Horus
He who is above.
Cult Center: Throughout Egypt.
Attributes: The name Horus comes from the Egyptian word
Hor, which translates as 'face'. We find him worshipped as Mekhenti-irry which
translates as 'He who has on his brow Two Eyes', the sun and moon representing
his eyes. On nights when there is no moon we find him worshipped as
Mekhenti-en-irty, 'He who on his brow has no eyes', in this form he was
considered the god of the blind.
The followers of Horus invaded Egypt in pre dynastic history, at
this time he was venerated as a victorious warlord. He became a part of the
state religion and was associated with the sun god, Ra.
Horus was so important to the state religion that Pharaohs were considered his
human manifestation and even took on the name Horus.
In the more popular religious beliefs of the Osiris cults he was
the son of Osiris and Isis. The avenger of his
father's murder and the model of a dutiful son. It is in these stories that we
find him doing battle
with his uncle, Seth.
Horus is shown as a hawk, or a man with a hawk's head and the
crown of all Egypt. This makes him look similar to Ra,
but Ra is crowned with the sun disk. Horus' crown is made of two parts. The
white part is the crown of Upper Egypt (in the south) and the red part is the
crown of Lower Egypt (including the Nile delta). Together they show that Horus
ruled all Egypt. During their reign, Pharoahs identified themselves with Horus.
After they died, they became Osiris.
When Horus was a baby, his father Osiris
was killed by Seth.
Horus and his mother Isis
hid in the papyrus reeds in the delta of the Nile until Horus grew up. The he
went to war with Seth to get his father's crown and kingdom. The battles raged
for a long time. Once Seth managed to blind Horus by taking out his eye and
tearing it to bits, but Thoth,
the God of Wisdom, managed to heal the eye. Eventually, Horus won the war, and
Seth was driven out into the Sahara Desert.
The Egyptians sometimes had had two eye symbols, with the left eye being the
Eye of Horus, symbolising the moon, and the right eye being symbolising the Eye
of Ra, or the sun.
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The
Right Eye of Horus represents concrete factual information
controlled by the left brain. It deals with words, letters, and numbers
and those things which are describable in terms of sentences or complete
thoughts. It approaches the universe in terms of male oriented ideation.
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The
Left Eye of Horus represents abstract aesthetic information
controlled by the right brain. It deals with esoteric thoughts and
feelings and is responsible for intuition. It approaches the universe in
terms of female oriented ideation. We use the Left Eye, female oriented,
right side of our brain for feeling and intuition.
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"...the Eye of Horus hath made me
holy...I will hide myself among you, O ye stars which are imperishable. My
brow is the brow of Ra." The Pyramid Texts
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Thought
1/8 heqat or 40 ro
1/8 heqat represents
thought.
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Hearing 1/16 heqat
or 20 ro
1/16 heqat
represents the ear. The figure points towards the ear
on the face.
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"That which has been shut fast [dead] hath been
opened by the command of the Eye of Horus, which hath delivered me.
Established are the beauties of the forehead of Ra." The Pyramid
Texts
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"Come, the Eye of Horus hath
delivered for me my soul, my ornaments are established on the brow of Ra.
Light is on the faces of those who are in the members of Osiris." The
Pyramid Texts
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Taste
1/32 heqat or 10 ro
1/32 heqat part
of the EYE represents the sprouting of the wheat or grain from the planted
stalk. It represents food and taste.
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Sight 1/4 heqat or
80 ro
1/4 heqat
represents seeing, or the sensation of light.
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"Perfect is the Eye of Horus. I have delivered
the Eye of Horus, the shining one, the ornament of the Eye of Ra, the
Father of the Gods." The Pyramid Texts
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 "Behold
[the fire] risith in Abydos and it cometh; I cause it to come, the Eye of
Horus. It is set in order upon thy brow, O Osiris Khenti-Amenti; it is set
in the shrine and riseth on thy brow." The Pyramid Texts
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Smell 1/2
heqat or 160 ro
1/2 heqat
represents the nose and the sensation of smell.
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Touch 1/64 heqat or
5 ro
1/64 heqat
represents planting a stick into the ground.
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"I shall see the Gods and the Eye of Horus
burning with fire before my eyes." The Pyramid Texts
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Representation: You will find different Representations
of Horus that fit with the different names that are listed below, however, the
most common is a falcon or falcon headed man.
Other Names:
Haroeris (Horus the Elder) An early form of Horus. He was a
god of light. His eyes represented the sun and the moon. He was also the
brother of Osiris
and Seth. Sometimes he
was the son, or the husband of Hathor.
Horus Behudety In the form of Horus of Edfu, he represented
the midday sun. This Horus was worshipped in the western Delta and later, as
his cult spread south into Upper Egypt, a cult center was established in Edfu.
Horus of Edfu fights a great
battle against Seth
and an army of conspirators. He is pictured as a winged
sun-disk or as a hawk headed lion.
Ra-Harakhte (Horus of the two horizons) This horus was
identified with Ra and
the daily voyage of the sun from horizon to horizon. The two deities combined
to become Ra-Harakhte. He was represented as a falcon or a falcon-headed man
wearing the solar disk and double
crown or the uraeus
and the atef crown.
Harmakhet (Horus in the Horizon) In this form he represented
the rising sun and was associated with Khepri.
He was also considered to be the keeper of wisdom. He was sometimes pictured
as a man with a falcon's head, or a falcon headed lion. But his most
recognizable form is that of a sphinx,
or as a ram-headed
sphinx.
Harsiesis (Horus son of Isis) This Horus was the son of Isis
and Osiris. He was conceived magically after the death of Osiris and brought
up by Isis on a floating island in the marshes of Buto. The child was weak and
in constant danger from the scheming of his wicked uncle Seth, who sent
serpents and monsters to attack him. But his mother, Isis was great in the
magical arts and she warded off this evil by using a spell against creatures
biting with their mouths and stinging with their tails, and the young Horus
survived and grew.
Harpokrates (The infant Horus) As a child he represented the
new born sun and was often pictured being suckled by Isis. he was usually
represented as a seated child, sucking his thumb, his head was shaved except
for the sidelock of youth. Even as a child, he wore the royal crown and uraeus.
Harendotes (Horus the avenger of his father)
Har-pa-Neb-Taui (Horus Lord of the Two Lands)
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