25/08/2025
Pyramid/Myr
Vehicle for the soul.
Pyramid is a word rooted in ancient Greek - πυραμίς, the meaning is not always agreed upon.
One idea is that it relates to fire, from pyro.
Fire was the element associated with pyramidal forms in Platonic geometry. The tetrahedron is a pyramid with a triangular base, the simplest of the regular polyhedra, it is self-dual. Pyramid geometry mirrors fire's power to rise, transform, and bring light to the world, connecting physical and spiritual realms - which is really exactly what the pyramids were designed to do.
Iamblichus tells us that Pythagoras travelled to Egypt and studied there for 22 years. In Egypt, in temples and sacred precincts, he studied astronomy, geometry, and medicine and was initiated into "all the Mysteries of the Gods”.
He was later captured by the Persians and taken to Babylon, but here he simply delighted in finding the Magi and learning from them too. Pythagoras was reputedly the first man to call himself a philosopher ("lover of wisdom”) and he inspired Plato in Athens over one hundred years later.
The Egyptians called the pyramid ‘myr’ - but gave individual names to them too .
For example, what we call the Great Pyramid of Khufu was called ‘Akhet Khufu’ - or Horizon of Khufu.
The Egyptian word akhet 𓈌 means ‘horizon’, the place where the sun rises (or sets) but Khufu's Akhet uses the crested ibis sign for akh 𓅜 - the akh is the 'effective' spirit. It means: be, become a spirit, beneficial, useful, profitable. The horizon is the place of becoming effective.
Also, Akhet is the first of three agricultural seasons: the Inundation. This is when the Nile would flood. It was the ancient Egyptian New Year - Wep Renpet (Wp Rnpt), heralded by the pre-dawn annual reappearance of the star Sopdet/Sothis/Sirius - the Sharp One, which happened this year on August 1st bytheway. People living near the banks of the Nile saw this star on the horizon and knew it was time to pack up and move inland in readiness for the flood. In Sopdet's ancient Egyptian name we have 𓇮 (spdt) - literally 'sharp one' or 'triangle'. She is most often represented with a five-pointed star upon her head.
The pyramid determinative 𓉴 (Gardner sign list O24) is in the word myr, and is also used in the word for the primordial mound of creation - Benben.
Benben was the first emergence from the chaotic primordial waters of Nun. This was Zepi Tepi (zp tpj)- the moment of creation, the first ‘time’.
In the New Kingdom the Bennu bird is depicted as a giant heron. In the Old Kingdom, this bird is a lot smaller. The shape and colour of the bird on wall paintings suggest it might be a kingfisher. Halcyon Day.
Fun fact: Remains of a giant, human-sized heron species, believed to have gone extinct around 1500 BC were discovered in the UAE in 1977. This bird might have been the inspiration for Bennu, so archaeologist Dr. Ella Hoch from the Geological Museum at Copenhagen University named it the Bennu Heron (Ardea bennuides).
Traces of gilding have been found on a pyramidion from the Black Pyramid of Amenemhat III, and we know that the Horizon of Khufu was once encased in fine white limestone blocks - a golden capstone is speculative, although this might explain the really tremendous effort made to remove it from the peak. No one really knows what happened to the capstone or what it was made of, it may have been covered in gold or electrum - which was often used by the ancient Egyptians to coat pyramidions to best catch the first rays of the sun.
It would be very ancient Egyptian magic (heka), to turn the soul of the deceased pharaoh into a star, by creating a brilliant point of light at the apex of his ‘horizon’. This acts to mirror a star and bind the soul to a heavenly portal. Here the gate of the Duat opens up and light becomes light.
