I don’t know about you, my dear friends, but for me, time is running like a rabbit trying to get its latest carrot! The latest week was the worst: first, I visited a lawyer, maybe to get more pension from the state because mine is below the existential limit, but no chance because my adorable wife still is working, and it must be enough for both of us! And next to it, my beloved page, which I made to send my WP articles to Facebook, doesn’t belong to me any more! I have no idea why it is so, but you, who are on FB, know it happens daily! Anyway, I try to keep silent and calm! What else can I do? Of course, I’ll gladly accept if somebody has an idea for Facebook’s issue!
So! Now, let’s travel to the Ilias territories, Samos. This trip was different from the previous ones. First, as Regina told me, we had an occasion to spend our vacation in Samos; I was happy because I am always happy to be in Greece, as it might be my actual land. But there were some rumours about foreigners on the island. With the foreigner, I mean the big European problem with the refugees from all around the world towards Europe.
As I wrote in the first part, I was a bit worried about the conflict between rich and poor, though I prepared myself for every kind of conflict. I said once that I fully understand their situation, but I am a man of comprehensiveness and take the issues as they are. Anyway, we arrived at the equipment, and the first encounter was at the beach, where some families of these refugees were present. I only needed some eye contact to show them what was happening there. It was for me not the best, but it must be so, for they were, as I assumed, not enough cultured to understand the matter.
As I mentioned, I was also a refugee. But I knew where I was, what I was, why I was somewhere else, and how to handle it. That is the point, the main point of our existence! And I am happy to have known this.
Whatever, it repeated itself several times. Once, a few boys even stole our care items from a bag. They said they were thirsty, but there was only sunscreen inside! You might imagine it was unpleasant for me, but I had to react to these idiotic acts. So! Enough talking; let’s enjoy the pictures.
The Heraion of Samos:
The territories of the Heraion of Samos were a large sanctuary to the goddess Hera on the island of Samos, Greece, 6 km southwest of the ancient city of Samos (modern Pythagoreion).
And a blue street you might love as blue as it is!
And some more… Have a lovely time, thanks.✌🙏🌹💥💖
Oops! I think there could be some more in the future! Cheers.😉🤗
The Red Book by C. G. Jung, Liber Primus fol. i(v)
As I continue to read Carl Jung’s book, The Red Book, I find myself wondering how his words are so relatable to me. They touch me deeply and feel familiar. I do not speak often and tend to keep to myself. However, I want to learn how to express myself more creatively using images. I long to see a sign of mercy that will give me hope and belief, even though I still wish to have visions like Jung had.
He conversed with the spirits, the spirit of the time, the spirit of depth, talking about the Supreme Meaning by the fact that he is laughter and worship; a bloody laughter and a bloody worship. A sacrificial blood binds the poles. Jung has his humanity for help: What solitude, he said, what a coldness of destruction you lay upon me when you speak such! Reflect on the destruction of being and the streams of blood from the terrible sacrifice that the depth demands (Referring to Jung’s vision). Dr Jung had visions which became a reality throughout his time. He was excited, not sure if schizophrenia was threatening him. However, every genius seems to have this ability, as my brother Al had it.
As we observe the world today, starting wars easily, bombing, and killing have become routine occurrences, it might not be necessary for us to have the kind of visions that Dr. Jung had in his time. However, his words hold significance since they reflect a deeper insight into the human psyche.
“But the spirit of the depths uttered: No one can or should halt sacrifice. Sacrifice is not destruction; sacrifice is the foundation stone of what is to come… “The mercy that happened to me gave me belief, hope, and sufficient daring not to resist the spirit of the depths further but so utter his words. But before I could pull myself together to really do it, I needed a visible sign that would show me that the spirit of the depths in me was, at the same time, the ruler of the depths of world affairs.
It happened in October 1813, when I was living alone on a journey. During the day, I was suddenly overcome by a vision in broad daylight: I saw a terrible flood that covered all the northern and low-lying lands between the North Sea and the Alps. It reached from England up to Russia and from the coast of the North Sea right up to the Alps. I saw yellow waves swimming through rubble and the death of countless thousands.
The vision lasted two hours; it confused me and made me ill. I was not able to interpret it. Two weeks passed, then the vision returned, still more violent than before, and an inner voice spoke: “”Look at it; it is completely real, and it will come to pass. You cannot doubt this.“” I wrestled again for two hours with this vision, but it held me fast. It left me exhausted and confused. And I thought my mind had gone crazy.
Jung discussed this vision on several occasions, stressing different details like in his 1925 seminar Introduction to Jungian Psychology (p. 44f), to Mircea Eliade, and Memories (pp. 199-200):
{Jung’s versions were frightening as he saw even a sea of blood over the northern lands. He explains: }
As a psychiatrist, I became worried, wondering if I was not on the way to “doing a schizophrenia,” as we said in the language of those days… I was just preparing a lecture on schizophrenia to be delivered at a congress in Aberdeen, and I kept saying to myself: “I’ll be speaking of myself! Very likely, I’ll go mad after reading out this paper.” The congress was to take place in July 1914 – exactly the same period when I saw myself in my three dreams voyaging on the Southern seas. On July 31st, immediately after my lecture, I learned from the newspapers that war had broken out. Finally, I understood. And when I disembarked in Holand on the next day, nobody was happier than I. Now, I was sure that no schizophrenia was threatening me. I understood that my dreams and my visions came to me from the subsoil of the collective unconscious. What remained for me to do now was to deepen and validate this discovery. And this is what I have been trying to do for forty years.
The fire from the egg in Carl Jung’s Red book
In the year 1914, in the month of June, at the beginning and end of the month, and at the beginning of July, I had the same dream three times: I was in a foreign land, and suddenly, overnight and right in the middle of the summer, a terrible cold descended from space. All seas and rivers were ice-locked, and every green living thing had frozen. The second dream was thoroughly similar to this. But the third dream at the beginning of July went as follows: I was in a remote English land. It was necessary that I return to my homeland with a fast ship as speedily as possible. I reached home quickly. In my homeland, I found that in the middle of summer, a terrible cold had fallen from space, which had turned every living thing into ice. There stood a leaf-bearing but fruitless tree, whose leaves had turned into sweet grapes full of healing juice through the working of the frost (like the ice wine). I picked some grapes and gave them to a great waiting throng.
[Draft: This was my dream. All my efforts to understand it were in vain. I laboured for days. Its impression, however, was powerful (p.9). Jung also recounted this dream in Memories].
Can we interpret the end of his dream, where sweet grapes are present, as a positive outcome of human madness? Who knows! Anyhow, hope dies last.🙏💖
Source: The Red Book by C. G. Jung, Liber Novus, A Reader’s Edition; Sonu Shamdasani
Today, I want to write about one of my favourite topics: women or femininity. And, of course, about how much losses the men have caused because of this selfish arrogance! Maybe some male readers are annoyed by my pronunciation, but it’s the truth, and it’s never too late to wake up. De facto, men are often subconsciously inspired by women, even if they don’t realize it consciously.
The other day, I watched a film, Little Women. It is a 2019 American coming-of-age period drama film written and directed by Greta Gerwig. The story is based on the 1868 novel by Louisa May Alcott and revolves around the lives of four sisters – Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy – who lived in Concord, Massachusetts, during the late nineteenth century. It was somehow long-breathing, I mean not dull, but too much time wasted in between! In the matter of movies, I have an even better suggestion: Elisa & Marcela— a 2019 Spanish biographical romantic drama film directed by Isabel Coixet. It is about the first same-sex marriage in Spain, although it shows the subsequent suffering.
What hit me in the eye by the latter one was the man’s rules, which preside over the world: Women were not to have any ideas, any self-decision, even they had no right to earn money; they only might accept “some limited” presents! I turned around on the couch twice when I heard it! How fool can the man be? I think it is the one-million-dollar question that nobody can really answer!?
After making a brief statement, I have a story to share with all the men here, including myself. The story aims to inspire and enlighten us all. The pictures and versions we see around us are not created by men but by women who possess incredible creativity. They are the ones who give birth to our offspring, and it’s only fitting that we acknowledge and appreciate their outstanding contributions. They teach us to keep our eyes open!
André Breton, a prominent figure of the Surrealist movement and the author of its first manifesto, once wrote that “the problem of woman is the most marvellous and disturbing problem in all the world.” However, his statement was not referring to the injustice and lack of recognition experienced by his female colleagues.
Marquee Surrealists like Breton, Dalí, Man Ray, Magritte, and Ernst relegated the women in their circle to the role of muses and symbols of erotic femininity rather than acknowledging them as artists in their own right.
During a recent retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, Méret Oppenheim stated in Behind the Masterpiece’s introduction to “The Fantastic Women of Surrealism” that it was the female Surrealists’ responsibility to break free from the limited roles that society and their male counterparts had imposed on them.
A woman isn’t entitled to think to express aggressive ideas.
The first artist featured on Behind the Masterpiece needs no introduction. Frida Kahlo is undoubtedly one of the most recognized female artists in the world. She was a woman who lived by her own rules, creating poetic and often raw imagery as she explored her own physical and mental pain:
I paint self-portraits because I paint my own reality. I paint what I need to. Painting completed my life. I lost three children, and painting substituted for all of this… I am not sick; I am broken. But I am happy to be alive as long as I can paint.
Right: Papilla Estelar (Star Maker) (1958) Left: Remedios Varo, La Ilamada (The Call), 1961. Courtesy of the National Museum of Women in the Arts.
The Art Institute of Chicago is currently exhibiting a collection featuring Remedios Varo, who, along with Leonora Carrington, according to the National Museum of Women in the Arts, were considered the “femmes-enfants” or “child-women” to the much older and renowned male artists in their lives.
Their friendship outlasted their romantic attachments to Surrealist luminaries Ernst and the poet Benjamin Péret, and Carrington honoured it in her novel, The Hearing Trumpet.
Leonora Carrington Self-portraitHallucination (Homage to surrealist artist Leonora Carrington)
Carrington’s work is about tone and colour, and Varo’s is about line and form.
The artistic identity of Dorothea Tanning was separate from that of her husband, Max Ernst, despite their association in the art world.
Alyce Mahon, an art history professor at the University of Cambridge and co-curator of the Tate Modern exhibit, discusses the work of an artist whose body underwent several transformations throughout her career. Unfortunately, the artist’s first major museum showcase was held after her death. Mahon highlights the deceptive femininity of Tanning’s soft sculptures:
“Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” (1943)
Tanning’s pin cushion art challenges conventional associations of sewing and craft with women by transforming the humble object into a fetish. Her first creation, made in 1965 from velvet and placed with a voodoo doll, encourages us to think differently by taking something familiar and making it strange.ng something familiar and making it uncanny and weird.
Tanning refused to accept the label of “woman artist,” seeing it as no more sensible than “man artist” or “elephant artist.”
Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Sigmund Freud!
The concept of the subconscious mind was central to Surrealism, but its creator’s statement about women was controversial.
Remedios Varo Bordando el manto terrestre (Embroidering the Earth’s Mantle), 1961 Gallery Wendi Norris
Oppenheim’s best-known work is object, the fur-lined teacup, saucer, and spoon. One might wonder what he would have thought of it.
Josh Rose’s essay for Khan Academy’s AP/College Art History course explains how visitors of the Museum of Modern Art declared it the “quintessential” Surrealist object during the “Fantastic Art, Dada, and Surrealism” exhibition of 1936-37.of 1936-37.
Oppenheim disappeared from the artistic scene for over a decade and destroyed much of her work. When she returned, she started to reclaim her intent. In her acceptance speech for an award, she expressed her belief that women must take their freedom and reject imposed taboos.
The question is: Will men ever become more aware and conscious? Thanks for your support.🙏💖
Jean-François Champollion, a genius who discovered the code of the ancient Egyptian language, also known as Champollion le jeune, was a French philologist and orientalist known primarily as the decipherer of Egyptian hieroglyphs and a founding figure in the field of Egyptology. He is one of the most valuable personalities who helped humanity- along with great support from his brother Jacques-Joseph Champollion- to take a big step towards understanding the human past.
Rosetta stone~ British Museum, London ~ photo by Gloria Bolton
Just imagine these words (holography) written on this vast stone were not decipherable. But now we are not illiterate anymore!
Here, we read an exciting introduction by Marie Grillot about a brilliant Egyptologist and her research on this genius of decoding ancient language. PS: I wish there could also be a translated clip!
Jean-François Champollion in Egypt: an interview with Karine Madrigal
Jean-François Champollion, “The Younger”, decipherer of hieroglyphs, founder of Egyptology Figeac, December 23, 1790 – Paris, March 4, 1832 Portrait representing him in Egyptian clothing, made by Salvatore Cherubini in Medinet Habou, in July 1829 – acquired by the Musée Champollion de Vif in June 2022
“Jean-François Champollion in Egypt”: an interview with Egyptologist Karine Madrigal (centre) directed and filmed in Malqatta by Marie Grillot & Pascal Pelletier
To discuss “Jean-François Champollion in Egypt”, it is in Louqsor that we found the Egyptologist Karine Madrigal…
Since July 2010, she has been studying the 60 volumes of archives of the Champollion brothers deposited in the Departmental Archives of Isère. Through this incredibly rich source, nothing that links the two brothers is foreign to her…
On the one hand, Jacques-Joseph Champollion-Figeac, the eldest, and on the other, Jean-François Champollion, known as “the young one”. Twelve years separate them, Jacques-Joseph will be the godfather of his younger brother and… his pygmalion… He will help and assist him in his education, studies, research, and obsessive quest to understand writing from ancient Egypt.
The Champollion “brothers”: Jean-François Champollion “the Younger” on the left and Jacques-Joseph Champollion “Figeac” on the right Paintings by Victorine-Angélique-Amélie de Rumilly were exhibited at the Musée de Vif in Isère.
This hard work led to the presentation, on September 27, 1822, at the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres in Paris, of his famous “Letter to Mr. Dacier”, which would be the founding act of the decipherment of hieroglyphs and, by the same, will sign the birth of a new discipline, Egyptology…
Jean-François was then 32 years old… In 1824, he was sent on a mission to the Turin Museum to establish the catalogue of the Drovetti Collection. Then, he returned to Italy in 1826 to appraise the Salt Collection. There, he met Ippolito Rosellini, who became his student and disciple. On May 15, 1826, he was appointed curator of the Egyptian section of the Charles X Museum (future Louvre Museum).
But what he wants more than anything is to go to Egypt to carry out a scientific mission… and this project will finally come to fruition…
The Franco-Tuscan Expedition, sponsored by Charles X and the Grand Duke of Tuscany, left Toulon on July 31, 1828, aboard “L’Eglé” and landed on the Egyptian coast on August 18, 1828. It is managed on the French side by Jean-François Champollion and on the Tuscan side by Ippolito Rosellini…
From July 1828 to December 1829, they explored the various ancient sites, from Alexandria to Abu Simbel and even as far as Wadi Halfa… During these eighteen months, the fourteen members – “scholars and technicians” – will have to learn to live and work together… As for the famous decipherer discovering his “promised land”, he finds himself surprised that his deciphering system works “in situ” and on monuments from all periods…
Thanks to Karine Madrigal’s excellent knowledge, combined with her passion and her undeniable talent as a “storyteller”, it is with joy that we relive, with her, this great and rich adventure from the beginnings of Egyptology…
This interview, prepared and produced by Marie Grillot, was filmed by Pascal Pelletier for Guinée-nouvelles and the Association for the Safeguarding of the Ramesseum (ASR). It was filmed at the French Archaeological Mission of Thebes West house in Malqatta, which Christian Leblanc was kind enough to make available… You can view it by clicking on the photo below:
To breathe a sigh of relief, I present you a travel report from my last vacation to Samos, Greece. And as I looked at the pictures, I thought it would take more than one post! And by the way, it wasn’t irrelevant that I added the word nuisance to the title; I’ll explain later what I meant by that.
First, let’s look at my views when we flew from Dusseldorf up into the dawn in the sky very early in the morning.
I love travelling to Greece. It’s a beautiful country with kind and honourable people. However, what I found to be a nuisance during my visits was the presence of refugees from various parts of the world who were also resettled there. I know it may sound shameful as I am also a refugee. Still, if we examine the situation honestly, there is a conflict between two very different conditions that deeply affect the present scenario.
I am discussing cultural differences and culture shock. Whenever I go on vacation, I have mixed emotions as I observe the tourist world, which I cannot really belong to due to financial constraints. However, I manage to travel on a budget by saving money elsewhere (for instance, I use my clothes for a long time as they are functional!). Therefore, I don’t belong to the affluent tourist society, although I mingle with them. This time, the situation created a lot of confusion, and I felt very uncomfortable seeing such a mix of poverty and wealth. I will elaborate more on this topic later in the following sections. Now, I must prepare to go to my granddaughter’s fifth birthday celebration. It’s hard to believe how quickly time passes! Here are some more pictures, and heartfelt thanks for your being here.🙏💖🦋
“I must admit that I am still contemplating the mysteries of life. At this time, I wanted to share Socrates’ thoughts about the soul with you. But before that, some time ago, when the Iranian groups on Twitter (now X) were still more united (unfortunately, many differences have separated them!), one of our topics to discuss was whether AI could create art. The main question is: how much do we know about art? How much do we believe that art has a soul possessing such an intangible quality and AI can produce it as we do?
Honestly, I am worried about using AI because humans are naturally very lazy and comfortable; that’s why they like to be pampered! If you look at the story of this development, like the Alexas in the sitting room to the self-driving cars, it shows what will happen next.
Like our other muscles, our brains must be trained continuously to maintain our creativity and cognitive abilities. Otherwise, we risk losing our mental faculties. Nonetheless, we must observe what these “machines”, which we might have invented, will do!
The birth of the star child in 2001_ A Space Odyssey 1968
Actually, we are talking about what we don’t know exactly how it works: Soul, Creation, Art!? It made me wonder if we can differentiate between these in a world created by Mother Nature and how we attempt to do so with equal ability, though I believe art is a part of the creator’s essence, gifted us to use in our own creations.
Act 2, scene 2 of Hamlet
The question is whether we have forgotten something we should remember. Is it possible that our souls have lived before they entered our bodies? Socrates believed in some form of reincarnation, in which our souls know of their previous existence before they come into our bodies. These were his final words before facing the court, as conveyed by Plato.”
[… oh souls and before, before they were a man they were, without bodies, and they had consciousness. Plato Phaedo 76 c ]
[…. or are they remembered, or learn to remember if they are. Plato Phaedo 76 a ]
“So, Simmia, our souls existed before, without the human form, separate from the body and possessing knowledge”. Plato of Phaedus
How well Dr Jung found this lost connection to our buried memories under our consciousness!
The idea is that the soul is immortal, as Plato claims in “Plato Phaedo, or Phaedrus 74-76. In the dialogue, Socrates discusses the nature of the afterlife on his last day before being executed by drinking hemlock.
Phaedo presents four distinct arguments supporting the immortality of the soul, namely, the Argument from Opposites, the Theory of Recollection, the Argument from Affinity, and the final Argument. However, we focus on whether humans can create perfection or whether artificial intelligence (AI) is perfect. In my opinion, perfection does not exist in our lives, or at least not how we imagine it. Even gods seem to make mistakes! Despite humans’ constant pursuit of perfection, imperfection has a certain allure.
by Paolo Uberti
In any case, I believe that AI cannot create art like “wo-man-kind” can. For example, we can understand this fact when we observe the Mona Lisa, read Dostoevsky, read or watch Shakespeare, or read Rilke…! We have got a worthy gift, which we might awake to life and use it.
anthropomorphic human dinosaur as a black person by ZelrikAnnual Collective Mind by Shari3Dfashion monkey, city, 4k by BacababAI may see humans in more different forms: so, so, or so!!
I must confess I am a perfectionist. It’s not easy, I know. Perhaps this trait stems from my childhood traumas. However, I believe imperfection is natural and necessary. In the following, I have added a paragraph for those interested who might like to read.
Let’s see how Plato argues this:
The “Imperfection Argument” (Phaedo 74-76)
This is an argument for the existence of Forms and our possession of a priori concepts. Plato bases the debate on the imperfection of sensible objects and our ability to make judgments about those sensible objects. (The Forms are supposed to be the perfect objects that the sensible only imperfectly approximate).
The argument in Phaedo 74-76 concerns the concept of Equality, but it could equally well be given concerning several different concepts (any concept that might have some claim to being an a priori concept).
The argument tries to show that we cannot abstract the concept of Equality from our sense experience of equal objects. For;
We never experience (in sense-perception) objects that are really, precisely equal, and We must already have the concept of Equality to judge the things we encounter in sense-perception to be approximately, imperfectly, equal. The argument can be schematized as follows:
We perceive sensible objects to be F. But every sensible object is, at best, imperfectly F. That is, it is both F and not F (in some respect – shades of Heraclitus??). It falls short of being perfectly F. We are aware of this imperfection in the objects of perception. So, we perceive objects to be imperfectly F. To perceive something as imperfectly F, one must consider something perfectly F, something that the imperfectly F things fall short of. (For example, we have an idea of Equality that all sticks, stones, etc., only imperfectly exemplify.) So we have in mind something that is perfectly F. Thus, there is something that is perfectly F (e.g., Equality) that we have in mind in such cases. Therefore, there is such a thing as the F itself (e.g., the Equal itself), distinct from any sensible object.
I am getting older (does not everybody do this?!), though I feel this ageing more and more as I’m heading towards my seventieth of that day in which I’ve opened my eyes to the sun. That’s why one may contemplate deeply about religion and the purpose of life, striving to understand and grasp the concept of God, as I am daring to do today.
When I became acquainted with C.G. Jung, I realized that I had found a guide who could help me think more clearly to find answers to my questions. I don’t know about you, but I believe that when ageing, one feels more solitude and begins to enjoy it. However, it’s important to note that he is not a saviour but rather a teacher who can point the way and offer valuable insights through his writings, particularly in his Red Book.
For me, the Red Book by Carl Jung is like the holy book. I may say it is like the Bible for a Christian, or the Koran for a Muslim, and the same as the Torah for a Jew, etc. The difference between them is that Dr Jung never tries to make statements of one particular God as their messenger but tries to define how a god can be definite! Here comes the concept: Supreme Meaning! The melting of sense and nonsense. And I think that this aspect needs a broad view.
The supreme meaning is great and small; it is as wide as the space of the starry Heaven and as narrow as the cell of the living body. C.G. Jung, The Red Book: Liber Novus.
I present you a small part, a page, of his words of knowledge on this concept. I hope it opens one or more doors in your life as it did for mine.
The spirit of the depths took my understanding and all my knowledge and placed them at the service of the inexplicable and the paradoxical. He rubbed me of speech and wrote me for everything that was not in his service, namely the melting together of sense and nonsense, which produces the supreme meaning. But the supreme meaning is the path, the way and the bridge to what is to come. That is the God yet to come. It is not the coming God himself, but his image which appears in the supreme meaning. (1)
God is an image, and those who worship him must worship him in the image of the supreme meaning. The supreme meaning is not a meaning and not an absurdity; it is image and force in one, magnificence and force together.
The supreme meaning is the beginning and the end. It is the bridge of going across and fulfilment. (2)
The other Gods died of their temporality, yet the supreme meaning never dies; it turns into meaning and then into absurdity, and out of the fire and blood of their collision, the supreme meaning rises up rejuvenated anew.
The image of God has a shadow. The supreme meaning is real and casts a shadow. For what can be actually corporeal and have no shadow?
The shadow is nonsense. It lacks force and has no continued existence through itself. But nonsense is the inseparable and undying brother of the supreme meaning.
Like plants, so men also grow, some in the light, others in the shadows. There are many who need the shadows and not the light.
The image of God throws a shadow that is just as great as itself.
The supreme meaning is great and small; it is as wide as the space of starry Heaven and as narrow as the cell of the living body.
1- In Transformations and Symbol of the Libido (1912), Jung interpreted God as a symbol of the libido (CW B, §111). In this subsequent work, Jund laid great emphasis on the distinction between the God image and the metaphysical existence of God (cf. passages added to the revised retitled 1952 edition, Symbols of Transformation, CW 5, § 95)
2- The terms Hinübergehen (going across, passing over), Übergang (transition), Untergang (down-going, downfall), and Brücke (bridge) feature in Nietzsche’s Zarathustra in relation to the passage from man to the Übermensch (superman). For example, “What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a goal; what can be loved in man is that he is a “going-across” and a “downfall”. //I love those who do not know how to live except their lives be a “downfall”, for they are those who are going over”(tr. R. Hollingdale [Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1984], p. 44, tr. mod; words are asunderlined in Jung’s copy).
3 Elements to the Egyptian concept of the soul: Ka, Ba, and Akh .___ ((Ka)) is the life force or spiritual double of the person. The royal Ka symbolized a pharaoh’s right to rule___((Ba)) is represented as a human-headed bird that leaves the body when a person dies.___((Akh)) was a concept of the dead that varied over the long history of ancient Egyptian belief, was associated with thought, but not as an action of the mind; rather, it was intellect as a living entity.
“May it see my corpse; may it rest on my mummy, Which will never be destroyed or perish.” PAPYRUS OF ANI, New Kingdom, Dynasty XVIII, Collection of The British Museum.
Our topic in this article is the Ba, the master of soul and body, and we have the chance to read an excellent interview by Marie Grillot with brilliant Michèle Juret and an introduction of her book about the secret of this bird and all we can get to know about it.
Inherkaou and his “ba”, represented in the burial chamber of the tomb of this team leader for the Master of the Deux-Terres TT 359 – Deir el-Medina – 20th dynasty – Ramses III Ramses IV “The ba-bird, Second Life in Ancient Egypt” by Michèle Juret – published by Books on Demand
A graduate of the École du Louvre and curator of the Montgeron Museum, Michèle Juret is notably “the” biographer of the Egyptologist Etienne Drioton, the last French director of the Egyptian Antiquities Service.
With her new publication: “The Ba-bird, Second Life in Ancient Egypt”, she devotes herself to a theme that is particularly dear to her since it was, from 2002, the subject of her research dissertation. Driven by her interest and passion for this entity flying “between two worlds”, she has never stopped researching and “taming” its multiple and diverse representations… Evoked in several chapters of the “Book of the Dead”, the ba-bird is found on the walls of tombs, on coffins, papyri, steles, statues, offering tables, or even on pectorals and amulets… As meticulously as it is applied, this well-documented study allows us to understand better this conception of “ba” so intimately – and specifically – linked to ancient Egypt…
Michèle Juret, author of “The Ba-bird, Second Life in Ancient Egypt” published by Books on Demand in May 2022
MG-EA: To understand what a “ba-bird” is, we must certainly first understand the importance of this “ba” entity in the conception of the personality of the ancient Egyptians.
Michèle Juret: First of all, I would like to thank you, Marie Grillot, for this interview, which allows us to discuss the essentials of this work, namely the observation of the iconography of the ba in the light of the funerary texts. As you say, it is first necessary to understand the importance of this fundamental entity, a guarantee of survival.
For the ancient Egyptians, the individual is made up of various elements: The body, immobilized by death, will remain in the grave. Ka, the vital force, draws its energy from food. The Akh, celestial spirit, magical power, can be beneficial or evil. The shadow will enjoy a certain independence. We commonly translate the ba by the word soul, although the concept is much more complex. An important element is that it is of divine nature. The Alter-ego of the deceased is essential to his survival.
MG-EA: The ba-bird generally presents itself as a composite, anthropo-cephalous being, that is to say, with a human head and a bird’s body: when did it appear, in this form, in the iconography?
Michèle Juret: This half-avian/half-human appearance is the culmination of a slow evolution. From the Old Kingdom, the king’s ba, named in the Pyramid Texts, appears in hieroglyphic writing as a wader with a loop at the base of the neck. In Middle Kingdom texts, it is seen as a bird with the head of the living (human) without this image appearing in the writing. Finally, some amulets and masks decorated with feathers date from this period, and then the rishi sarcophagi will become milestones towards this figure of an anthropo-cephalous bird that we will commonly encounter from the New Kingdom onwards.
Irynefer and her “ba”, represented in the burial chamber of the tomb of this servant in the Place of Truth. TT 290 – Deir el-Medina – 19th dynasty – Ramesses II
MG-EA: Indispensable to the survival of the being that death has immobilized the ba-bird, he enjoys total freedom… He can enter and leave the grave in, you write, “a moving interdependence with the deceased”? He thus becomes the guarantor of his “post-mortem” future?
Michèle Juret: Indeed, Le ba enjoys total freedom. He will be able to leave the tomb, climb into Ra’s boat, benefit from its rays, drink the regenerating water of the tree goddess, benefit from the food offerings… Every evening, he will rejoin the body of his deceased; their survival depends on their reunion… Observing this iconography transports us into an almost magical world. We follow the entity in its daily comings and goings, alone or accompanying its deceased, maintaining its own life through food offerings or providing this food for the deceased’s ka. Finally, it unites with it in an interdependent guarantee of survival.
Bird-ba of Youya – painted limestone – 18th dynasty – from his tomb KV 46 Cairo Museum – CG 51176
MG-EA: Evoked and invoked in several chapters of the Book of the Dead, associated with the cycle of the sun, it is itself endowed with several “becomings”?
Michèle Juret: Yes, in fact, several futures are possible for him. We have just mentioned the best and most probable, the second life as an alter-ego of the deceased. Let us remember that the post-mortem fate of the ancient Egyptians is complex. A solar destiny will allow him to follow Ra in his boat or a stellar one among the stars, and finally, an Osirian destiny will allow him to cultivate the fields of Ialou. How can we reconcile these notions, which seem contradictory? The ba-bird becomes the answer to this question and the link between these different post-mortem futures. His destiny is divine.
But he could be led towards another destiny linked to that of the heart, a very important element.
The texts also evoke the presence of the ba at the weighing of the heart, a scene of judgment also called psychostasis. In chapter 125 of the Book of the Dead, it is attested through Thoth’s words: “I have examined the heart of Osiris Ani while his ba presents himself, stands as a witness about him…” In the vignette from this papyrus, we see the ba-bird witnessing this judgment. Its future is linked to that of the heart. The Book of Caves gives a version of its annihilation if the heart is declared guilty. While this would be separated from the deceased and thrown into one cauldron, the ba and the shadow would be thrown into another. The deceased would be among the damned, those who no longer have a soul. Like that of the body, the destiny of the ba is linked to that of the heart key of life.
“Birds-ba” represented at the bottom right of this scene from the burial chamber of the tomb of Nebenmâat. servant of the Place of Truth – TT 219 – Deir el-Medina – 19th dynasty
MG-EA: Your research, targeted on the “ba-birds” of individuals from the New Kingdom, was based on a vast literature and the study of numerous of their representations: their iconography is rich and evolving, and the location where they take place, always full of meaning?
Michèle Juret: Yes, as you say, these representations are loaded with meaning. It was important to bring the iconography closer to the funerary texts. There, we find the reading keys. The analysis of the documentation fully reflects the different situations they express. Furthermore, the location of certain scenes on the tombs’ walls was not chosen randomly but determined according to the theme evoked.
MG-EA: You not only studied their adornments and hairstyle, but to refine their description and relate them to existing species, you also had to develop ornithological talents?
Michèle Juret: Ornaments and hairstyles allowed me, in some instances, to put forward a possible desire to identify with the deceased. Furthermore, observing the bodily appearance of these birds, another aspect of this study, highlighted different options in the choice of species depending on the chapters of the Book of the Dead that they illustrate. This observation proved fascinating, and I ventured to put forward some hypotheses. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the “ornithologist talents” you mentioned. A specialist from the Natural History Museum helped me a lot with this identification.
Raya and his “ba”, represented in the tomb of this Fourth Prophet of Amon TT 159 – Dra Abou el-Naga – 19th dynasty
MG-EA: Would you not be tempted, now, to take an interest in the “ba-birds” of the pharaohs and queens?
Michèle Juret: Obviously, it’s a subject that also deserves to be addressed. In this study, I was tempted to quickly evoke the ba-bird of Tutankhamun and especially that of Queen Nefertari, an extraordinary example. On the one hand, its extremely composite body appearance combines both falconiform and anseriform characteristics, two birds with solar connotations. On the other hand, its profile, resembling that of the queen and its crown, the remains of a vulture surmounted by the modius, reinforce this idea of a desire to identify the ba-bird with its deceased.
Nefertari and her “ba”, represented in the antechamber of the queen’s tomb TT 66 – Deir el-Medina – 19th dynasty – Ramesses II
This iconography fully reflects the importance of the ba in the Egyptian’s concerns for his post-mortem future. It will also be able to completely replace itself and become, in its place, as a substitute, the active element. Survival is in him. This is perfectly expressed on the stele of Neferhotep, which caught the attention of Etienne Drioton…
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