The signs and symbols of primordial man : being an explanation of the evolution of religious doctrines from the eschatology of the ancient Egyptians / by Albert Churchward.

Albert Churchward

Date:: 1910

Credit: The signs and symbols of primordial man : being an explanation of the evolution of religious doctrines from the eschatology of the ancient Egyptians / by Albert Churchward. Source: Wellcome Collection.

33/520 page 3

$we can come to any positive conclusion upon the highest question of the primordial history and origin of our race. Following the laws of development, research has led us to bring forward such evidence, as furnished by the records and monuments of the country or nations of the world, where we find the same signs and symbols, the same myths and legends, the same sacred ceremonies and identical religious beliefs, which, when correctly interpreted, proves that only one conclusion can be definitely arrived at, which we have set forth in this work—viz. that the first or Paleolithic man was the Pygmy, who was evolved in Central Africa at the sources of the Nile, or Nile \'alley, and that from here all originated and were carried throughout the world, and that the most primi- tive phase of j\lythology is a mode of representing certain ele- mental powers by means of living types which were superhuman, like the natural phenomena. The foundations of mythology were laid in the pre-anthropomorphic shape of primitive representation. Thus the typical giant, Apap, was an enormous water reptile. The typical genetrix and mother of life was a W'ater Cow, that represented the earth ; the typical provider was a goose, etc. It was here, in the Nile valley, that the dumb mythology became articulate. Egypt alone preserved primitive gnosis and gave ex- pression to the language of signs and symbols, and it was here that the firstelemental powers were divinised—here thatTotemism, Stellar, Lunar and Solar Mythology originated. In the Astro- Mythology of the Egyptians, we find the belief in the first Man- God (Horus I.) and his death and resurrection as Amsu. In the Ritual of ancient Egypt we have full proof of this, and all the powers of the Great Creator of this h:arth and other worlds of the Universe. We have the various stories of the gieat power of darkness and the great pow'er of light, and the fight between these fully explained in their primitive and true form. W e see this myth still believed in and carried on at the present day by the Aboriginal Australians and other native tribes, wherever w'c can gain access to their Sacred Ceremonies, and thoughts and beliefs, as Spencer and Gillen have done with these people. Then we have show'll how the Stellar w'as evolutionised into the Lunar and Solar Mythos ; how^ the dillerent names of all the gods (names of the powers or attributes of the One Great God) and how even His name has been changed by the Priests, by time and evolution up to the time when the Egyptians had worked out their peitcc$