In my previous post, I wrote about how A Trip to Egypt Can Be Life-Changing. In this post, I would like to allude to some places and why they might resonate with different individuals.
One prominent location is Luxor Temple, also referred to as the “Temple of Man.” I may suggest to some guests that they undertake their visit with a guide. Following the guided tour, I recommend they return to the outside of the temple where their tour began. There, I encourage them to leisurely walk through the temple, tuning into themselves and, to some extent, disregarding the writings on the walls. I advise them to observe if there’s a particular part of the temple where they feel compelled to linger or experience specific emotions. If time permits and the guardians leave them alone, I suggest they spend extra time in that specific location, sitting with the emotion. At the very least, they should remember it for later reflection when they have the time to contemplate the experience further and in peace.
Ancient Egyptians believed in the existence of five bodies: physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, and magical. Various parts of Luxor Temple represent each part of the body, potentially relating to one of an individual’s five bodies that may require recognition, acceptance, clearing, or healing, among other possibilities. When something is awry in our lives, the physical body may make a final, desperate attempt to get our attention through disease, illness, or uncomfortable conditions. Busy individuals often ignore these signals unless or until the condition becomes severe. For such individuals, a visit to Luxor Temple can bring a problem or situation to their conscious minds, simply because they have taken a momentary escape from their normal busy routines.
Here are just a few examples pertaining to Luxor Temple:
- Lingering in the knee area may indicate a person is having difficulty making a decision, needs to make a decision, is “stuck” and just becoming conscious of this may be enough to nudge them to think about moving on or making a change.
- Being emotional in the heart area of the temple is so unique to each person and carries such personal significance that further elaboration her would take too long
- The stomach and lung area—feeling emotions here or wanting to linger or rush through—can mean a person might question what it is they “cannot stomach” or if they are having difficulty breathing in the joy of life.
- and so much more…..
Hatshepsut’s story, being a woman in a man’s world and Hatshepsut’s Temple may mean a lot to women who are timid, in abusive relationships, feel they have no control over their lives, are mentally in the habit of feeling victimized, or conversely, strong, independent women are also attracted to this temple.
The Temple of Sety I at Abydos narrates the journey of a pharaoh from birth to manhood, ascending the ladder of life to the point of declaring equality with the gods. This human strength is exemplified when he refuses to serve the God of Darkness, to his face. Throughout the temple, visitors can find numerous instances that resonate with their own life experiences. Personally, I have always liked the depiction of Sety as a young teenager, mastering his animal passions, and on the opposite wall leading to the ‘stairway to heaven’ the narrative extends to the gods’ promise that, ultimately, no soul will be left behind.
There is a saying that “behind every great man, there is a great woman.” Depictions of the goddesses supporting the gods and vice versa are the most common, running through all the temples in Egypt. Where are we without cooperation? It is one of the basic pillars of peace, stability, and prosperity in a household, community, and across nations. The basic rules of order and life are contained in the writings on the walls of all the temples, tombs, and monuments throughout Egypt.
While guides are essential to explain the history, tell the stories and provide some context to what we are looking at in the monuments, we just have to empty our minds of our usual preoccupations and feast our eyes on the walls to find the keys that are individual to each of us at the precise time we travel through Egypt. If we take the time to find our own keys in the temples of Egypt, they have the potential to open our minds in ways we cannot imagine. Man has within him the answers to more mysteries than he knows and a veritable treasure trove waiting to be discovered.