life, & Operation Odyssey

In March of this year Libya, the land of the ancient women who ruled, was attacked in a war that has been coined Operation Odyssey. My interest in Libya began with my research of Seshat and women who were ancient writers in Africa in 2011 because of an ancient script called Tifinag. Tifinag was used among the Libyan women and was intricately tied to matrilineal societies and the early women of Egypt who were scribes for the tracking of property, lineage, etc.. 

The history of early writing, women, agriculture, and land ownership in North Africa was tied to this early writing and the heiroglyphs that developed in Egypt. The early forms of writing, knowledge, and wisdom were represented by "she who scrivens" which was related, in my opinion, to matrilineal society. According to wiki, "Matrilineality is a system in which lineage is traced through the mother and maternal ancestors. Matrilineality also is a societal system in which one belongs to one's matriline or mother's lineage, which can involve the inheritance of property and/or titles."

In my research of the early history of writing in Egypt I saw a correlation to the culture of the women in Libya who were writers and the symbol Seshat "she who scrivens". Gadhafi, the leader of modern Libya, had a desire to display women today as they were in the ancient days also known as "Amazon Women" warriors.

The timing of the war against Libya seemed strategic so I took note of its name and saved this bit for future reference. According to Wired, "The U.S. military’s nickname for the no-fly zone in Libya sounds like the beginning of a long adventure. But Defense Department officials insist that there’s no hidden meaning behind 'Operation Odyssey Dawn.' It’s just the product of the Pentagon’s semi-random name-generating system." So here we have the women of Libya in the news, at a location I consider to be the hub of early writing systems represented by gardens, trees, and papyrus (paper) to the anceints.

Fast forward to June and The Tree of Life, written by Terrence Malick, is about to hit the theaters. It comes out 7/1/11, the day of a solar eclipse. Of course its reference to the Tree of Life caught my attention when I saw it advertised with Thor, so I googled it. The film opens with a quotation from the Book of Job, when God asks, "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation...while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?" Then a waving light like a flame emerges. As you know from my previous post Seshat was the Mistress of the House of Architects and instructed in the laying of the foundations through her wand and headress which was connected to the stars. I think of tools such as an astrolobe and books about geometry when I conceptualize the need of early architechs and surveyors to honor Seshat to legitamize their work, her "school" was their branding.

Sean Penn is an architect in the movie. It is the moment of a planting of a tree that the central reminiscence of the film begins. Now a movie titled the Tree of Life with a central character as an architect that uses imagery of astronomy, tree of life, number 7 and 11, laying of foundations, etc., all central themes of Seshat obviously is using her symbolism but why?

This is a brief synopsis of how the Tree of Life (symbol of Seshat) and Libya (Operation Odyssey) have integrated in the past. How it integrates in the present and future is yet to be seen as this drama unfolds. I will post more after I see the movie.