Temple of the Cosmos: The Ancient Egyptian Experience of the Sacred Paperback - 1996

From the rear cover

ANCIENT EGYPT / SPIRITUALITY A valuable and original work and a major contribution to the understanding of ancient Egypt. Naydler is one of the few to shed new light on the old myths. --John Anthony West, author of Serpent in the Sky An ambitious and lucid interpretation of ancient Egyptian consciousness, especially with respect to the experience of the sacred. As such the book illuminates the wild and mysterious psychospiritual currents of our present time, including the Goddess reemergence. --Robert Masters, Ph.D., author of The Goddess Sekhmet For the ancient Egyptian, the fabric of everyday life was sacred: the presence of the gods was keenly felt, time was interpenetrated by the transtemporal world of myth, and causation was essentially magical. In this groundbreaking new guide to the esoteric qualities hidden in the surfaces of ancient Egyptian life, Jeremy Naydler recreates the spiritual life of another time and place. Temple of the Cosmos is a profound exploration of an ancient consciousness more in tune with the rhythms of the earth, more open to the internal dimensions of time and space, less cut off from the sources of life. The author argues that the true source of Western civilization lies just beyond the horizon of Greek rationality and Judeo-Christian monotheism in the blazing light of Egyptian culture, and that we still have a good deal to learn from this ancient civilization. Building on the insights of scholars, and looking anew at the Books of the Dead, Naydler reinterprets the compelling imagery of the soul's journey through the Underworld as a description of spiritual initiation and awakening. JEREMY NAYDLER is a philosopher and cultural historian. He is a freelance lecturer at a variety of colleges and educational institutions, including the universities of Oxford, Reading, and Southampton, England.