Akhenaten, Nefertiti and the Amarna Heresy

I've been asked by certain higher beings to Apotheosize the 13 dead apostles, finally after communing with these lofty folk for the last 10 years I can reveal their identities.
Firstly Akhenaten, the Heretic Pharaoh - someone who despite all efforts to silence him is singing his song of Unity, from beyond the grave and even from his grave.

ANCIENT EGYPTIAN CULTURE

Every story needs some back story, so:

Once upon in Ancient Egypt there was a pyramid scheme of hierarchical lies, a scheme in which all egyptians were trained/programmed to worship their "god-king", known as the Pharaoh. The hereditary title was carried by the rulers of Egypt, and the hereditary nature of throne of Egypt led to the encouragement of inbreeding between the ruling family. It was not uncommon for the Pharaoh to marry his sister, daughter, or another close female relative, and a royal wedding was indeed an event worth celebrating.

The chief instigators of this cultural program were the priesthoods of the various gods of the ancient egyptians. The priests encouraged the slaves and servants to give their worship to the pharaoh, as the divine representation of god on earth. The priest-caste had installed themselves as the spokesmen for various gods, and these power-hungry individuals used the Pharaoh to control the then most powerful nation on the planet. Different priestly groups would vie for power in those days, as evident in the changing names of the pharaohs through the ages. Different god-kings would take different names, partially dependent on whichever 'god' was in fashion at the time - i.e. whichever priest-hood had the most power and most powerful propaganda machine.

The most powerful propagandha machine was, of course, the pharoah himself - whoever controlled what the pharaoh decreed controlled what the people believed.

THE PRIESTHOOD OF AMUN/AMMON

The most powerful priesthood at the time of our story, the 18th dynasty of egypt were the priests of Ammon or Amun/Amon. From Wikipedia/Amun:

The history of Amun as the patron god of Thebes begins in the 20th century BC, with the construction of the Precinct of Amun-Re at Karnak under Senusret I.

Sensusret I reigned from 1971BC to 1926BC, Originally, this god (from wiki/Amun):

...Amun [represented] the primordial concept or element of air or invisibility... ...hence Amun's later function as a wind deity, and the name Amun (written imn, pronounced Amana in ancient Egyptian), meaning "hidden"...

a depiction of the
invisible god Amun

An invisible wind/sky god chiefly worshipped at Thebes, in the early times Amun was a relatively minor god, especially compared to the more popular Osiris or the Sun God RA.

However, during the late 17th dynasty (1500s) Egypt had been invaded by foreigners known as Hyksos (which translates as, well, foreigners), who had taken over Lower Egypt and Middle Egypt, leaving only Upper Egypt. After years of campaigning by the native egyptians, the Hyksos were successfully expelled and Upper Egypt was won by the egyptians, during the reign of Ahmose I - a pharaoh from Thebes. Amun was chief deity of Thebes and then... (quote from wiki/Amun):

The victory accomplished by pharaohs who worshipped Amun against the "foreign rulers", brought him to be seen as a champion of the less fortunate, upholding the rights of justice for the poor. By aiding those who traveled in his name, he became the Protector of the road. Since he upheld Ma'at (truth, justice, and goodness) those who prayed to Amun were required first to demonstrate that they were worthy by confessing their sins.

Sounds a lot like a certain judeo-christian nobodaddy father figure I've met a few times. No graven idols, we do not make images of our lord, but hey worship that guy on that cross there, see? By the way tell us all your secrets so we can exploit them.

A couple of hundred years after this event, during the early 18th dynasty it was a golden age for the priesthoods, monuments were being built and the amalgamation of Amun and Ra, known as Amun-Re, was the most worshipped god in egypt. More specifically these priests of Amun (the invisible sky-father god), were getting very rich.

AMENHOTEP III - BELOVED OF CORRUPT PRIESTS AMUN

Around 1353-1351BC the priests of Amun had it great. They owned all the land, everyone in the known world was paying them rent, tax, or some other form of tribute. This was during the later days of the reign of Pharaoh Amenhotep III, whose name meant Amun is Satisfied, and he was married to a woman named Tiye. Queen Tiye was a powerful woman in her own right, from a rich family - her father was Yuya, a rich land owner, and her brother was Anen a high priest of Amun. The worship of Amun was very much a family business for this pharaoh and his cronies.

Amenhotep III and Tiye, the Priest's daughter

Amenhotep III and Tiye had many chilldren, including their first born male and heir, Thutmose, which means Thoth-born, and was the Crown Prince of egypt until his untimely death, long before the death of his father Amenhotep III. (- Perhaps this was due to the intervention of the plagues of egypt and the angel of death? thank moses for that. or aaron -) With a name like thoth-born, it was likely he was an initiate of various mystery religions of egypt, Thoth being the egyptian equivalent of the greek Hermes Trismegistus, (see also Enoch) who are key mythical players in mystery cults/religions.

The death of crown prince Thutmose (thoth-born) was mourned by the court as a national tragedy, as all royal deaths were treated, but some also knew that this death meant that the next pharaoh would be Thutmose's ugly younger brother, Amenhotep. Little is known about the latter days of the reign of Amenhotep IV, but is suggested he was ill and went prematurely senile (- due to the murder of his son by the so-called "angel" of death -), regardless the exact date of his death is not known. Next came his son...

AKHENATEN - THE PHARAOH FORMERLY KNOWN AS AMENHOTEP IV

Bust of Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV)

The less prepared second son of this family, Amenhotep was crowned as Amenhotep IV around 1353-1351BC (dates are uncertain in this period for reasons that will become obvious as we go on). The capital of Egypt remained in Thebes, where the Amun priesthood had their great temple and largest land holdings. For the first few years of his reign, Amenhotep did what the priests of Amun-Ra said, and everything in egypt went along business as usual, temples were built, debts were paid to the temples and lo, the High Priests were fat and healthy.

In year 5 of his reign, something changed in Amenhotep, perhaps some kind of spiritual awakening, perhaps he got sick of having to give the priests all his moneys, or perhaps he became an Avatar of Ra. Regardless of the cause, in year 5 this Pharaoh tried to overhaul the religion of Egypt - a revolutionary idea. But first a little about his wife and family.

NEFERTITI, CO-REGENT OF EGYPT

No story about Akhenaten would be complete - or perhaps, even possible - without Nefertiti, beloved wife of Akhenaten.

Bust of Nefertiti, by unkown artist, who abandoned it unfinished

Nefertiti was the wife/consort of Akhenaten even before he was crowned pharaoh amenhotep IV - she was depicted beside him while he was still the king's son, and she was his queen upon his coronation. Akhenaten had numerous other wives, but held Nefertiti as his royal queen throughout his reign. As the reign of Pharaoh Akhenaten drew on, more and more power was imbued in her royal majesty Queen Nefertiti.

Nefertiti and Akhenaten had much love for each other, as can be seen from this quote available here, being written by Akhenaten of his beloved:

"The Mistress of Happiness, Endowed with Favors, at hearing whose voice the King rejoices, the Chief Wife of the King, His beloved, the Lady of the Two Lands, Neferneferuaten-Nefertiti, May She live for Ever and Always".

If those are not the words of a man in love, I don't know what words could be. The love in this family was apparently real and not merely a marriage of political alliance, as is so often the case with noble bloodlines.

But who was Nefertiti? If she was known as "The Lady of the Two Lands", could this be a reference to her being from a foreign family, or merely a title claiming Ladyship over both upper and lower egypt? Some believe Nefertiti to be herself a child of Amenhotep III and Queen Tiye, making her the full-blooded sister of Akhenaten/Amenhotep IV. Others wonder if she is the same woman as another of Akhenaten's wives, a woman named Kiya, or linking her to women Akhenaten married later in life.. And unlike most Royal family members of the 18th Dynasty, her mummy has never been found - or has it?

Regardless of Nefertiti's origins, these star-crossed lovers had several children and ruled egypt, apparently, as a family.

ATEN - THE SUN-SPHERE - as a representation of the omni-self

In Year 5 of his reign (1348/1346BC), Amenhotep IV introduced a new cult/religion - that of Atenism - , raising the pre-existing Aten (sun-disc/orb) to the status of supreme god, but (at first) allowing egyptians to continue to worship the traditional gods. Amenhotep IV abruptly changed his name to Akhenaten, meaning "living spirit of Aten," and then used his privileged status as a god-king to overhaul the religion of what was then the greatest empire in the western world. The new god (from Wikipedia/Aten):

 Aten (also Aton, Egyptian jtn) is the disk of the sun in ancient Egyptian mythology, and originally an aspect of Ra... ...The full title of Akhenaten's god was "The Ra-Horus who rejoices in the horizon, in his/her Name of the Light which is seen in the sun disc."

Representation of the One God Aten - though this representation is not Aten him/herself

And in nature the god Aten was said to be

The god is also considered to be both masculine and feminine simultaneously. All creation was thought to emanate from the god and to exist within the god. In particular, the god was not depicted in anthropomorphic (human) form, but as rays of light extending from the sun's disk.

Egypt was bout God Kings and dead pharaohs who had become gods in the heavens - in the sky, the realm of the sky father god who everyone thanked for being their saviour. Here we have a non-anthropomorphic (non-human) idea of divinity, an idea at odds with all other local religions at the time-period. Divinely inspired for a new religion, perhaps? The whole thing reminds me of this quote

"we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. There's no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we're the imagination of ourselves" -- Bill Hicks

Scholars disagree whether this man was a true monotheist, or simply changed the chief god of his country for his own egoic aims. Though my gut tells me that the new religion was implemented to liberate his people from the priests of Amun. Ah, but how did he implement this new religion? By feeding the poor, the needy, and ensuring all his subjects received a good and happy life? By teaching the masses to read and write so that they could communicate in their own way?

NO!

Akhenaten began a massive buildings campaign, erecting monuments, and writing the name of this god in stone. [sarcasm]How revolutionary. [/sarcasm]

Well we can forgive him. It was the style at the time. Building temples was all the Pharaohs knew how to do in terms of religion, spirituality, and worship. Maybe if Akhenaten had concentrated on feeding the hungry, healing the sick, and sheltering the homeless, instead of building new temples and cities, the idea of one singular all-embracing consciousness would have stuck. Somehow I doubt it - these Amun types are tricky bastards. Sometimes is best to just get as far away from them as you can.

Which is just what he did.

AKHETATEN - THE AMARNA SITE

Still in year 5 of his reign, Akhenaten decided to build a brand new city, away from Amun-riddled Thebes. One can imagine Akhenaten being sick of years of threats and power-grabs from the Amun priesthood - he began living at this site almost immediately. This city was to be known as Akhenaten, meaning "Horizon of the Aten", and the society the briefly thrived there caused much controversy between the Priesthood(s) and the Pharaoh.

what remains today of Akhetaten - now called Amarna

After two years of construction (in Year 7 of his reign 1346/1344BC) Akhenaten declared Akhetaten to be the new capital of egypt, though the city was not completed for another two years. Since year 5 of his reign, Akhenaten was attemping to convert an entire nation to the new collective god-mind being known as the Aten. It would appear the priesthood of Amun (among others I imagine) resisted this process, so apparently Akhenaten had decided to build a whole new city for the purpose, away from the rule of.this corrupt priesthood. The priests of Amun down at the Great Temple of Amun at Thebes would have been livid - not only had this upstart King defied their invisible sky-father god had moved the Egyptian capital away from their (local) web of control.

I see this as a move to liberate the people from a life of pointless oppression. I see this move made by a flawed earth human (- with a massive ego -) to correct the path of the wheels of human civilisation, turning them away from the rule of a greedy few over a hungry many and point civilisation toward oneness and infinite variety. He wasn't perfect, but his religion/cult - and more importantly his all-encompassing description of the godhead - pretty much hit the nail on the head.

WORSHIP AT AKHETATEN/AMARNA

At the new city of the Aten, life was a little different for the common egyptian person. Here's why:

A 3D artist's reconstruction of what the Great Temple to Aten may have looked like. Art from here:

The centrepiece of his construction at the new city was the Great Temple of Aten. This temple was quite unique as far as egyptian temples go...(from wikipedia/Great Temple of the Aten):

One of the most distinctive aspects of the Temple was that there was no cult image of the god. Instead, the Temple was open-aired and had no roof, so that people worshipped the actual sun directly overhead as it traveled from east to west. In fact this was a common theme amongst all of the Aten temples; they were all arranged to direct worship towards the sky...

Prior to this, temples with be built such that as one ventured into the temple, each successive chamber became darker and more mysterious. Another aspect of the new religion was charity/communal sharing, for instance at the High Altar:

The offerings given here... ...dedicated to the Aten but were then used to feed the officiating priests, the temple staff, and even some of the local populace

So there you have it, free food for the populace. Most carved images of the pharaohs before this so-called Amarna Period had the pharaoh paying tribute to some god or other, with the pharaoh going to the afterlife and receiving that god's blessing ~scene missing~. In the Horizon city Akhetaten, the pharaoh was shown on equal level with his family receiving the light of the Aten, or the love of this God. You know, for free. Akhenaten would say that this love then radiated from him out into the people, so that all were one with Aten. Other images showed the pharaoh and his wife giving gifts to the people instead of receiving tribute from them.

Nefertiti and Akhenaten giving gifts of... stuff... to a household who was loyal to them

As for the the religion of the Aten itself, the ritual went like this:
(from wikipedia/GreatAtenTemple)

"Aten was celebrated daily... ...Akhenaten acted as his own High Priest and special roles were given to the royal women... ...worship rather consisted solely of singing hymns and giving offerings to the Aten... Some hymns told stories, such as one that attributed the Aten with the creation of the human race and recognized that people were created differently, to speak different languages and have different colored skins, while other hymns simply expressed adoration and gratitude to the Aten. Offerings consisted of food, drink, flowers, and perfume and were often accompanied by burning incense and pouring libations. On each day, the Royal Family approached the temple on chariots after riding up and down the Royal Road, and entered the temple precinct and presented offerings... ...while their daughters rattled instruments... The family then... mounted the steps of the High Altar where there were offerings of meat, poultry, vegetables, and flowers already laid out...  As the King and Queen officiated, priests then placed offerings on many of the other altars for the public people while music was played..."

I have to repeat this - under Akhenaten, the priests had to offer tribute to the populace, not the other way around. A priesthood doesn't need a reason to kill a king other than that, but the rampant woman-respecting this shameful pharaoh was indulging added another reason to the list.

For it was clear from the 2nd half of his reign that Nefertiti was displayed as being equal to Akhenaten, the Pharaoh himself. Some see this as an early feminist concept, others a simple act of vanity on Nefertiti's part. I'd say they were co-regents, as many have suggested. She was just as zealous about the worship of the Aten as her husband, and was an active campaigner for it in the later years of his reign.

Akhenaten and Nefertiti - co regents?

So this Pharaonic family abandoned the old priesthood of numbers and lies, of worshipping in dark corners following ancient, unnecessary rituals, to appease Gods that the priests themselves didn't believe in. These corrupt priests had convinced the layfolk that the Gods were real and that they, the priests, would intercede with the gods on behalf of the layfolk - for the right fee, of course. Instead Akhenaten and Nefertiti told his people that they were all divine, that divinity is encompassed in all things, for free. Instead of dark rooms, they encouraged his subjects to look at the sun, the stars, the sky. After all, the sky - or heavens - is where the priests claimed to get their knowledge.

ATEN AS HERESY, AKHENATEN AS HERETIC

In Year 9 of Akhenaten's reign, he declared the Aten to be not merely the supreme god (top-dog), but the only god, a universal deity, and forbidding worship of all others. As well he campaigned to remove Amun from the egyptian religion, ordering his subject to deface all of Amun's temples and images of Amun. This new edict also included a ban on idols and other images of the Aten, with the exception of a rayed solar disc (the sun-with-hands that appears several times above).

What we have here is a new Pharaoh, using his status as the Representation of God on Earth, to do whatever he wanted with the God-concept. Well the old brotherhood - under their current guise of the priesthood of Amun - didn't like that.

"What's that? You're using the God-concept to encourage everyone to think about the oneness and majesty of all things? No, that's not the way at all. You weren't supposed to be able to hear a heavenly father! No, you were supposed to let us tell you what the heavenly father wants you to do! And giving your wife power, no less. What's next, eh? Freeing the slaves?"

The Priests had been telling the common people that the King was the representation of their sun-god, Ra, on earth. It would appear thatAkhenaten was the first person to take this literally - to say, "yes, I am the god king" - and he was most likely the first person to be referred to as "Pharaoh", rather than just a King and a God.

This stepping out of line from what is allowed to be believed, this is Heresy.

Oh the priests would not like something that empowers people spiritually. The whole Business of Religion is based on selling spiritual consolation to those who have been kept in the dark, away from the light of the self realising that the self  is not separate from that which created/creates the self. Oh the omniverse sings the song of unity and infinite variety. These priests of Amun, and all who carry on their spiritual legacy NEED things to stay static, the same, as within these boundaries the sheep/cattle layfolk are easier to control.

This ridiculous setting of boundaries on the winds of change, the boxing and labelling of all things,
whereas those who dance with these winds are labelled as outcasts, heretics, stricken from the record. A false record has been set throughout history by those who would profit from the misfortune of others, and these scribes destroy or pervert the history of all would-be heroes and spiritual liberators, and instead name them heretics, magicians. This is largely true in what has come to be known as "the west" and has been so for years uncountable. When the true sages are burned at the stake, all livng priests and prophets should be regarded with a wary eye.

Heretics are, therefore, generally people who can be trusted - for any system that lingers too long will become stagnant, and in the system's stagnation the (wrongly named) priesthood of Ammon will enter said system and exploit it, setting themselves up as the both the benefactors of mankind and receivers of all goods. As the system is old stagnant, and folk are used to it - they have come to depend on it and so accept their brotherhood overlords, even as their children are born into slavery. At such a point, any folk who uphold the corrupt system are not to be trusted, and those who attack the system and expose its corruption, the so-called heretics become the voice of reason. This has been a digression, let's finish the story.

MYSTERIOUS LAST YEARS

During the later years of his reign, Akhenaten was depicted as an androgynous figure, with large thighs, a slim torso, drooping belly, full lips, and a long neck and nos:

The later, androgynous version of Akhenaten

It has been suggested by scholars that this later Akhenaten may actually been a woman - most likely Nefertiti - masquerading as a man. Some have suggested he suffered from a genetic disorder, such as Marfan's syndrome, causing is 'disfigured' appearance. It should be remembered that several leaders during this period, whether Pharaoh or not, are also shown with some of these androgynous features. So it may be due to the new religion of the androgynous god Aten, with these depictions being androgynous because the god is androgynous.

Could this be Nefertiti in disguise?

I'd hazard a guess that Akhenaten died in such a way that the public did not know about his death, at the earliest in year 13 of his reign. Nefertiti took up Akhenaten's mantle, like an old testament prophet, and continued engaging the people of egypt in the Religion of the Aten. She dressed as him and performed all his priestly functions, perhaps under the name Ankhkheperure Neferneferuaten. She wrote to foreign rulers requesting one of their sons as husband to consolidate her rule, but alas, the priests got to her eventually, deposed her and put a puppet pharoah (or two) in charge.

KV 55 Coffin that Akhenaten was found in - was already defaced when discovered

In any case, it is not known how either Akhenaten or Nefertiti died. Due to the heretical nature of their reign, afterwards an attempt was made to erase the records of that era. But thanks to the modern magic of DNA testing, what we do know is that Akhenaten's mummy was found in a tomb known as "KV55" - a tomb which had been defaced, as had the coffin the body was found in. On the other hand, the mummy Nefertiti has never been found. Though recent DNA evidence has found that the mother of tutankhamun is the so-called unknown "younger woman" mummy from tomb KV35. The DNA testing showed this "younger woman" to be not only the mother of tutankhamun, but also the sister of Akhenaten. This tells us that if Nefertiti was the mother of Tutankhamun, as inscriptions suggest, then Akhenaten and Nefertiti were brother and sister.

EPILOGUE:TUTANKHAMUN - PUPPET OF THE PRIESTS OF AMUN

The poor folk had come to love looking at the stars, which they associated with Aten. They preferred this to the old way of bowing to gods that they couldn't see, but that the priests insisted are real. But the priesthood of Amun had had enough of Akhenaten and Nefertiti's  revolutionary religious machinations, and after a sketchy period of succesion, they managed to put Tutankhaten on the throne, the pharaoh Akhenaten's only living male heir. The boy was only 8 or 9 years old. But that didn't matter, they put him in charge any way - easier to boss him round, see.

The sarcophagus of the famed boy-king Tutankhamun

Surely by whatever method, Nefertiti was out of the way by now, and the priesthood went full steam ahead with the new regime. They got Akhenaten's heir, Tutankhaten to change his name to Tutankhamun, in honour of their chosen ghost-lord Amun. Meanwhile the power behind the throne was consolodaited, with the beings known as Ay,  Overseer of All the Horses of His Majesty (later Pharaoh Ay), Horemheb, Commander-in-Chief of the Army of Tutankhamun (later also a Pharaoh), and Maya, Keeper of the Treasury throughout Tutankhamun's reign (who shares a suspiciously similar name to Maya, High Priest of Amun until 4th year of Akhenaten's reign,.

The boy king Tutankhamun died at a young (age 17-20),  possibly because of the angel of death, or possibly due to natural causes, i.e. birth defects caused by generations of inbreeding within the pharaonic line. But in any case, following the coronation of Tutankhamun, Akhenaten and Nefertiti's new belief system came to it's swift end.

This story tells of a legitimate attempt made by a flawed earth human, Akhenaten, to turn his civilisation towards the righteous path of recognition of the Omniself. Of course what happened instead was he, and nefertiti, were punished for this, with their names stricken from the record and their glorious city, Akhetaten, covered up with sand by the 'power behind the throne' of the day. Fortunately, this plan backfired - as the sand covering left the Amarna Site better preserved than most other Egyptian relics.

This Ra-fuelled nonsense was written far too hastily. Praise be the name of Akhenaten. Praise be the name the Nefertiti. And praise be to you, for you are the infinite being that created the universe.
Praisey Praiseroo!