Symbols & Sacred Tools

Green feldspar (or green jasper) was the preferred material for the heart scarab amulet — the critical amulet inscribed with Chapter 30B of the Book of the Dead and placed over the heart of the mummy. The green color connected the amulet to Osiris (whose green skin represents vegetation and resurrection) and to the regenerative power of the natural world. Green feldspar was believed to possess inherent protective heka. The rubric of Chapter 30B specifies: 'Let there be made a scarab of green stone... place it at the heart of the person.' The material choice was not decorative but therapeutic — the stone's color and properties were essential to the amulet's magical function (Book of the Dead, Chapter 30B; Egyptian Magic).

The carnelian heart amulet (Chapter 29B of the Book of the Dead, titled 'Another Chapter of a heart of carnelian') was placed on the mummy's chest to protect and strengthen the heart — the seat of consciousness and moral character — during the journey through the Duat. Carnelian, a red-orange stone, was associated with the blood of Isis and with solar energy. Its warm color symbolized vitality and life-force. The vignette shows the deceased sitting on a chair before his heart, which rests on a stand. This amulet worked in conjunction with the heart scarab to ensure the heart remained with its owner and did not betray him at the Weighing (Book of the Dead, Chapter 29B).

The ankh — sometimes called the 'key of life' — is the Egyptian hieroglyph for 'life' (ankh) and one of the most recognized symbols from Kemet. In temple reliefs, the Netjeru are depicted holding the ankh or offering it to the pharaoh's nostrils, bestowing the breath of divine life. Its looped cross shape has been variously interpreted as representing a sandal strap, a mirror, or the union of male and female principles. It appears in the hands of virtually every major deity and was used as a powerful amulet ensuring life in both this world and the Duat. The ankh is inseparable from the concept of eternal existence.

The uraeus is the rearing cobra worn on the brow of the pharaoh and of solar deities, representing the goddess Wadjet — the divine fire-spitting serpent of Lower Egypt. It was understood to spit flames at the enemies of the king and of cosmic order, acting as a living weapon of protection. The uraeus embodied the fierce, protective aspect of the solar eye — the same force that manifested as Sekhmet or the Eye of Ra. No legitimate pharaoh appeared without the uraeus, and its presence declared that the king ruled under divine protection and carried the fire of the sun upon his brow (Pyramid Texts; Egyptian Magic).

The 'Nine Bows' (Pesdjet Pesedju) is the collective term for the traditional enemies of Kemet — the foreign peoples and chaotic forces that threatened the ordered world. They were depicted as bound captives beneath the pharaoh's feet, on the soles of his sandals, and on footstools, so that the king literally trampled chaos with every step. The Nine Bows represented not only historical enemies but the cosmic forces of Isfet — all that opposed Ma'at. Their subjugation by the pharaoh was a ritual act of maintaining cosmic order, not mere political aggression (Pyramid Texts; royal iconography; temple inscriptions).

Apep (Greek: Apophis) is the great serpent of primordial chaos and dissolution who dwells in the Duat, seeking each night to swallow Ra's barque and extinguish the sun forever. He embodies Isfet — the antithesis of Ma'at — representing non-being, entropy, and the constant threat of uncreation. Apep is never permanently defeated; he must be fought every night without fail. His ridge of earth in the Duat is 450 cubits in length, and he fills it with his undulations. The spells for repelling Apep constitute some of the most powerful heka in Kemetic literature (Book of Am-Tuat; Book of the Dead, Chapter 39).

Tefnut — the Netjert of moisture, dew, and rain — is the daughter of Ra-Atum and twin sister of Shu. Together they were the first divine pair produced by the creator god. Tefnut is associated with the life-giving moisture without which the dry land of Kemet would be uninhabitable. She is sometimes depicted with the head of a lioness, connecting her to the Eye of Ra tradition. In one myth, Tefnut becomes angry and withdraws to Nubia; only the combined efforts of Thoth and Shu can coax her return, and her homecoming brings rain and renewal to the parched land (Pyramid Texts; Myth of the Distant Goddess).

The pschent — the Double Crown — combines the White Crown of Upper Egypt (hedjet) and the Red Crown of Lower Egypt (deshret) into a single royal headdress symbolizing the pharaoh's sovereignty over the unified Two Lands. The unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under a single ruler was the foundational political and mythological event of Kemetic civilization. Every pharaoh's assumption of the Double Crown re-enacted this original unification, and the crown itself embodied the principle that Ma'at requires the harmonious joining of distinct parts into an ordered whole (Pyramid Texts; royal iconography).

The benben stone is the primordial mound that first rose from the waters of Nun at the moment of creation, upon which Ra-Atum stood and began the act of cosmic creation. It was the first dry land, the first solid thing in a universe of formless water. The benben stone was the prototype for the pyramidion — the gilded capstone of obelisks and pyramids — and was venerated at the great temple of Ra at Iunu (Heliopolis). The obelisk itself is an elongated benben, reaching toward the sun and commemorating the first sunrise. It represents the eternal moment when order emerged from chaos.

Ra manifests in three solar forms across the day's arc. As Khepri, the scarab-headed Neter, he is the rising dawn — self-created, rolling the sun into being just as the scarab rolls its dung-ball. At noon he is Ra-Horakhty, the falcon-crowned lord at his zenith of power. At dusk he becomes Atum, the completed and aged sun returning to rest. These are not three separate gods but three phases of one divine solar cycle, a profound expression of multiplicity-within-unity (Pyramid Texts, Utterances 527 and 600).

The djed pillar — often called the 'backbone of Osiris' — is one of the most ancient symbols of stability and endurance in Kemetic tradition. Associated with both Osiris and Ptah, it represents the resurrection of the god, the re-establishment of cosmic order, and the enduring strength of Ma'at. During the great Khoiak festival, priests ceremonially raised the djed from horizontal to vertical, an act that re-established stability and symbolically brought Osiris back to upright life.

In the Demotic Magical Papyrus of London and Leiden, the lamp is far more than a tool: it is addressed as a living sacred medium that 'giveth vision of the things above' and 'the things below.' That teaches us that in Kemetic thought, matter can be ritually awakened so that a humble object becomes a meeting-place between human sight and the hidden world of the Netjeru.

Yes, dear one—the vulture talisman does exactly that in Brown’s account, for it drew the motherly protection of Isis and was also believed to grant power and wisdom through the restoration of Horus. It reminds us that in the Kemetic way, true protection is not only shelter from harm, but being shaped into a soul wise enough to walk under divine care.

In the Vision of Hermes, the guiding voice is described as "the voice of light," awakening inner music and revealing the soul's true nature. In Kemetic and Hermetic theology, light points to divine intelligence, awakening, and the presence of Neter shining through the human soul.

Abu Simbel is a pair of massive rock-cut temples in southern Nubia, carved during the reign of Ramesses II (thirteenth century BCE). The Great Temple features four colossal seated statues of Ramesses, each sixty-seven feet tall, flanking the entrance. Twice a year, sunlight penetrates the temple to illuminate the statues of Ra-Horakhty, Amun, and Ramesses in the innermost sanctuary — while Ptah, the god associated with the underworld, remains in shadow. Abu Simbel was both a statement of imperial power and a sophisticated solar alignment — architecture, theology, and astronomy working as one.

In Horapollo's Hieroglyphics, the scarab represents the 'only begotten,' generation, a father, the world, and man. It is self-produced, unconceived by a female. The male shapes dung into a sphere like the world, rolls it from east to west mirroring the cosmos, and buries it for twenty-eight days -- the moon's cycle. On the twenty-ninth day, the ball is opened in water and new life emerges.

According to Horapollo, the Egyptians depicted a year by drawing Isis, because the star Sothis (Sirius), called Isis in Egyptian, governed the calendar. Its rising foretold all the events of the coming year. Alternatively, they drew a palm branch, since the palm tree produces one new branch at each new moon, completing twelve branches in a year.

The primary symbols of Ra include: solar disk (aten) with uraeus cobra, the Barque of Millions of Years (Mandjet by day, Mesektet by night), the ankh, the was-scepter, the eye of Ra, the obelisk (benben stone), the falcon crown.