The 3000 year old Sacred Spell: Bentreshyt & a Pharaoh’s Forbidden Love
Egypt Circe 1,285 BC – 50 year old Pharaoh Sety I is relaxing in the garden of his palace in the pilgrimage town of Abydos. He is here to check on the construction of a new temple dedicated to the god Osiris who is believed to have been buried here. His musings are interrupted by the arrival of a young initiate priestess of Isis who was unaware of the Pharaoh’s presence in the garden. Bentreshyt meaning ‘Harp of Joy’, now 14 years old had been given to the care of the temple by her soldier father on the death of her mother.when Bentreshyt was around 3 years old.
Despite the age difference there was an attraction between these unlikely two which they could not deny. Over the following weeks they met many times in secret until one day word came of trouble on the borders of Egypt and Sety had to to leave. While the Pharaoh was away it became obvious that Bentreshyt was pregnant and this was brought to the attention of the High Priest. Eventually Bentreshyt could hold back no longer and she admitted that she had a lover but she steadfastly refused to name him. As a virgin initiate of the goddess Isis (ironically the goddess of love and beauty) the young girl was regarded as temple property and forbidden to any man. This included the Pharaoh who would have been subject to the law of the Temple also in this respect.
Bentryshet’s Sacrifice: Love’s Triumph Over Betrayal
Rather than betray her lover Bentreshyt took her own life. Pharaoh Sety I was overwhelmed by grief where he received the devastating news of the young girl’s passing. With profound sorrow, he made a solemn vow never to forget her, a promise that would transcend the boundaries of mortal existence, resonating through 3,000 years of history and beyond, a testament to the enduring power of his love and remembrance.
The Priestess Reborn: over 3000 years later
England 1904 January 16 Dorothy Louise Eady was born to Reuben Eady, master tailor and half Irish and Caroline Eady of London. They lived in a flat in Blackheath, London. At the age of 3 Dororthy fell down the stairs and was pronounced dead. An hour later when a nurse went to lay out her body she found the little girl sitting up in bed. However, Dorothy was never quite the same after that night. She became obsessed with everything Egyptian.
She had to be dragged screaming from the Egyptian collection at the British Museum – screaming at her mother that these were her people. One day she came across a photo of the Temple at Abydos and ran to tell her mother “This is my home” But she could not understand why the photo showed the temple in ruins and no evidence of a garden.
As she got older she used to go to the British Museum sometimes instead of going to school. She became friends with renowned Egyptologist, Sir E.A. Wallis Budge, who taught her how to read hieroglyphics. He wondered how she could learn so fast….until she explained that she already knew them but had just forgotten!
Dorothy Eady goes to CAIRO
The war came and went, Dorothy escaped death during the London bombings at least twice, she had many dreams and nightmares she did not understand. At the age of 29 she married an Egyptian, Mr. Imam Abdel Meguid – moved to Cairo with him and had a son, whom she insisted (much to her husband and his family’s dismay) on naming Sety. Hence later in life she became known as Omm Sety (mother of Sety – this is Egyptian tradition). After about 2 years the marriage ended and Dorothy divorced her husband – leaving her son with his father.
Dorothy went to work with the Department of Egyptian Antiquities and amazed Egyptologists of the day with her knowledge and her skill at drawing. She could sometimes fill in missing pieces of information for them.
Over time Dorothy remembered her previous life in Egypt – 3000 years before as the young Bentreshyt at the Temple of Abydos. The spirit of Pharaoh Sety I came to Dorothy and took her on a journey one night (out of body travel). He explained to her that as a Priest of the god Set (another story for another time) he had learned how to take some of a living being’s Ch’i (life force) and fashion a body from it which he could use. He explained this would cut her life short but she insisted and so he made a body for himself and thereafter came almost every night to visit Dorothy as a physical man she could see, touch and make love with.
RETURN TO ABYDOS: Dorothy Eady
In 1956 Dorothy moved to Abydos where she was to remain until her death in 1981. As Dorothy and the Pharaoh had committed the sin of having a forbidden sexual relationship in their former life at Abydos it would now, on their return to Abydos be incumbent on them to abstain from physical relations for the remainder of Dorothy’s life as retribution. Should the fall a second time their spirits could never, ever come together again in any lifetime or any dimension.
For the next 24 years Dorothy worked at Abydos, showed visitors around, made sketches and drawings of the temple walls, explained much of what was there, helped the Egyptologists uncover the ancient temple, in particular told them where to find the garden. She also performed the rites of a Priestess of Isis every day in the temple. Omm Sety is buried at Abydos – but not in the fashion she requested to be buried.
Since she had died at a young age as Bentreshyt – Dorothy did not have much historical information of Egypt at that time. She had a friend – Hanny El Zeini, who worked at Nag Hammadi further south of Abydos and at his request she asked the Pharaoh many questions about his life, the other Pharaohs, Queens etc. and the history of Ancient Egypt. Dorothy kept journals, notes and tape recordings of these conversations and gave them to Hanny. If you want to know more about this amazing modern day woman you will find it all in Hanny’s book “Omm Sety’s Egypt: A Story of Ancient Mysteries, Secret Lives, and the Lost History of the Pharaohs”
It is important to note that nobody has every disputed Omm Sety’s story, information or work. She was, and is to this day, highly respected by Egyptologists and Archeologists who knew her and her work in Egypt.
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Abydos and Dendera: how I found them – Mara