Chapter One
IN SEARCH OF PARADISE

May I remind the reader that the following pages are excerpts only.

"There was a time - our ancient scriptures tell us - when Immortality was within the grasp of Mankind.

"A golden age it was, when Man lived with his Creator in the Garden of Eden - Man tending the wonderful orchard, God taking strolls in the afternoon breeze.

 

"And the Lord God caused to grow from the ground every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for eating, and the Tree of Life was in the orchard, and the Tree of Knowing good and evil. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it was parted and became four principal streams: the name of the first is Pishon ... and of the second Gihon ... and of the third Tigris ... and the fourth river is the Euphrates."

"Of the fruit of every tree were Adam and Eve permitted to eat - except of the Tree of Knowing. But once they did (tempted by the Serpent) - the Lord God grew concerned over the matter of Immortality:

Then did the Lord Yahweh say:

Behold, the Adam has become as one of us
to know good and evil;
And now might he not put forth his hand
and partake also of the Tree of Life,
and eat, and live forever?

"And the Lord Yahweh expelled the Adam
from the Garden of Eden ...
And he placed at the east of the Garden of Eden
the Cherubim, and the Flaming Sword which revolveth,
to guard the way to the Tree of Life.

"So was Man cast out of the very place where eternal life was within his grasp. But though barred from it, he has never ceased to remember it, to yearn for it, and to try to reach for it.

"Ever since that expulsion from Paradise, heroes have gone to the ends of Earth in search for Immortality; a selected few were given a glimpse of it; and simple folk claimed to have chanced upon it. Throughout the ages, the Search for Paradise was the realm of the individual; but earlier in this millennium, it was launched as the national enterprise of mighty kingdoms.

"The New World was discovered - so we have been led to believe - when explorers went seeking a new, maritime route to India and her wealth.

"No sooner had Columbus and his men set foot in what they all thought were the islands off India ("The West Indies"), than they combined the exploration of the new lands with a search for the legendary Fountain whose waters "made old men young again." Captured Indians were questioned, even tortured, by the Spaniards, so that they would reveal the secret location of the fountain.

".... Titan’s Love Sacred and Love Profane, was created at about the time the Spaniards were in their quest in the Indies. As everyone well knew, the Fountain in the paintings hinted at the ultimate lovemaking, the Fountain whose waters make possible "all manly performances" through Eternal Youth.

" .... Many researchers, such as Ponce de Leon’s Fountain of Youth: History of a Geographical Myth by Leonardo Olschki, have established that "the Fountain of Youth" was the most popular and characteristic expression of the emotion and expectations which agitated the conquerors of the New World. Undoubtedly, Ferdinand the king of Spain was one of those so agitated, so expectant for the definite news.

" .... In March 1513, Ponce de Leon set out northward, to look for the island of Bimini. The public excuse for the expedition was a search for "gold and other metals"; the true aim was to find the Fountain of Eternal Youth. This the seamen soon learnt as they came upon not one island but hundreds of islands in the Bahamas....They drank waters of endless springs" (sailing along Florida’s coast, as Ponce de Leon named it), " but none seemed to work the expected miracle.

" .... The mission’s failure appears to have hardly dampened the conviction that the Fountain was undoubtedly there: it only had to be discovered.

".... The conviction that the Fountain existed somewhere on the islands was so strong that in 1514 - the year after Ponce de Leon’s unfruitful mission - Peter Martyr (in his Second Decade) informed Pope Leo X....

".... In 1521, the Spanish Crown sent Ponce de Leon on a renewed search, this time focusing on Florida. There can be no doubt regarding the true purpose of his mission: writing only a few decades later the Spanish historian Antonio de Herrera y Tordecillas stated this in his "Historia General de las Indias": He, (Ponce de Leon) went seeking that Sacred Fountain, so renowned among the Indians, as well as the river whose waters rejuvenated the aged. He was intent on finding the spring of Bimini and the river in Florida, of which the Indians of Cuba and Hispaniola "affirmed that old persons bathing themselves in them became young again."

"Instead of Eternal Youth, Ponce de Leon found death by an Indian arrow.

".... The Holy Scriptures, pagan beliefs, and the documented tales of great travellers, all combined to affirm that there was indeed a place whose waters (or fruit’s nectar) could bestow Immortality by keeping one forever young.

Mr. Sitchin proceeds by explaining the tales from the Celts, Greeks, Romans, segments from the Koran about a tale about Moses, where a dead fish on falling on certain waters, in the "junction of the two streams" got its life back and swam away.

Moses tales from the Koran were interchanged by popular belief with Alexander the Great, and Alexander remains from his first mentioning to the end of this chapter as the main character searching for the Fountain of Youth. He travels to numerous places and encounters numerous beings.

Passing to next chapter, there is a recount of Alexander’s adventures in his short lived life.

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Chapter Two
THE IMMORTAL ANCESTORS
 

"The short life of Alexander the Macedonian - he died at age thirty-three in Babylon - was filled with conquest, adventure, exploration; a burning desire to reach the Ends of Earth, to unravel divine mysteries.

"It was not an aimless search. Son of Queen Olympias and presumably of her husband King Philip II, he was tutored by the philosopher Aristotle in all manner of ancient wisdom. Then he witnessed quarreling and divorce between his parents, leading to the flight of his mother with the young Alexander. There was reconciliation, then murder; the assassination of Philip led to the crowning of Alexander when twenty years old. His early military expeditions brought him to Delphi, sit of the renowned oracle. There he heard the first of several prophecies predicting for him fame - but a very short life.

"Undaunted Alexander set out - as the Spaniards did nearly 1,800 years later - to find the Waters of Life. To do so, he had to open the way to the East. It was from there that the gods had come: the great Zeus.... Aphrodite.... Poseidon.... Athena, who carried to Greece the olive tree from the lands of western Asia. There, too, according to the Greek historians, whose writings Alexander studied, were the Waters which kept one for ever young."

The tales which enriched Alexander’s life are many, and several were the personalities he met.

"Was the episode of the Cave of the Gods - as the other episodes in the history of Alexander - pure fiction, mere myth, or perhaps embelished tales based on historical fact?

"Was there a Queen Candace, a royal city named Shamar, a world conqueror named Sesonchusis? In truth, the names meant little to students of antiquity until relatively recently. If these were names of Egyptian royal personages or of a mystical province of Egypt, they were as obscured by time as the monuments were obscured by the encroaching sands; rising above the sands, the pyramids and the Sphinx only broadened the enigma; the hieroglyphic picture-words, undecipherable, only confirmed that there were secrets not to be unlocked. The tales from antiquity , passed on via the Greeks and Romans, dissolved into legends; eventually, they faded into obscurity"

"It was only when Napoleon conquered Egypt in 1798, that Europe began to rediscover Egypt....Then, near the village of Rosetta.... The key was found to unlock the language and inscriptions of ancient Egypt: its records of Pharaonic feats, the glorifications of its gods.

"There indeed was a Queen Candace. The hieroglyphic inscriptions (discovered later between 1912 and 1914) revealed, that at the very beginning of the Nubian kingdom, it was ruled by a wise and benevolent queen. Her name was Candace.... And further south of Meroe, within this kingdom’s domain, there was a city named Sennar - possibly the Shamar referred to in the Alexander tale."

Sesonchusis, was known by various names, "Kosh" "Senusert" "Sesostris."

"Sesonchusis did indeed exist. His Egyptian name meant "He whose births live." For, by virtue of being a Pharaoh of Egypt, he had every right to join the company of the gods, and live forever.

"The authors or editors of the histories of Alexander relate various incidents in which Alexander encountered Sesonchusis; Elijah and Enoch, or just Enoch. The incident of Sesonchusis could only be guessed, and the manner of his translation to Immortality is not described. Not so with Elijah - the companion of Enoch in the Shining Temple, according to one Alexander version."

".... Of him, the Scriptures say that he did not die on Earth, for he "went up into heaven in a whirlwind....

And it came to pass when the Lord
would take up Elijah into Heaven by a Whirlwind,
that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal.
And Elijah said unto Elisha:
"Tarry here, I pray thee,
for the Lord has sent me to Beth-El."
And Elisha said unto him:
"As the Lord liveth, and by thy life,
I will not leave thee."
So they went down to Beth-El.

"And the sons of the prophets that were at Beth-El
came forth to Elisha, and said unto him:
"Knowest thou that the Lord will, this day,
take the master from above thee?"
And he said: "Yes I know it too, but keep silent."

As Elijah and Elisha, who always refused to part from his master, approached the Jordan, plus other 50 disciples who stopped and stood apart,

"And Elijah took his mantle
and rolled it together,
and struck the waters.
And the waters parted hither and thither,
and the two of them crossed over on dry ground.

"Once they were across, Elisha asked that Elijah imbue him with the divine spirit; but before he could get an answer,

"As they continued to walk on and to talk,
there appeared a chariot of fire,
and horses of fire, and the two were separated.
And Elijah went up into Heaven,
in a Whirlwind.
And Elisha saw,
and he cried out:
"My father! My father!
The Chariot of Israel and its horsemen!"
and he saw it no more."

" .... The encounter with Enoch, which the histories of Alexander claimed for him, introduced into the Search for Immortality an "Immortal Ancestor" specifically mentioned in the Old and New Testaments alike, the legends of whose ascent to the heavens predated the Bible and were recorded in their own right."

Besides other writings which Mr. Sitchin mentions at this point in his book, there are:

" .... Various Christian writings throughout the centuries also contained similar hints or references, and as it turned out, there have in fact circulated since the second century B.C. several versions of a Book of Enoch. When the manuscripts were studied in the nineteenth century, scholars concluded that there were basically two sources. The first, identified as I Enoch and called the Ethiopic Book of Enoch, is an Ethiopic translation of a previous Greek translation of an original work in Hebrew (or Aramaic). The other, identified as II Enoch, is a Slavonic translation from an original written in Greek whose full title was The Book of the Secrets of Enoch.

Here the story of the ascension of Enoch to Heaven is told, the encounter with the two beings who took him in their wings and placed him on the clouds and the clouds moved.

In the First Heaven he saw a very great sea, greater than the earthly sea.

The Second, was a gloomy Heaven.

In the Third Heaven "he was shown a garden with a goodliness of its appearance; beautiful and fragrant trees and fruits.

"In the midst therein there is a Tree of Life - in that place on which the God rests when he comes into Paradise.

"Going further up, to the Fourth Heaven, Enoch could see the Luminaries and various wondrous creatures, and the Host of the Lord.

"In the Fifth Heaven he saw many "hosts."

"In the Sixth, "bands of angels who study the revolutions of the stars."

"Then he reached the Seventh Heaven, where the greatest angels hurried about and where he saw the Lord - "from afar" - sitting on his throne.

"The two winged men and their moving cloud placed Enoch at the limits of the Seventh Heaven, and left, whereupon the Lord sent the archangel Gabriel to fetch Enoch into his presence.

"Written both as a personal testament and as a historic review, the Ethiopic Book of Enoch, whose earliest title was probably The Words of Enoch, describes his journeys to Heaven as well as to the four corners of Earth.

"...."towards the north ends of Earth," he "saw there a great and glorious device.".... "And he saw there, as well as at the western ends of Earth, "three portals of heaven open in the heaven" in each place, through which hail and snow, cold and frost blew in.

"And hence I went to the south to the ends of the Earth, "and through the portals of Heaven there blow in the dew and rain. And thence he went to see the eastern portals, through which the stars of Heaven pass and run their course.

"But the principal mysteries, and secrets of the past and the future, were shown to Enoch as he went to "the middle of the Earth," and to the east and to the west thereof. The "middle of the Earth" was the site of the future Holy Temple in Jerusalem; on his journey east, Enoch reached the Tree of Knowledge; and going west, he was shown the Tree of Life. After many other stories about his travels and learning at the Heavenly Abode, Enoch was transported back to Earth to do some teaching, in hiding.

"But when the Deluge neared, he wrote down his teachings and advised his great-grandson Noah to be righteous and worthy of salvation.

"After that, Enoch was once again, "raised aloft from among those who dwell on Earth. He was raised aloft on the Chariot of the Spirits, and his ’Name’ vanished among them."

Alexander took part in great battles.... but he also travelled

in Search for the Water of Life, or Fountain of Youth.

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Chapter Three
THE PHARAOH’S JOURNEY TO THE AFTERLIFE
 

"The adventures of Alexander and his search for the Immortal Ancestors clearly comprised elements which simulated their experiences: caverns, angels, subterranean fires, fiery horses and Chariots of Fire. But it is equally clear that in the centuries preceding the Christian era, it was believed (by Alexander or by his historians or by both) that if one wished to attain Immortality, one had to emulate the Egyptian Pharaohs.

".... Egyptian traditions held that in times immemorial "Gods of Heaven" came to Earth from the Celestial Disk (represented by a winged globe). When Egypt was inundated by waters, "a very great god who came forth (to Earth) in the earliest times" arrived in Egypt and literally raised it from under the waters and mud, by damming the waters of the Nile and undertaking extensive dyking and land reclamation works (it was therefore that Egypt was nicknamed "The Raised Land"). This olden god was named PTAH - "The Developer." He was considered to have been a great scientist, a master engineer and architect, the chief Craftsman of the gods, who even had a hand in creating and shaping Man. His staff was frequently depicted as a graduated stick - very much like the graduated rod which surveyors employ for field measuring nowadays."

"The Egyptians believed that Ptah eventually retired south, where he could continue to control the waters of the Nile with sluices he had installed in a secret cavern, located at the first cataract of the Nile (the site of today’s Aswan Dam). But before leaving Egypt, he built its first hallowed city and named it AN, in honor of the God of the Heavens (the biblical On, whom the Greeks called Heliopolis). There he installed as Egypt’s first Divine ruler his own son RA (so named in honor of the Celestial Globe).

"Ra, a great "God of Heaven and Earth," caused a special shrine to be built at An; it housed the Ben-Ben - a "secret object" in which Ra had purportedly come down to Earth from the heavens.

"In time Ra divided the kingdom between the gods OSIRIS and SETH. But the sharing of the kingdom between the two divine brothers "did not work."

"... The place of Osiris on the throne of Egypt was taken over by his son HORUS.

" .... Growing up, Horus challenged Seth for the throne. The struggle ranged far and wide, the gods pursuing each other in the skies. Horus attacked Seth from a Nar, a term which in the ancient Near East meant "Fiery Pillar".... Depictions from pre-dynastic showed this celestial chariot as a long, cylindrical object with a funnel-like tail and a bulkhead from which rays are spewed out, a kind of a celestial submarine. In front the Nar had two headlights or "eyes," which according to the Egyptian tales changed color from blue to red.

The battle ends with Seth losing his testicles, and Horus losing an eye.

"The great gods called a truce and met in council. After some wavering and indecision, the Lord of Earth ruled in favor of giving the throne of Egypt to Horus, declaring him the legitimate heir in the Ra-Osiris line of succession. Thereafter, Horus was usually depicted with the attributes of a falcon, while Seth was shown as an Asiatic deity, symbolized by the ass, the burden animal of the nomads.

Kingship was established then in the Two Lands (Upper and Lower Egypt) for its perpetual divine connection,

"For every Pharaoh was deemed a successor of Horus and the occupier of the throne of Osiris.

After a period of chaos and decline:

" .... Finally, circa 3200 B.C., a "dynastic race" arrived in Egypt and a man named Menes ascended the throne of a reunited Egypt. It was then that the gods granted Egypt civilization and what we now call Religion. The kingship that was begun by Menes continued through twenty-six dynasties of Pharaohs until the Persian domination in 525 B.C., and then through Greek and Roman times (when the famed Cleopatra reigned).

Mr. Sitchin explains the circle of gods and god-like Pharaohs that Alexander longed to join. Among them "AMEN "The Hidden One" the very god Ammon whom Alexander had searched out as his true divine father. As supreme deity he was worshipped as Amen-Ra, "The Hidden Ra"; and it is not clear whether he was the very same Ra but now somehow unseen or "hidden," or another deity."

" .... The belief was that Ra and the other immortal gods managed to live forever because he kept rejuvenating itself. Accordingly, the Pharaohs bore names meaning, for example, "He Who Repeats Births" and "Repeater of Births." The gods rejuvenated themselves by partaking of divine food and beverage at their abode.

" .... The ancient incantations appealed to the gods to share with the deceased king their divine food...."And more specifically, as in a text for the pyramid of King Pepi:

Give thou sustenance to this King Pepi
From thy eternal sustenance;
Thy everlasting beveredge.

"The departed Pharaoh hoped to draw his everlasting sustenance in the celestial realm of Ra, on the "Imperishable Star," there grew the "Plant of Life."

" .... As supreme ruler of the Two Lands of Egypt, he enjoyed the best possible life on Earth; and the resurrection among the gods was an even more attractive prospect. Besides, it was only his earthly body that was to be embalmed and entombed. For the Egyptians believed that every person possessed a Ba akin to what we call "soul," which rose heavenward like a bird after death; and a Ka - variable translated Double, Ancestral Spirit, Essence, Personality - through which from the Pharaoh was translated into his Afterlife. Samuel Mercer, in his introduction to the Pyramid Texts, concluded that the Ka stood for mortal’s personification of a god. In other words, the concept implied the existence in Man of a divine element, a celestial or godly Double who could resume life in the Afterlife.

Mr. Sitchin then explains the long and challenging road the departed king had to traverse, and the elaborated ceremonial preparations.

" ... The thousands of verses that make up the Pyramid Texts seem just to be a collection of repetitious, unconnected incantations, appeals to the gods or exaltations of the king. To make some sense of the material, scholars have developed theories about shifting theologies in ancient Egypt, a conflict and then a merger between a "Solar Religion" and a "sky religion," a priesthood of Ra and one of Osiris, and so on, pointing out that we deal with material that has been accumulated over millennia.

"The scholars who view the mass of verses as expression, of primitive mythologies, figments of the imaginations of people who covered in fear as the wind howled and the thunder roared and called these phenomena "gods" - the verses remain as puzzling and confusing as ever. But these verses all scholars agree, were extracted by the ancient scribes from older and apparently well-organized, cohesive and comprehensible scriptures.

".... The scholarly theories, however, leave unexplained the magical aspects of the information offered by these texts.

Bafflingly, an Eye of Horus is an object existing independently of him - an object into whose insides the king can enter, and which can change hues to blue and red as it is "powered." There exist self-propelled ferries, doors that open by themselves, unseen gods whose faces radiate a glow. In the Underworld, supposedly inhabited by spirits only "bridge girders" and "copper cables" are featured. And the most baffling aspect of all: Why, if the Pharaoh’s transfiguration takes him to the Underworld, do the texts claim that "the king is on his way to Heaven?

"Throughout, the verses indicate that the king is following the route of the gods, that he is crossing a lake the way a god had crossed it before, that he uses a barque that the god Ra had used, that he ascends "equipped as a god" as Osiris was, and so on and on. And the question arises: what if these texts were not primitive fantasies - mythology - but accounts of a simulated journey, wherein the deceased Pharaoh emulated what the gods had actually done? What if the texts, substituting the name of the king for that of a god, were copies of some much earlier scriptures that dealt not with the journeys of the Pharaohs, but with the journeys of the gods?

"One of the leading early Egyptologists, Gaston Maspero (L’Archeology Egyptienne and other works), judging by grammatical form and other evidence, suggested that the Pyramid Texts originated at the very beginning of Egyptian Civilization, perhaps even before they were written down hieroglyphically. J.H. Breasted has more recently concluded (Development of Religion and Thought in ancient Egypt) that "such older material existed, whether we possess it or not."

"He found in the texts information of civilization and events which enhances the veracity of the texts as conveyors of factual information and not of fantasy.

"Taken together, the texts and later illustrations describe a journey to a realm that begins above ground, that leads underground and that ends with an opening to the skies through which the gods - and the kings emulating them - were launched heavenward. Thus the hieroglyphic connotation combining a subterranean place with a celestial function.

" .... What, then, if the texts reflect a world which had indeed existed - what if the Pharaoh’s Journey to Immortality, even if only by emulation, indeed followed step by step actual journeys undertaken in prehistoric times?

"Let us follow in these footsteps, let us take the Route of the Gods."

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Chapter Four
THE STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN
 

" .... Having prepared the Pharaoh for his journey, the Shem priests now intone the gods to open for the king a path and a gateway. The divine messenger has arrived on the other side of the false door, ready to take the Pharaoh through the stone wall and launch him on his journey."

Crossing the Lake of Reeds

"He descends into the boat, like Ra,
on the shores of the Winding Watercourse.
The king rows in the Hanbu-boat;
He takes the helm toward the
Plain of "The Two that Bring Closer The Heavens,"
in the land beginning from the Lake of Reeds.

Leaving the land of Horus.... "The eastward place which he seeks to reach - though under the aegis of Ra - "is in the region of Seth." His goal is a mountainous area, the Mountains of the East...."the two mountains which stand in awe of Seth."

"Finally, the guards of the Land of Seth let the king proceed toward a mountain pass. The king’s sponsors make sure that he realizes the import of the moment:

Thou are now on the way to the high places
In the land of Seth.
In the land of Seth
Thou will be set in the high places,
On that high Tree of the Eastern Sky
On which the gods sit.

"The king has arrived at the Duat.

"The Duat was conceived as a completely enclosed Circle of the Gods, at the head-point of which there was an opening to the skies (symbolized by the goddess Nut) through which the Imperishable Star (symbolized by the Celestial Disk) could be reached.

"The Duat was divided into twelve divisions, variably described as fields, plains, walled circles, caverns or halls, beginning above ground and continuing underground. It took the departed king twelve hours to journey through this enchanted and awesome realm."

Many details are given in the book as the king passes through the first division. At the end of which he "encounters other companies of gods." "Come in peace," they say. He has arrived at the second division.

" .... Aided by the gods, the king passes safely through the second division and in the Third Hour arrives at Net-Asar the "Stream of Osiris." Similar in size to the second division, this third division is inhabited by "The Fighters." It is there that the four gods, who are in charge of the four cardinal points of the compass, are stationed.

"The pictorial description which accompanied the hieroglyphic texts surprisingly showed the Stream of Osiris as meandering its way from an agricultural area, through a chain of mountains, to where the stream divided into tributaries. There, watched by the legendary Phoenix birds, the Stairway to Heaven was situated; there, the Celestial Boat of Ra depicted as sitting atop of a mountain, or rising heavenward upon stream of fire.

"Here, the pace of prayers and Utterances increases again, the king invokes the "magical protectors," that this man of Earth may enter the Neter-Khert unmolested. The king is nearing the heart of the Duat; he is near the Amen-Ta, the "Hidden Place...."

May be given to me my Name
in the Great House of Two;
May in the House of Fire
my Name be granted.
In the night of computing years,
and of telling the months,
may I be a Divine Being,
may I sit at the east side of Heaven.
Let the god advance me from behind,
everything in his Name.

"The king is within sight of the "Mountain of Light."

He has reached the STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN.

"The Pyramid Texts said of the place that it was the "stairway in order to reach the heights." Its stairs were described as "the stairs to the sky, which are laid down for the king, that he may ascend thereon to the heavens." The hieroglyphic pictograph for the Stairway to Heaven was sometimes a single stairway (which was also cast in gold and worn as a charm), or more often a double stairway, as a step pyramid. This Stairway to Heaven was constructed by the gods of the city of An - the location of the principle temple of Ra - so that they, the gods, could be "united with the Above."

"The king’s goal is the Celestial Ladder, an Ascender which would actually carry him aloft. But to reach it in the House of Fire, The Great House of Two, he must enter the Amen-Ta the Hidden Land of Seker, God of the Wilderness.

"....When Ra himself had arrived at this entrance to the Hidden Place, "he performed the designs" - followed the procedures - "of the gods who are therein by means of his voice, without seeing them." But can the king’s voice alone achieve for him admission? The texts remind the challenger that only "he who knoweth the plan of the hidden shaftways which are in the Land of Seker," shall have the ability to journey through the Place of Underground Passages and eat the bread of the gods.

"Once again the king offers his credentials. "I am the Bull, a son of the ancestors of Osiris," he announces. Then the gods who sponsor him, pronounce in his behalf the crucial words of admission:

Admittance is not refused thee
At the gate of the Duat;
The folding doors of the Mountain of Light
Are opened to thee;
The bolts open to thee of themselves.
Thow treadest the Hall of the Two Truths;
The god who is in it greets thee.

" ....The Pharaoh was admitted into the subterranean world:

"The mouth of the earth opens for thee, the eastern door of heaven is open for thee," the gods of the Duat announce to the king. He is reassured that though he enters the mouth of the earth, it is indeed the Gateway to Heaven, the coveted eastern door.

"The journey in the fourth and following Hours leads the king through caverns and tunnels where gods of diverse functions are sometimes seen, sometimes only heard....

".... Mystified and terrified, the king moves on, toward "the pillars that reach the Heaven."

"The gods seen along the way are mostly organized in groups of twelve, and bear such epithets as "Gods of the Mountain," "Gods of the Mountain of the Hidden Land," or "The Holders of the Time of Life in the Hidden Land."

"The drawings that accompanied some of the ancient texts provide identification of these gods through the different scepters held by them, their particular headgear, or by depicting their animal attributes - hawk-headed, jakal-headed, lion-headed. Serpents also make an appearance, representing subterranean guards or servants of the gods in the Hidden Land.

After reading "The Stairway to Heaven" so far, those, like myself, who have read "The Twelfth Planet," would have already been reminded of the procedures of the original "gods" Anu, Enlil, Enki and the desire of Man to Ascend to Heaven’s abode without "testing death." For these gods enjoyed long (eternal) life, and possessed the "Fountain of Youth."

The graphics in the book speak along Mr. Sitchin’s words, I recommend then the book, it is a must to view and read, to totally appreciate the sober meanings.

There are also beautiful recollections of verses about the journey. As the King (Pepi) continues his way down....

"... The king sees "faceless gods" - gods whose faces cannot be seen. Offended or simply curious, he pleads with them:

Uncover your faces,
take off your head coverings,
when ye meet me;
For, behold, I [too] am a mighty god
come to be among you.

"But they do not heed his plea to show their faces...."

"Spiraling his way down, the king passes through a door and finds himself on the third, lowest level. He enters an antechamber which bears the emblem of the Celestial Disk, and is greeted by the god who is "The messenger of Heaven" and a goddess who wears the feathered emblem of Shu, "he who rested the sky upon the Stairway to Heaven" as called for by the formula in the Book of the Dead, the king proclaims:

Hail,
two children of Shu!
Hail,
children of the Place of the Horizon ...
May I ascend?
May I journey forth like Osiris?

"The answer must be positive, for the king is admitted by them...."

".... In the Fifth Hour the Pharaoh reaches the deepest subterranean parts which are the secret ways of Seker."

It is here that the Pharaoh although not being able to see Seker, "the drawings depict the god as a hawk-headed person, standing upon a serpent and holding two wings within a completely enclosed oval structure, deep underground, guarded by two sphinxes."

".... The king hears coming from it (the chamber) "a mighty noise, like that heard in the heights of the heavens when they are disturbed by a storm...."

Eventually, after much important symbolism is explained by Mr. Sitchin, the king is finally accepted to proceed:

"Speaking for the Lord of the Duat, the goddess whose head only was seen, announced to the Pharaoh the favorable decision: "Come in peace to the Duat ... advance in thy boat on the road which is in the earth." Naming herself Ament (the female Hidden One), she added: "Ament calls to thee, so that thou meyest go forward in the sky, as the Great One who is in the Horizon."

"Passing the test, not dying a second time, the king was born again....

".... He rejoins his boat or sled; it is accompanied by a procession of gods; one of them holds the emblem of the Tree of Life. The King has been found worthy of Afterlife."

"Leaving the zone of Seker, the king enters the sixth division, associated with Osiris....

".... Jakal-headed gods "Who Open the Ways" invite the king to take a refreshing dip in the subterranean pool or Lake of Life, as the Great God himself had done when he passed here before.

"....The king’s boat is towed by gods clad in leopard skins, just as the Shem priests who performed the Opening of the Mouth ceremonies were clad.

"Is the king nearing the Opening or Mouth of the Mountain?

"....As the king passes through a guarded gate to the seventh division, the gods and the surroundings lose their "underground" aspects and begin to assume celestial affiliations.

".... In this division, there are also present two companies of gods associated with the Ben-ben the mysterious object of Ra that was kept at this temple in the city of An (Heliopolis).

"....The king has indeed arrived in parts of the Duat associated with An, after whom Heliopolis was named. In the Ninth Hour, he sees the resting place or the twelve "Divine Rowers of the Boat of Ra," they who operate Ra’s celestial "Boat of Millions of Years." In the Tenth Hour, passing through a gate, the king enters a place astir with activity. The task of the gods there is to provide Flame and Fire to the boat of Ra.

"....Passing from the tenth to the eleventh division the affinity to the heavens rapidly increases. Gods bear the Celestial Disk and star emblems. There are eight goddesses with star emblems "who have come from the abode of Ra." The king sees the "Star Lady" and the "Star Lord" and gods whose task it is to provide "power for emerging" from the Duat, to make the object of Ra advance to the Hidden House in the Upper Heavens."

The king now must "shed the skin" and emerge "in the form of a rejuvenated Ra." He must wear other garments.

"....The illustrations in the ancient texts depict here a group of gods dressed in unusual garb, like tightly fitting overalls adorned with circular collar bands."

"....Having been properly equipped, the king is led to an opening in the corner of a semi-circular wall. He passes the hidden door. Now he moves within a tunnel "1300 cubits long called Dawn at the End." He reaches a vestibule, the emblems of the Winged Disk are seen everywhere. He encounters goddesses "who shed light upon the road of Ra," and a magical scepter representing "Seth, the Watcher."

The gods explain to the awed king:

This cavern is the broad hall of Osiris
Wherein the wind is brought;
The north wind, refreshing,
Will raise thee, O king, as Osiris.

"It is now the twelfth division, the final Hour of the king’s subterranean journey...."The point which he has reached is called "Mountain of the Ascent of Ra."

"....He has reached an object which is called "The Ascender to the Sky."

"....The Ascender or Divine Ladder was not a common ladder.

"Illustrations to the Book of the Dead showed such a Divine Ladder - sometimes with an Ankh ("Life") sign symbolically reaching toward the Celestial Disk in the heavens - in the shape of a high tower with a superstructure....

"....The Ascender was operated by four falcon-men, "Children of Horus" the Falcon-god, who were the sailors of the boat of Ra....

"....The king’s prayer to be given Everlastingness, a "Name," a Divine Ladder, has been granted. He is about to begin his actual ascent to the Heavens.

"Though he requires only one Divine Ladder for himself, not one but two Ascenders are raised together. Both the "Eye of Ra" and the "Eye of Horus" are prepared and put into position, one on the "wing of Thoth" and the other on the "wing of Seth." To the puzzled king, the gods explain that the second boat is for the "son of Aten," a god descended of the Winged Disk - perhaps the god to whom the king had spoken in the "equipping chamber."

"....The "Eye" or "boat" into which the king steps in is 770 cubits (circa 1000 feet) long.

" ....The magical moment has arrived. There are only two more doors to be opened, and the king - as Ra and Osiris had done before - will emerge triumphantly from the Duat and his boat will float in the Celestial Waters.

"....And suddenly "the double doors to heaven are opened!" The texts break out in ecstatic pronouncements:

The Door to Heaven is open!
The Door of Earth is open!
The aperture of the celestial windows is open!
The Stairway to Heaven is open;
The Steps of Light are revealed...
The double Doors to Heaven are open;
The double Doors of Khebhu are open
for Horus of the east,
at daybreak.

The sky-god
has strengthened the radiance for the king
that the king may lift himself to Heaven
like the Eye of Ra.
The king is in this Eye of Horus,
where the command of the gods is heard.

"The "Eye of Horus" begins to change hues: first it is blue, then it is red.
"There are excitement and much activity all around

The gods command to be silent....

"The silence is broken, now there are sound of fury, roaring and quaking:

"The Heaven speaks, the Earth quakes;
The Earth trembles;
The two districts of the gods shout;
The ground is come apart ...
When the king ascends to heaven
when he ferries over the vault (to Heaven) ...

"Then the "two mountains divide," and there is a lift-off into a cloudy sky of dawn from which the stars of night are gone...

".... The "Bull of Heaven" ("whose belly is full of magic") rises from the "Isle of Flame." Then the agitation ceases, and the king is aloft - "dawning as a falcon."

"Still sitting between "these two companions who voyage over the sky," the king soars toward the eastern horizon, far far away in the heaven. His destination is the Aten the Winged Disk, which is also called the Imperishable Star:

Ra of the Aten,
Thy son has come to thee;
Pepi comes to thee;
Let him ascend to thee;
Enfold him in thy embrace.

The celestial journey is to last eight days.....the king will be summoned by Ra.... Ra himself shall await for the king on the Imperishable Star....

"....’He Who Knows the Place’ comes, say the gods."

"Now there is one more detail left to accomplish. In the company of "Horus of the Duat," described as "the great green divine falcon," the king sets out to find the Tree of Life in the Midst of the Place of Offering.

 

"This king Pepi goes to the Field of Life, the birthplace of Ra in the heavens. He finds Kebehet approaching him with these four jars with which she refreshes the heart of the Great God on the day when he awakes. She refreshes the heart of this king Pepi therewith to Life.

"Mission achieved.... the King has ascended the Stairway to Heaven, he has reached the Imperishable Star; "his lifetime is eternity, its limit everlastingness."

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