Egyptian Cross: from Osiris to the ready

Human life passes in the world of symbols.They accompany us from the embroidered wisecrack to the cross and a candle on the grave. Emblems and signs are present in our holidays and traditions, in art and religion. The first symbols were known to ancient civilizations, but today their significance can not be overestimated.

Egyptian Cross

The basis of religious views of the inhabitants of the AncientEgypt was faith in the victory over death, resurrection and rebirth for eternal life. To indicate the divine truths, the priests used special images. The symbol of eternal life, immortality became the hieroglyph Ankh - the Egyptian cross.

It should be noted that Egyptologists can interpret the meaning of the ancient sign in different ways. The main interpretations are as follows:

1. A symbol is a combination of two ancient signs - the circle (the personification of eternity) and the cross (the personification of life).
2. Ankh symbolizes Egypt (the oval is the Nile delta, the cross is the river itself, giving life to the inhabitants of the country).
3. Cross with a loop means unityopposites, the union of heaven and earth, water and air, life and death, the union of the male (the cross of Osiris) and the female (the oval of Isis) began leading to the birth of a new life.
4. The Egyptian cross is a symbol of the rising sun, the birth of a new day.
5. Ankh is the key that opens secret knowledge, the gates of death and eternal life (in Christianity it was used as a symbol of the keys from the gate of Paradise, which are in the hands of the apostle Peter).

In a broad sense, the sign symbolizes life in allits manifestations: the existence of a separate individual, of all mankind, of the gods; birth of a child; resurrection and life after death; immortality. Hence - the widespread use of Ankh in art, magic, rituals, everyday life. To promote health and longevity, protect from natural disasters, the Egyptian cross was painted on amulets and temples, and irrigation canals were erected on the walls.

On various images, the gods held a "keyNile "in the right hand or in the mouth, often stretched it to people, as if" blowing "a particle of the divine spark, eternal life. According to the myth, Isis used the Ankh to make the "glued" of the pieces and the animated Osiris immortal. The form of crux ansata ("cross with a loop") was given to pitchers for liquid, offerings for the souls of the deceased (bread, bouquets of lotus and papyrus). They clasped the amulet and into the sarcophagi, so that the gods would grant the deceased the afterlife.

Witches and mages have always used the Ankhin their rituals for fortune telling, fortune telling and healing. And it is believed that his magic can only be directed to good deeds: the shape of the cross with the loop directs the energy not to the surrounding people, but upwards, to God, and then down to the Earth. Thus, the acting power of the spell is the will of the Almighty, and not the thoughts of man.

It is interesting that crux ansata occurs inother cultures: a symbol of water in the North American Indians, the personification of the immortality of the Scandinavians, a sign of youth and freedom from physical suffering of the Maya peoples. Incredibly, the "keys of life" are found even on the famous statues from the distant Easter Island. In the religion of the Copts (Egyptian Christians) Ankh has been used as a traditional Christian cross. For the hippy, it symbolized peace and truth.

At the end of the twentieth century, ancient Egyptian signssuddenly became popular again. After the release of the 1983 film "Hunger", in which vampires hunted their victims, using scissors, hidden in pendants in the form of ankhs, ancient crosses with a loop suddenly became the main attributes of the subculture ready. Thus, the life of the old characters continues and even plays new faces.