Congressional Medal of Semiramis

I thought for this post we would continue to explore the link between the pentagram and human sacrifice and the role that this relationship plays in modern society. To provide the proper back story for this post let's take a look at the civilization of Babylonia.

Babylon, Iraq (Mar. 21, 2005) - U.S. Army Soldiers assigned to the 155th Brigade Combat Team (BCT), are given a tour of the historical city of Babylon, Iraq as a gesture of goodwill by the Iraqi people in Babil, Iraq.

According to Wikipedia (insert grain of salt here), "Babylonia was a civilization in Lower Mesopotamia (central and southern Iraq), with Babylon as its capital. Babylonia emerged when Hammurabi (fl. ca. 1696 – 1654 BC, short chronology) created an empire out of the territories of the former kingdoms of Sumer and Akkad. The Amorites being a Semitic people, Babylonia adopted the written Semitic Akkadian language for official use, and retained the Sumerian language for religious use, which by that time was no longer a spoken language. The Akkadian and Sumerian cultures played a major role in later Babylonian culture, and the region would remain an important cultural center, even under outside rule."

From my last blog entry Androgynous dualities? we know that the pentagram was a symbol in the Sumerian pictogram language for the word "UB," meaning "corner, angle, nook; a small room, cavity, hole; pitfall" that was derived from the orbital patterns of Venus. So it stands to reason that if their next door neighbors the Babylonians adopted the Sumerian language for religious purposes that the pentagram held a similar significance to Babylonian culture as well. We also know that Venus was considered the Sumerians chief goddess, Ishtar/Inanna, in their pantheon of gods and that she was adopted into many post-Sumerian cultures in a similar role as the "Queen of Heaven".

Map of Sumer and Akkad

Enter Euhemerus. According to Wikipeida, "Euhemerus (Εὐήμερος, Euhēmeros, meaning happy or prosperous) (working late fourth century B.C.) was a Greek mythographer at the court of Cassander, the king of Macedon. Euhemerus' birthplace is disputed, with Messina in Sicily as the most probable location, while others champion Chios, or Tegea.

He is chiefly known for a rationalizing method of interpretation, known as Euhemerism, that treats mythological accounts as a reflection of actual historical events shaped by retelling and traditional mores."

Euhemerus...in deep thought :)

We have a very interesting theory here put forth by Euhemerus suggesting that the gods of ancient culture may have actually been derived from actual people who were considered cultural heroes to the ancients. I think this theory really helps to put some of the mythologies surrounding these ancient gods into a proper perspective. Leader worship was very common during this time. The Egyptians, for instance, believed that the pharaoh, during life, was an incarnation of Horus and during death became Osiris. This deification of the pharaoh was a convenient way for a leader to gain absolute authority over his or her people. Now back to Babylonian society and their premier queen Semiramis.

According to Diodorus Siculous, "The story as given by the most learned of the inhabitants of the region is as follows: Aphrodite (Venus), being offended with this goddess (Derceto), inspired in her a violent passion for a certain handsome youth among her votaries; and Derceto gave herself to the Syrian and bore a daughter (Semiramis), but then, filled with shame of her sinful deed, she killed the youth and exposed the child in a rocky desert region, while as for herself, from shame and grief she threw herself into the lake and was changed as to the form of her body into a fish; and it is for this reason that the Syrians to this day abstain from this animal and honour their fish as gods." From this point on the mythology reads that Semiramis was raised by doves and then slept her way to the top of Babylonian society to eventually marry the King, Ninus, and bear him a child Ninyas. She eventually succeeds the king, who dies, and she becomes the ultimate ruler of Babylon.

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/2A*.html#4

THE SHEPHERD FINDS THE BABE SEMIRAMIS From the Painting by E. Wallcousins

Siculous goes on to exclaim about the success of Semiramis' rule in Babylon that is eventually brought to an end by her son Ninyas. Siculous claims that, "some, making a myth of it, say that she (Semiramis) turned into a dove and flew off in the company of many birds which alighted on her dwelling, and this, they say, is the reason why the Assyrians worship the dove as a god, thus deifying Semiramis." I find this aspect of Semiramis and her association with doves very interesting in parallel to the story of Isis from the Egyptians. Plutarch says, "this has been to no small degree the experience of the Egyptians in regard to those animals that are held in honour. In these matters the Greeks are correct in saying and believing that the dove is the sacred bird of Aphroditê (Venus)." Also, in the story of Isis and Osiris, during her search for the body of Osiris in Byblos Isis turned into a dove. So we have a close association of Semiramis with Venus and some parallels with the Egyptian queen Isis and doves.

I would say that the mythology surrounding the birth and ascension through Babylonian society of Semiramis is right up Euhemerus' alley. It seems to me that in order to gain authority over the people that it is plausible that Semiramis was deified and may have deliberately aligned herself with the sacred feminine mythology of Venus. It is also worth noting that some scholars associate Semiramis with the Biblical Nimrod, who they consider to be King Ninus and Semiramis' second husband.

Now for the fun stuff. What do we get if we combine the goddess mythology, with the down pointing pentagram symbol, and throw in a dash of ritualistic human sacrifice? Why the Congressional Medal of Honor of course!

According to CMOHS.org, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society's website, "In 1965 the Air Force MOH was created and it replaced the Minerva portrait with the head of the Statue of Liberty. Lady liberty has a pointed crown instead of a helmet. And she does stand for liberty although she is derived from the imagery of Semiramis, wife of Nimrod, and Queen of Babylon. Semiramis was famed for her beauty, strength, and wisdom and was said to have built the famous Hanging Gardens of Babylon. She purportedly reigned for 42 years after taking control from Nimrod. She is a mythical figure who might be somewhat based upon a historical figure. "

From left to right,
the Army, Navy/Marine Corps, and Air Force medals

WAIT A SECOND?! Did I just suggest that the Congressional Medal of Honor relates to ritualistic human sacrifice? According to CMOHS.org, "On December 9, 1861 Iowa Senator James W. Grimes introduced S. No. 82 in the United States Senate, a bill designed to "promote the efficiency of the Navy" by authorizing the production and distribution of "medals of honor". On December 21st the bill was passed, authorizing 200 such medals be produced "which shall be bestowed upon such petty officers, seamen, landsmen and marines as shall distinguish themselves by their gallantry in action and other seamanlike qualities during the present war (Civil War)." President Lincoln signed the bill and the (Navy) Medal of Honor was born."

Ok let's put the pieces of this puzzle together in a logical manner. In the context of Sumerian society human sacrifice was thought of as a form of service to the god-king. The folks unfortunate enough to be serving on the court of the king when the king died were sacrificed in order to continue serving the king in the next life. Today, we have soldiers who get a likeness of the goddess in the shape of an inverted pentagram in honor of risking life and limb in service to the king...errr president. CMOHS.org admits that this medal's original priority was to increase the efficiency of the military rather than honoring brave soldiers.

To add insult to injury (bad pun) let's go to Wikipedia for a quick description. "The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration awarded by the United States government. It is bestowed on members of the United States armed forces who distinguish themselves "conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while engaged in an action against an enemy of the United States." Because of the nature of its criteria, the medal is often awarded posthumously." Still don't believe me? Let's take a look at the headquarters for the U.S. Department of Defense...the Pentagon. Below we find yet another derivation of the pentagram. There appears to be a relationship with the U.S. Armed Forces and the pentagram symbol.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congressional_medal_of_honor

The Pentagon headquarters of the United States Department of Defense

If you're like me, the symbolism used in the medal of honor and the Pentagon will leave you with a few questions. Are the architects and designers of these symbols aware of the meaning? If so, why use this ancient pagan symbolism in this context? What does this imply about the nature and purpose of war? Is war a modern day version of ritualistic human sacrifice?! More to come...

J.M. Flagg's 1917 poster, based on the original British Lord Kitchener poster of three years earlier, was used to recruit soldiers for both World War I and World War II.

Androgynous dualities?

After my last blog post which dealt a lot with the symbolism behind the five pointed star pentagram I'm feeling led to investigate this symbol further. We know that the pentagram symbol was inspired by the rotational habits of Venus, but what we didn't know is that before this discovery Venus was thought of as two separate stars by the ancients. Venus was the morning star, Phosphoros, Lucifer, the Bringer of Light, the Eastern star and also the evening star, Hesperos, Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty, fertility, sex, and peace. So when it was discovered that the morning star and the evening star were both in reality Venus it was then the pentagram was discovered.


From this dual nature of Venus we get, "Inanna, the Sumerian queen of the heavens and the daughter of the moon for the Semitic Akkadians (becoming) the contradictory Ishtar. Still the queen of the heavens, Ishtar (Astarte) was the holy virgin but also "she who accomodates men", the goddess of battle and war, but also the goddess of beauty, peace and sex." In the early Greek tribes we get "Athena, the Morning goddess of hunt and battle, and Aphrodite, the Evening goddess of love and beauty."

http://www.symbols.com/encyclopedia/29/2914.html

It appears that an emphasis on Venus as the morning star and as a goddess of war may have given birth to the five pointed star as a sign of war used commonly in the military. What's interesting about this particular aspect of Venus as goddess of hunt, battle, and the new day is the fact that it is symbolized by the sign for the waning moon. So when we combine the five pointed star with the symbol for the waning moon what do we get? I'm not sure at this point if there is a relation with Islam here or not.


According to symbols.com an eight pointed star, rose, or Phoenician star of Venus was a symbol for the goddess Astarte. The eight pointed star was a symbol for divine fertility which was an aspect of Venus that was also symbolized by a mother with her child. This particular symbol has even found it's way into the Catholic church...good times. Evidently this symbol has led us back to the mother/child parts of the trinity and put another nail the pagan trinity's coffin.

Notice any similarities?

If you recall the Sumerians, the pentagram served as a pictogram for the word "UB," meaning "corner, angle, nook; a small room, cavity, hole; pitfall." Why would the Sumerians choose a symbol representing the chief goddess and that resembles man to signify pit or hole? Let's take a closer look at the significance that a hole in the ground might have had to the Sumerians.

Inanna with leashed lion and 8-pointed star in the sky

In 1922 a British archaeologist named Leonard Woolley began working in Ur, modern day Iraq, and discovered some royal cemeteries there that dated back to 3500 BCE. "Woolley discovered tombs of great material wealth. Inside these tombs were large paintings of ancient Sumerian culture at its zenith, along with gold and silver jewelry, cups and other furnishings." Along with the royalty that was found buried there Woolley discovered some startling funerary practices that were not mentioned in any known Sumerian texts. Woolley found several tombs where the bodies of servants were buried nearby their kings or "gods."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Woolley

This photograph and the next shows the progress of the excavations in the deep hole, Pit X at Tell al-Muqayyar, excavated between 1933-1934. The large-scale excavation removed 13,000 cubic meters of soil and involved over 150 workers.C. Leonard Woolley, 1934, and the Iraq's Ancient Past, Penn Museum

Woolley and crew uncovered sixteen different royal burial chambers that had many servants buried along with their rulers. The kings and queens were always found deeper in the burial chamber than the servants and were found fully decorated with arms and jewelry. According to Woolley the royalty was buried at the bottom of a chamber (read:pit) that the Sumerians dug and then the servants were sacrificed in the area at the entrance to the tomb in order to "serve" their masters in the after life and fill up the pit that they dug. You gotta wonder how much those kings were paying these servants cause there is no freaking way I'm committing suicide when my boss kicks the bucket!

http://www.amazon.com/Excavations-Ur-Record-Twelve-Years/dp/0815201109

"Filling up the tomb took time and was done in steps, which were pretty universal for all the ceremonies at Ur. The king would be buried at the bottom of the chamber in a square room created by bricks in the center of the tomb. Other chambers would spread out from this major one, with attendants of the king being buried in them. Clay would then be brought and trampled hard to make a floor where more offerings would be spread. Bodies of other human victims would then again be sacrificed, earth covering these and then another floor was made and more offerings made. In some of the books I have read, they say that the order of the sacrifices was made in the order of importance. The layering of humans went on until the top of the walls of the chamber was reached. A chief sacrifice was made at the end of the ceremony (usually the Queen) whose body was laid in a coffin in the top layer of the tomb. Usually, a chapel of some sort would be erected on top of the tomb chamber that would signify the place. (Woolley Sumerians, 35)."

http://gallery.sjsu.edu/sacrifice/sumerians.html

Sir Leonard Woolley with the triangular frame
of an excavated Sumerian harp, 1920s.

Originally, archeologists believed that the sacrifices were self inflicted through poisoning but new findings are now suggesting that the sacrifices may not have been so friendly. "A new examination of skulls from the royal cemetery at Ur, discovered in Iraq almost a century ago, appears to support a more grisly interpretation than before of human sacrifices associated with elite burials in ancient Mesopotamia, archaeologists say. Palace attendants, as part of royal mortuary ritual, were not dosed with poison to meet a rather serene death. Instead, a sharp instrument, a pike perhaps, was driven into their heads."

BURIAL PITA CT scan, left, of a female skull at a burial site at Ur. Women were buried with elaborate adornments, right, and warriors with their weapons.

"The recovery of about 2,000 burials attested to the practice of human sacrifice on a large scale. At or even before the demise of a king or queen, members of the court — handmaidens, warriors and others — were put to death. Their bodies were usually arranged neatly, the women in elaborate headdress, the warriors with weapons at their side."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/27/science/27ur.html?_r=3

Woolley and his team found several chalices and ceremonial daggers that were buried next to some of the men (read: In-ies and Out-ies). So we find the masculine and feminine symbols of dagger and chalice at the bottom of the Sumerian burial "pits" next to a bunch of humans sacrificed for their god-kings...more good times. I'm going to take a leap here and suggest that the pentagram may have been a symbol for human sacrifice or at least signified a "pit" of buried human sacrifices to the Sumerians in honor of the life/death aspect of Ishtar/Inanna.

Fluted golden beaker and dagger, from the Royal cemetery at Ur

To put this assertion of the meaning of the pentagram into some type of context and provide a bit more evidence for my claim let us refer to Mr. Aleister Crowley for a thelemic interpretation (I am not endorsing this guy!). According to Crowley "an adverse or inverted pentagram represents the descent of spirit into matter, according to the interpretation of Lon Milo DuQuette. Crowley contradicted his old comrades in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, who, following Levi, considered this orientation of the symbol evil and associated it with the triumph of matter over spirit." So we have the descent (read:pit) of spirit (read:human sacrifice) into matter (read: Earth/death).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentagram#Thelema

I think we've made some great progress here. I've learned a few things writing this and I hope you are while you're reading it. That's it for this entry :)

A Gold Star in Sex-Ed

Picking up where we left off with Horus and Orion I would like to analyze this relationship a bit, draw some parallels, and hopefully define the remaining five pointed star symbol in the Sirius hieroglyph. We know that Horus was Osiris' son who championed in battle over Set and we also know that the Egyptians thought of the soul of Horus as Orion.

Horus was often depicted as a hawk headed man on account of the fact that he was believed to be a sky god. Since Horus was a sky god Plutarch referred to him as "the terrestrial universe" and "Hora, that is the seasonable tempering of the surrounding air." As a sky god and a manifestation of the terrestrial universe, the Sun and the Moon were thought of as the eyes of Horus. This is idea of the eyes of Horus is where the symbol of the eye of Horus or Ra is derived (more on this symbol later!). I mentioned in my last blog post, Star crossed lovers...sirius-ly, Horus lost his left eye during a battle with Set but Set later returned it. This part of the story was an allusion to the waxing and waning cycles of the moon. The Wedjat or all seeing eye is the supposed origin of the eye atop the pyramid (another Egyptian symbol) on the back of the U.S. dollar bill pictured right. Looks familiar huh?!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horus

According to Plutarch, "on the second of these days Arueris was born whom they call Apollo, and some call him also the elder Horus." The elder Horus, Heru-ur, was looked at as the "god of light" hence the Apollo allusion because Apollo was also considered a god of light or the Sun. Also when considering the battle between Horus and Set one could draw a parallel to the Apollo and Dionysus dialectic.

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Moralia/Isis_and_Osiris*/A.html

Another important aspect of Horus was as the "crowned and conquering child." Horus being the "miraculously conceived" child of Isis and the god of the dead, Osiris, and conqueror of Set, he is thought of as a type of savior and was associated with the savior deity Shed. Now this is where things get a little hazy. If we recall the hieroglyph for Sirius and the associations, we know that the obelisk represents Osiris the father, the dome represents Isis the mother, and the pentagram represents Horus the child. But why does the five pointed star figure seem to represent the child, the amalgamation of father and mother, or masculine and feminine?


The number five is often associated with man on account of the fact that humans have five fingers and toes on our appendages. Sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch: five human senses. Thus the pentagram or five-pointed star is commonly looked at as a symbol for man. So when we combine the symbolism of Horus with the pentagram in the Sirius hieroglyph we get a star-child. Hmmm...star child...that sounds familiar.



Taking the symbolism of the Egyptian trinity of father, mother, and child into the context of the pantheon of the Egyptian religion, it appears as though the procreative act itself was deified and worshiped which is evidenced through "sacred prostitution" and "temple orgies". Also, it is important to remember the parallels that we have seen between the Egyptian mythology and analogous mythology in other cultures across time and (Earth) space and the Egyptian practice of the deification of aspects in nature. These seemingly multicultural corresponding father/mother/child trinity mythologies combined with the concept of Egyptian nature worship would implicate a potential spiritual archetype of the procreative act. In other words, they worship sex and the Egyptian trinity is a personification of this worship.

Let's go back to the star/pentagram and take a look at the origins of this symbol. According to Wikipedia (and every other source I can find) the first known uses of the pentagram symbol date back to Mesopotamia around 3000B.C. The Sumerian pentagrams served as pictograms for the word "UB," meaning "corner, angle, nook; a small room, cavity, hole; pitfall." "Successive inferior conjunctions of Venus repeat very near a 13:8 orbital resonance (The Earth orbits 8 times for every 13 orbits of Venus), creating a pentagrammic precession sequence."


So, it looks like the pentagram may have been discovered by early astronomers based on observations of Venus and thus was associated with Ishtar the personification of Venus and the "Queen of Heaven." Something worth noting here is that, along with Ishtar, Isis was also generally referred to as being the "Queen of Heaven" in line with the sacred feminine mythology we discussed previously. Apuleius in his work "The Golden Ass" says of Isis, "You see me here, Lucius, in answer to your prayer. I am nature, the universal Mother, mistress of all the elements, primordial child of time, sovereign of all things spiritual, queen of the dead, queen of the ocean, queen also of the immortals, the single manifestation of all gods and goddesses that are, my nod governs the shining heights of Heavens, the wholesome sea breezes. Though I am worshipped in many aspects, known by countless names ... some know me as Juno, some as Bellona ... the Egyptians who excel in ancient learning and worship call me by my true name...Queen Isis." Seems like we are talking about the deification of the Earth, Earth as mother, or mother Earth as a feminine archetype underlying "countless" goddesses.

In the Sumerian context and according to René Labat's index system of Sumerian Hieroglyphs/Pictograms, the pentagram is shown with two points up or what we refer to today as an inverted pentagram. According to Wikipedia, "the ancient Pythagorean pentagram was drawn with two points up and represented the doctrine of Pentemychos. Pentemychos means "five recesses" or "five chambers", also known as the pentagonas — the five-angle, and was the title of a work written by Pythagora's teacher and friend Phercydes of Syros. It was also the "place" where the first pre-cosmic offspring had to be put in order for the ordered cosmos to appear." It appears as though the "inverted" pentagram in fact predates the upward pointing pentagram. When we think about the Sumerian word for pentagram "UB" meaning pit and combining it with the inverted positioning of the symbol, the pentagram, in this context, seems to be pointing down towards something. What was the pentagram's original orientation intended to point at?! More on this later!

In summary, it is beginning to look like there is an underlying theme developing here in regards to the Father/Mother/Child symbolism present in the Sirius hieroglyph. The procreative spiritual archetype personified in the Father/Mother/Child trinity also seems to predate the Egyptian trinity of Osiris/Isis/Horus. Not only does the procreative Father/Mother/Child symbolism predate Egypt but it appears as though the rituals surrounding this trinity did not originate in Egypt either. In future entries I will attempt to explain these findings and their implications.

I can't end this blog post without another foreshadow to the architectural symbolism present in Washington the District of Columbia. Below you can see some of my mspaint handy work...yes it's awesome I know! You'll notice in the green circle on the bottom right is the domed U.S. Capital, in the bottom left green circle you can see the Washington Obelisk...I mean Monument, and the top left is an apparent inverted(maybe?) pentagram pointing to the White House. As most of us know, the White House is home of the highest office in the land, the Oval (dome) Office...yikes!

Star crossed lovers...Sirius-ly

So after reading my previous blog posts and realizing that I've left some integral plot points out of the story I'm trying to tell here I'm going to try to add some evidence to my assertions and at the same time keep the story moving forward. Going back to the links between the Sirius hieroglyphs and the Egyptian trinity of Osiris, Isis, and Horus, I think we need to gain a better understanding of their relationship with each other and their relationship with the stars Sirius and Orion. We will also discuss the birth of Horus and its parallel to the story of Ishtar and Tammuz and the implications of the parallels in these mythologies.

After reading Plutarch and Diodorus we get a bit of a second hand story about the Egyptian trinity because Plutarch and Diodorus are Greek historians. I wanna focus on Osiris for a bit here and his identification with Sirius and Orion. According to Architecture of the Afterlife: Understanding Egypt’s pyramid tombs by Ann Macy Roth, pyramid hieroglyphs equate the afterlife with eternally traveling the stars with the sun god. The hieroglyphs, at the beginning of the 4th dynasty, said: "An offering the king gives and Anubis". By the end of the 5th dynasty the formula in all tombs becomes "An offering the king gives and Osiris". So here we derive an aspect of Osiris as god of the afterlife or god of the underworld and death.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osiris

As I mentioned in the entry "In-ies and Out-ies", during the Old Kingdom the religious system of creation ascribed to at the time was the Ogdoad; which was made up of four sets of male/female gods that together were Ra. As time passed and the culture of Egypt changed different gods that were associated with the Ogdoad were merged with newer gods who were seen to have similar aspects. According to wikipedia:

"Later, when Hathor's identity (from the Ogdoad) was assimilated into that of Isis, Horus, who had been Isis' husband (in the Ogdoad), became considered her son. Since Osiris was Isis' husband (in the Ennead), Osiris also became considered Horus' father. Attempts to explain how Osiris, a god of the dead, could give rise to Horus, who was thought to be living, led to the development of the The myth of Osiris and Isis, which became a central myth in Egyptian mythology."

This interpretation from wiki may not be spot on but I think what is important here is the concept of the interchangeability in the roles and relationships that these gods had with each other and also the fact that these gods merged with and divided from one another. So here we see that Isis was Horus' mother and wife, in a manner of speaking, at the same time. In order to fully understand this strange concept of interchangeability and how the Egyptians viewed their gods and the world around them lets review the story behind Osiris, Isis, and Horus.

Plutarch says that,"they regard the Nile as the effusion of Osiris, so they hold and believe the earth to be the body of Isis, not all of it, but so much of it as the Nile covers, fertilizing it and uniting with it. From this union they make Horus to be born. The all-conserving and fostering Hora, that is the seasonable tempering of the surrounding air, is Horus, who they say was brought up by Leto in the marshes round about Buto; for the watery and saturated land best nurtures those exhalations which quench and abate aridity and dryness."

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Moralia/Isis_and_Osiris*/B.html

This is an important concept here, after reading this passage we can infer that the Egyptians deified nature. Looking at one particular aspect of Osiris as the Nile river and other aspects of nature that associate with the Nile that also may have been deified one can understand this interchangeability. Sometimes the Nile associates with the land immediately around it (Isis) and sometimes the Nile associates with other parts of nature (insert random god here) thus we have interchangeability. So Osiris, Isis, and Horus were looked at as aspects of nature but also as gods. This reminds me of this idea that Aristotle had about spiritual forms or spiritual archetypes. So what is an archetype?

ar⋅che⋅type  /ˈɑrkɪˌtaɪp/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [ahr-ki-tahyp]

1.	the original pattern or model from which all things of the same kind are copied or on which they are based; a model or first form; prototype.

2.	(in Jungian psychology) a collectively inherited unconscious idea, pattern of thought, image, etc., universally present in individual psyches.

So, interchangeability also happens from the aspect that these gods are like spiritual archetypes or forms that are taking on a physical manifestation through the filter of human mythology. That sentence hurt my head! So back to the trinity. Where exactly did Horus come from?

The story of Horus goes something like this: Osiris' brother Set (Typhon to the Greeks) tricks him into getting into a box. Once in the box Set tosses the box and Osiris into the Nile and waves goodbye! Isis finds out and starts a search for Osiris. In the meantime Osiris floats down (?) the river to the shore of Byblos and ends up encased inside a Cedar Tree which gets used by the local royalty as a pillar in their palace. Isis figures out where Osiris is and talks the local queen into letting her get Osiris out of the pillar and takes his body back to Egypt and buries it.

Set hears about Osiris' new resting place and goes out to dig him up. Set finds Osiris' body and cuts it into 14 pieces and scatters them all over the place (Something very similar happened to Tammuz). Isis freaks out again and eventually finds 13 out of the 14 pieces. The only part she couldn't find was his obelisk...errr phallus so at this point she makes one to replace the lost one. Once she had put Osiris back together again she sings him a song and comes back to life (Humpty Dumpty?). Osiris stays alive just long enough to knock up Isis (don't ask me how that worked!) before he dies again. And nine months later, presumably, we have baby Horus and Osiris is now the god of the dead/underworld. To the left we see a depiction of Isis with baby Horus...look familiar?

Check this book for some references on this story:

"Ancient Egypt", page 137 in chapter 10 by Dr. Robert K. Ritner. Oxford University Press, 1997.

When we combine this crazy romantic comedy that involves dismemberment with the perception that Osiris was the Nile, Isis the surrounding land, and Horus as the temperament of the region we see the parallels. As time goes by and this trinity grows in popularity so too do the aspects of each god and their associations with objects and things.

Fast forward a few years and Horus is all grown up and Set (Osiris' bro) is still a big problem in Egypt. So Osiris comes to visit Horus and trains him to fight Set. So they have a big fight and Horus wins. There are a few things about this battle that are worth noting. One, apparently Set pulls out Horus' eye and eats it but then gives it back. Set also says that Horus is a bastard...a literal bastard..like illegitimate child.

So if these folks are gods where are they now? According to Plutarch, "in regard not only to these gods, but in regard to the other gods, save only those whose existence had no beginning and shall have no end, the priests say that their bodies, after they have done with their labours, have been placed in the keeping of the priests and are cherished there, but that their souls shine as the stars in the firmament, and the soul of Isis is called by the Greeks the Dog-star, but by the Egyptians Sothis, and the soul of Horus is called Orion, and the soul of Typhon the Bear."

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Moralia/Isis_and_Osiris*/B.html

Hey look at that, we are back where we started with Sirius and Orion! More to come...