They say whenever one learns something the senses become enlightened to that knowledge and you began to notice it more often. Well just last week I was reading about the Norse online as well as the Book of Thoth or more specifically, The Ancient Egyptian Book of Thoth: A Demotic Discourse on Knowledge and Pendant to the Classical Hermetica
before returning it to Vanderbilt's Divinity Library after having it checked out for over a year. Both spoke of this drink of Seshats. I saw a connection between the two and became intrigued by this honey alcoholic drink. Among the Norse it was called Poetic Mead skáldskapar mjaðar or Mead of Suttungr (for some reason rap music comes to mind).
It was a mythical beverage and it was believed that whoever drank it became a skald or scholar. They believed they would be able to recite any information and solve any question. In a similar fashion in the book of Thoth, the-one-who-seeks-knowledge, calls to Seshat to impart her wisdom and knowledge. However, the primary drink of choice is the analogous breast milk. Thoughts of the "Golden Age" and the "Land of Milk & Honey", a reference used in the Hebrew Bible used to signify abundance, swirled through my head. Seshat is known as the nurse who nurtures language. There are many statues in Egypt of the young sucking the breast milk of a woman as a symbol of the imparting of knowledge. In the book of Thoth, the-one-who-loves-knowledge is told to call Seshat on the New Year and she will "make her place at your mouth, you being thirsty" (Column 4 B02, papyri from the Graeco Roman period, 332 BC -395 AD, of Egypt) Speaking of thirst for knowledge, I just love it when connections are made across cultures that help piece history together. Mead is ancient and found among many cultures. It was this topic of the honey mead and honeymoon following the "tying of the knot" that led to the title of my previous post. The Greek used the symbolism of the beehive in its architecture of tombs called the Beehive or Tholos tomb.
In another Greek story, "THE FABLE OF TIRYNS," there was a king, Laertes (1700BC) the gardener of Homer's Odyssey, who built a shrine for E.L.AY.A (Black Demeter, goddess of agriculture, Melaina, "The Black One", Avenger) with 2 genii. In this picture there were Olive groves that saved the town from hunger and genii holding libation jubs filled with Mead where they were shown flanking a Tree of Life, Seshat's symbol. The knowledge of embodied by the figure Demeter became known as the Eleusinian Mysteries, which links Greece with ancient Egypt and which according to Cicero, brought them out of their "barbarious and savage life and educated and refined to a state of civilization".
It was in these Olive groves that many learned about agriculture and it was said that it was the wise women who told them to plant the olive groves in the Argolis. These tiryns with the Ss, olives, tree of life, masonry, and wise women also introduced to this Greek culture the Eye of Argos and the 12 month calendar (time keeping). This also happened to be a high time of the scribal art including letters and pictographs among this culture. "He ordered his scribes to invent a sign for every sound produced by the lips and tongue, and thus they invented an alphabet. Sseyr (Zeus) was written as follows: a rosette plus a bald head plus an ear of emmer. The rosette was another reminder of the former Circular Building. The phonetic value of this sign was an emphatic Ss" Thus goes the story of the origin of their alphabet. In the Norse Yggdrasi mythology on line 15 of the skaldec poem Ragnorsdrapa uses seior as the term cord, string. Another linguistic correlation between the ancient culture and teachings passed down fromt he books of the scribes from Egypt to other cultures that learned the scribal art.
Now back to Africa..
In Lost Kingdoms of Africa he shows a church in Ethiopia and their connection with the honey mead and its relationship to the temple. Dr Gus Hayford was seeking a connection between the current church and King Solomon. Their honey mead is also their communion wine. It is believed to also have healing powers. In Ethiopia "The traditional vessel for drinking tej is a rounded vase-shaped container called a berele" according to this website on mead history.
In the Old Kingdom bee keeping (2500-2350BCE) is found in the Aba Ghorab Sun Temple of Neuserre which is now in the Egyptian Museum. There were also bowls 1.18 meters in diameter found. In 2004 Cairo and Brown University found at Giza a basin for liquids dating the 2nd half of the 5th Dynasty. There was a rectangular pool with the "standard invocation for funerary offerings" in Tureh limestone Renpetreferet which reads "An offering which the King gives that gives, that invocation offering should belong to her on the Wag festival, the Thoth festival, the Festival of the New Year, Festival of the 1st of the Year, the Great Festival, and everyday". On the top line it reads "It was her son, the one who did for her this by now, the burial in the necropolis the carpenter, perherneferet". The rectangular book, particularly in the New Kingdom is connected with the tree goddess. This basin was for "mitrt" possibly from the root mtr- the famous lady, to be famous or renowned. Madea, mother figure.
Honey mead has a rich history in Africa and is even found as far south as South Africa. There is more than one Ethiopian version, one recipe can be found here.
My aim is not to show how Norse and Greek mythology relates to Egypt, but to show that Lady Wisdom and those practices connected to her can be found in other cultures with similar connections whose origins researchers have been unsure of.
before returning it to Vanderbilt's Divinity Library after having it checked out for over a year. Both spoke of this drink of Seshats. I saw a connection between the two and became intrigued by this honey alcoholic drink. Among the Norse it was called Poetic Mead skáldskapar mjaðar or Mead of Suttungr (for some reason rap music comes to mind). It was a mythical beverage and it was believed that whoever drank it became a skald or scholar. They believed they would be able to recite any information and solve any question. In a similar fashion in the book of Thoth, the-one-who-seeks-knowledge, calls to Seshat to impart her wisdom and knowledge. However, the primary drink of choice is the analogous breast milk. Thoughts of the "Golden Age" and the "Land of Milk & Honey", a reference used in the Hebrew Bible used to signify abundance, swirled through my head. Seshat is known as the nurse who nurtures language. There are many statues in Egypt of the young sucking the breast milk of a woman as a symbol of the imparting of knowledge. In the book of Thoth, the-one-who-loves-knowledge is told to call Seshat on the New Year and she will "make her place at your mouth, you being thirsty" (Column 4 B02, papyri from the Graeco Roman period, 332 BC -395 AD, of Egypt) Speaking of thirst for knowledge, I just love it when connections are made across cultures that help piece history together. Mead is ancient and found among many cultures. It was this topic of the honey mead and honeymoon following the "tying of the knot" that led to the title of my previous post. The Greek used the symbolism of the beehive in its architecture of tombs called the Beehive or Tholos tomb.
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| Black Demeter with scepter |
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| Olive tree on Ithaca, Greece, that is claimed to be over 1500 years old. |
It was in these Olive groves that many learned about agriculture and it was said that it was the wise women who told them to plant the olive groves in the Argolis. These tiryns with the Ss, olives, tree of life, masonry, and wise women also introduced to this Greek culture the Eye of Argos and the 12 month calendar (time keeping). This also happened to be a high time of the scribal art including letters and pictographs among this culture. "He ordered his scribes to invent a sign for every sound produced by the lips and tongue, and thus they invented an alphabet. Sseyr (Zeus) was written as follows: a rosette plus a bald head plus an ear of emmer. The rosette was another reminder of the former Circular Building. The phonetic value of this sign was an emphatic Ss" Thus goes the story of the origin of their alphabet. In the Norse Yggdrasi mythology on line 15 of the skaldec poem Ragnorsdrapa uses seior as the term cord, string. Another linguistic correlation between the ancient culture and teachings passed down fromt he books of the scribes from Egypt to other cultures that learned the scribal art.
Now back to Africa..
In Lost Kingdoms of Africa he shows a church in Ethiopia and their connection with the honey mead and its relationship to the temple. Dr Gus Hayford was seeking a connection between the current church and King Solomon. Their honey mead is also their communion wine. It is believed to also have healing powers. In Ethiopia "The traditional vessel for drinking tej is a rounded vase-shaped container called a berele" according to this website on mead history.
Honey mead has a rich history in Africa and is even found as far south as South Africa. There is more than one Ethiopian version, one recipe can be found here.
My aim is not to show how Norse and Greek mythology relates to Egypt, but to show that Lady Wisdom and those practices connected to her can be found in other cultures with similar connections whose origins researchers have been unsure of.
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