Follows Understanding Tanit through Felt Experience, Visualising the Energy in Hathor’s Temple and Girls On Top (click to read).
Flour is engrained in the creases of her hands. Wood smoke rises from the brick oven as she works the sour dough into ‘solar discs’ the same way her mother did. ‘Al-Shamsi’ / ‘solar bread’ baking is loaded with symbolism. ‘Shamsi’ means ‘sun’ – the dough rises in the sunshine. In Egyptian wood fired bread they twist three ‘handles’ into the dough and in ‘solarbread .. an ancient pharaonic heritage’ the number II and a circle, which could be vestiges of ancient symbols for ‘belonging to’ and ‘Ra’, are inscribed into the batter, possibly alluding to the holy bread of Ra.
Joining the ‘handles’ forms a triangle across the bun circle which, in sacred geometry, represents divine Phi proportion, the mathematics of nature – the cryptogram of three-ness so many cultures enshrine into their mythology, including ancient Egypt: Osiris, Isis, Horus; Blue Nile, White Nile, Atbara; the three cosmic realms, Duat, Nun, Nut
Intending to wrap up my search for meaning in triangular symbolism that seems so bound to rising female power, I spot a poetic sequence of hieroglyphs: Ankh – Conical Loaf – Hoe: ‘breath of life’ – ‘to give’ – ‘ love’, etched into the wall of Hathor’s shrine at the Mortuary Temple of Queen Hatshepsut. The symbol for ‘Conical Loaf’, a pot baked bread, is a small triangle within an elongated triangle (Gardiner X8).
I’d followed the energy from Tanit’s cave Ibiza to Hathor’s temple Egypt, then up to Nut on the Hypostyle ceiling. I’m trusting this energy will let me go when it’s ready. It asks the observer to sit quietly with the symbols until meaning reveals itself. It’s dawning on me Hathor’s message is of ancient universal truths that astrophysics, astronomy and quantum explore. The ‘trinitisation’ of consciousness is encoded into the images there.
“Study the science of art; Study the art of science. Learn how to see. Realise that everything connects to everything else.” – Leonardo da Vinci.
Creativity and spirituality intertwine so can Hathor secrets decode bread symbolism and how is this relevant today? If traditional Egyptian bread baking is rooted in ancient practices it’s logical to assume, in the time of the Pharaohs, the solar bread, as Ra, embarked on a journey of returns, through the body of sky Goddess Nut, who swallows sun-Ra at night and births him each morning. Back then, eating the bread was to consume the sun-Ra, the vibration of the ‘mother baker’ and the omnipotent Mother Goddess. Hands bake divine wisdom into bread – female power rises and nourishes from within.
It takes a village, both women and men, to feed a nation yet the pictogram for ‘bread’, a closed semi circle (Gardiner X1), is used as a determiner for feminine words, possibly comparing pregnancy to proofing with yeast; honouring female wisdom as a politically stabilising force; or in honour of bread Goddess Isis.
As capitalist patriarchy and sky god religions rose bread baking was monetised. Even in ancient Egypt co-operative ovens became commercial enterprises because there was profit in baking, yet bread’s divine status still spoke in the temples. Monotheistic society rejected female spiritual power, viewing ‘women’s work’ as menial. Bread became ‘a gift from God’ and ‘the body of Christ’. When Jesus fed bread to the people it symbolised sharing, however the roots of sharing bread are etched in stone on temple walls, as the pictogram ‘Conical Loaf’ meaning ‘to give’ shows us.
“Isis [ ] gives us the bread of earthly life; [ ] the Divine Baker Who makes the magical bread that gives us eternal life. [ ] Who feeds our bodies and souls.” – The Divine Bread of Isis, Isidora, Isiopolis.
Isis is the Goddess of bread and direct speech and direct action – in ancient Egyptian texts no deity speaks more. Isis was vocal. Her husband Osiris was ‘Lord of Silence’ – the patriarch stole Her voice and Her bread when they conflated Her with Mary.
An activator Goddess, associated with the passionate rose, it is Isis who gives women a voice.
“bread for all, and roses too” – Helen Todd, American women’s suffrage activist.
“Bread, more bread, and not so many words.” – Paris women heckling the National Assembly.
“bread or blood” – women chant at the Richmond Bread Riots,1863.
In 18C France food shortages led to the Bread Riots, the Flour Wars and the French Revolution. In 1977 Egypt stopped subsidising wheat sparking the Bread Riots. In Egyptian, ‘bread’ is ‘aish’ meaning ‘life’. Another pictogram for ‘give’ is a ‘hand offering a loaf’ (Gardiner D) – a wise gesture considering bread shortages spark riots.
“Every society is three meals away from chaos.” – Lenin.
The wings of Isis fan mass consciousness like the aroma of freshly baked bread wafting in the breeze. Love, harmony, nurture, protection, self-expression and rising into healing are powerful energies. The spirit of all the ancient Goddesses is within us all. Let it uncoil and rise like a serpent, breathing life and love into the causes important to us. Goddess wants us to be free, intellectually, spiritually, creatively and physically. Boudicca rising up in rebellion is a portrait of awakening female power. To align with resistance is to move into a surreal space. Ancient Egypt honoured this power, weaving it into the fabric of mythology: Hathor rampages as the Eye of Ra and Sekhmet had the potential to destroy humanity.
Eventually conflated with Isis and as the personification of Sirius, the Goddess Sopdet, is the ’Triangle’ or ‘Sharp One’. The ‘Sopdet Triangle’ is similar to ‘Conical Loaf’ without the inner triangle. If there was ever confirmation of the triangle symbolising rising female power it is right there in Sopdet (echoes of Tanit’s symbol?). Perhaps the elongated ‘Conical Loaf’ pictogram, a triangle within a triangle, life within a womb, body as bread, yeast within dough, bread in a pot, love within cooking, rises up to Sirius. There’s more! One ceiling in Hathor’s temple is decorated with an image of triadic consciousness unfolding like a Russian doll: sky Goddess Nut rising from Nut, rising from Nut.
Wheat grows from the lifeless body of grain god of death and rebirth Osiris. At Hathor’s temple priestesses baked Divine Bread, which Isis blessed, in the shape of Osiris, who is associated with Venus planet of love. Perhaps ‘Hoe’ means ‘love’ because ‘tending the soil’ is an act of love. Perhaps ‘Hoe’ resembles ‘Aleph’/ the ‘Ox’, the ‘first letter’ in the Phoenician alphabet, because universally ‘love’ came first. Hathor, the Sacred Cow, is Goddess of love.
“Love doesn’t just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new.” – Ursula K Le Guin.
We all live under one sun. It nourishes everyone. The energy of mass consciousness moves within all of us so it’s hardly surprising symbols, separated by time and distance, have similar meaning.
The nature of the universe is triadic, arising from the primal triangle, the womb. The Amazigh (Free People) symbol for wheat, a row of three triangles with a sprouting wheat sheaf, means ‘life and death’. I’m guessing it’s an image of grain piles, but why three? There are obvious parallels with building pyramids in threes. In ancient Egyptian text three lines represent plurality and completed systems.
Bread is symbolic of rising consciousness. Goddess understands societies who impose austerity collapse quickly. Civilisations nourishing from within have longevity – ancient Egypt civilisation lasted 3000 years.
Ankh – Conical Loaf – Hoe: Breath of Life – Give – Love!
References
Cone symbol means ‘Given eternal life’ – Jeyakumar Ramasami, Academia.edu
“I Am Isis”: The Role of Speech in the Cult of Isis – Martin Bommas, getty.edu
Consciousness: A Triadic Process – Joseph Naimo, researchonline@ND
The Divine Bread of Isis – Isidora, Isiopolis.
How did ancient Egyptians bake bread? – Historicaleve
These Bread Revolts Changed History. We Should Know Why – Tulika Rose, Upworthy
Egyptian wood fired bread – Peter Taylor
Baking Ancient Egyptian Bread, At the Mummies Ball
solarbread .. an ancient pharaonic heritage – Abd elSalam, Egyptian Geographic
Egypt: Baking Nile Bread, the Old Fashioned Way – Our Human Planet
36,400 BC: The Historical time of the Zep Tepi Theory -Armando Mei, Ancient Origins.
Amazigh Issuu – Imane Benyoussef