I am feeling the flow of this story ebbing now, with only a couple of key moments left that are wanting to be shared. Everything has its timing and all the other synchronicities and messages we received during our trip to Egypt last April will, I’m sure, be woven into other stories at other times.
For now, that nudging pressure to get the story out has gone, almost completely. All that is left is a small trickle over dusty rocks, rapidly drying up in the sun. Instead, my attention is being drawn back to my book, which I am rather excited about. And all the trips I have coming up that all require a lot of admin and writing to set up.
“Which book?” you may ask. Well, I actually have three incomplete books that I have been writing over the years and a fourth in the pipeline that I started as a screen play twenty years ago.
The latter was a sort of futuristic/sci-fi film idea I had that actually, with the development of technology and world events, now looks rather prophetic in many ways. My problem seems to be finishing these creations. But then again, like I said, everything has its timing and I have to trust the flow of the universe, that circumstances I can’t currently comprehend all need to be in place.
Oh, and I have a fifth book idea for young readers that I have made pages of notes on – insert forced smiley face. One day they may all see the light of day. Perhaps, I just have to believe in myself.
So, before I get back to writing the book Hathor told me to write when I was in the temple of Dendera last November, I have to tell you about our trip to Abydos and also about connecting with the Nile.
Of all the places I have visited along the Nile, Abydos is, so far, my favourite. It is not the easiest place to get to as it’s slightly out of the way of the usual flow of historical tours but it is well worth the effort.
Most tour groups will take people to Giza and Saqarra, Luxor and all the surrounding temples, including Dendera for all those followers of the feminine, and then up to Aswan. Somehow, most of them leave Abydos off the list. Yet Abydos was, once upon a time, one of the most important pilgrimage sites in ancient Egypt.
It is there that supposedly the tomb of Osiris lies and it was also the burial place for the early kings of Egypt. Some legends say that Isis gathered all the parts of Osiris and reunited him in Abydos and as the cult of Osiris grew, especially after the fall of the old kingdom, it became a key site in the veneration of Osiris.
Abydos lies a couple of hours further north of Dendera and is reached by a perilously broken road. There is one, rather out of place hotel to stay in, practically next door to the temple of Seti I, which is convenient, although this leaves little space to familiarise oneself with the area and compounds the feeling of separation visitors have with the locals here. Armed guards at the hotel doors doesn’t help with this feeling (a precaution the Egyptian government takes in villages off the usual tourist route.)
We arrived in the afternoon, having stopped in Dendera on our way, just in time for the handful of other visitors to have left the temple, leaving the whole site pretty much to ourselves. As usual, Hakim knew everyone and they all made a big fuss over seeing him again.
First, they showed us the room where Omm Seti used to spend a lot of time writing (channelling) her books. It was a large chamber with pillars and a stone ledge that ran around the sides of the room, large enough to lie on. Shafts of light fall into the dark chamber giving it a feeling of another world and time.
For those of you who don’t know, Omm Seti was an English woman called Dorothy Eady who had a near fatal fall as a child and returned with lots of memories of ancient Egypt. Over time she remembered more of her story and is one of the most well-known and enigmatic figures in the recent history of Abydos. She eventually moved to Egypt in her twenties and devoted her life to the study of Egyptology and especially to Abydos, where she remembers being a priestess during the time of Seti I. Her story is quite fascinating, including her on-going astral love affair with Seti!
After this we went out to the back of the temple where the Osirion lies a short walk away. This is one of the most mysterious structures in Egypt, in my humble opinion and limited experience. The stones are huge blocks of smooth granite, cut in the style of the ancient structures that dynastic Egypt seemed to inherit. Only the top floor of the structure is exposed, with other floors supposedly buried underneath, made inaccessible by the water that fills up the site protecting it from being explored.
This water and the way it behaves is mysterious enough but it also is reported to have healing powers. A researcher of the site filtered the water, drank it and reported that his eyesight improved as did other ailments he had. Certainly, the locals still come to the Osirion for certain rituals, in particular to bless their daughters with fruitful wombs.
You cannot visit the Osirion without a private permission, so we had to content ourselves with looking at it from above. From this vantage point, we could just about see the flower of life pattern molecularly burnt on to one of the pillars. This is one of the oldest renditions of the flower of life ever found and no one really knows how old it actually is as no one knows how old the Osirion is and research, sadly, has been limited and slow.
“I think it is very old,” one of the workers told us, “as far back as Atlantis,” he said quite seriously in a hushed voice. Such talk is highly blasphemous to the status quo and could get him fired from his job if it was reported higher up. It is comforting to know that many Egyptians secretly revere the sites and are open-minded enough to question what the books say.
After this we returned to the temple of Seti and were free to roam at will and meditate in all the chambers before the closing time. There is something quite otherworldly about this place. I can’t quite describe it. It’s as if you step into another dimension, suspended, floating, losing all sense of time and space. There is some power here that I can’t put my finger on – yet.
The next morning, we got up early so that we could have some more time in the temple before we had to leave to head back to Luxor.
We had gathered by the pool of the hotel to have some coffee before the temple opened when I started to feel uncomfortable, agitated almost. It felt like something hot was lashing at my awareness but I didn’t want to appear rude and abandon Hakim and Michelle so I tried to sit there and not fidget too much. But it was no use.
Getting up, I quickly sought the refuge of our room but realised I didn’t have the key. Not to worry. I climbed up a wall and up onto our balcony then slid the unlocked patio door open. But the room was dark and hot. Of course, the air conditioning wouldn’t work without the key. So, I went back to the balcony and sank down on the floor in the shade, breathing deeply, surrendering to the fire.
It felt like flames were lapping at me like in a fierce bushfire. All around and all within me. Within them I could see figures, dancing around each other with flames for eyes.
“You see,” they said, “this is how we are!”
“Yes, I said but I have also known you to be a comfort.”
And I reminded them and myself of all the times fire has comforted me during a ceremony, has given me warmth on a cold night, has taught me things. Don’t forget Vanessa, I kept telling myself.
“Sure, but we are also wild and fierce. You must let yourself feel it.”
“Ok. But I also don’t want to forget that you are also gentle and comforting.”
They laughed at my insistence as the fire consumed me.
“What are you afraid of? Feel it!”
I let the fires ravage me until the flames began to abate and I felt ok enough to join the others. Unsure if I passed the test or what the hell just happened.
“Are you ok?” Hakim asked when I returned. I explained what happened and felt grateful that I was with people who would understand this type of encounter and not think me too weird.
‘Would you both like to swim and relax before we go? What do you want to do?” he asked us.
“Actually, I just want to go back to the temple,” I said, looking at my mum who nodded and agreed.
“Me too, I don’t want to wait. I just want to go back.”
“Mashi. Yallabina?”
The beauty of this temple is that the guards seemed content to leave us alone. Whether they know they are the guardians of somewhere special, or because the locals still have an active practice of performing rituals in the temple, but they aren’t as controlling as in other sites. We were free to take our time and really feel into each chamber. I was even allowed to enter them barefoot so the current of energy could flow freely through my body.
Like I said before, something strange happens to you in this place, as if you lose all sense of direction, time and space. I have no recollection of the order of events or even everything that I saw and felt there. Some things hover around me like whisps of indecipherable memories.
Every chamber holds a different vibration. Each one brings you something different just as you bring it something different.
I remember being in the large chamber to the left of the seven chambers (when looking at them). I came in there twice. Once in the beginning and then again at some point later when I had it to myself. This large room with pillars has two smaller rooms coming off the top end.
The one on the right had a picture of a pregnant hippo and scenes of Isis and Osiris. It felt like a room of creation of fertility, of life. It felt warm and all embracing, much like a womb I suppose.
The one on the left had pictures of Thoth and Seshet, keepers of wisdom and knowledge. It felt colder, more straightforward, a sort of steely power. The left and the right, creation and knowledge, heart and mind, this chamber is somehow connected to balance. I stood in each section, absorbing the information.
I remember going into each of the seven chambers, not in any particular order but wherever called me next. Each one felt different and in each I was called to do something different. I don’t fully recall what happened in which or all the details and I felt no pressing need to write anything down after. It was meant to be experienced, downloaded into my cells.
In one I felt like I was holding a staff, like the one Sekhmet gave me. I touched the spirit door with my staff (each chamber had what looked like the arch of a doorway at the end of the room but was solid wall – except for one room which had an opening leading to a series of chambers behind) and the door lit up, with light pouring into me through the staff.
In another (this one, I remember, was the second chamber to the right) I placed my hand on the door and the fire beings came out of the wall through me, lapping me with their flames again. This time, it wasn’t as uncomfortable as before but felt warm and pleasant. I could see the flames whipping through my cells transforming them and I welcomed their medicine.
Somewhere in the temple I had a vision of a cube made of black rock suspended in a chamber somewhere underneath. How that is possible I have no idea. Perhaps the cube represents an energy or information and doesn’t mean there is a literal cube down there. Who knows.
Later, I found mum sitting by a column in the back chamber. She had completely lost all sense of direction and has no recollection of how she got in that room, believing herself to be in the chamber of balance. She also received a message that there was something powerful in a chamber under the temple. Will we ever know what is there?
I didn’t know about Abydos when I first came to Egypt. When I first saw it mentioned in my research, my immediate thought was that there is something in the ground there that needs to be discovered, something powerful. This was before I even knew about the Osirion.
I knew instantly I had to go there, which is why I insisted we include Abydos on this particular trip and why I am determined to go back and spend more time there. Even if there is no way to venture into the lower chambers, being in their proximity is enough.
Before I end this story, gentle reader, I must first tell you about the Nile. I met her first in November 2023, the stories of those very powerful encounters are in my Hathor book. I have never encountered a body of water that is so alive and ready to communicate (except the sea).
Each person will connect with her in a different way but for me there is a strong element of dance and movement when connecting with powerfully flowing water. Water loves to dance and when we move like water or the creatures within her, we merge. That and play, water loves play.
Quite often, I intuitively start moving or swimming like a crocodile, especially along the shallow waters. Perhaps crocodiles are another expression of water, certainly there is a powerful connection and the way they move seems to be imprinted in water.
I sing to the water, my mouth hovering just at the surface so the vibration hits the water and I imagine it rippling out. And so, we sing and move together, merging more and more until our minds become one. Then she reveals all sorts to you and each time it is surprising.
This time she spoke to me about the dam. I could feel her heaving and puffing at the restriction of the dam, as if she was heavily burdened and in bondage, longing for freedom.
“How long do I have to wait?” she asked, showing me her desire to break free and flow as she once did. I empathised with her plight and expressed my sympathy and understanding.
“I know that if I do there will be great suffering and hardship for many and that is what stays my hand. But how long do I have to wait?”
I could feel her desperate longing and laced with that a desire to have my approval for what she wanted to do. Yet, coupled with that was the undeniable pain of loss of life that would occur.
“What do you think? Would you allow me to break the dam and run free?” she asked.
Who am I to allow her anything? But she asked my opinion and I could feel the severity of the moment, the weight of responsibility. I weighed up the cost of her being free and the cost of her being controlled. What answer could I give her?
“You must look to Ma’at to make this decision. And know that whatever the outcome, you have my support,” I eventually answered.
Everyone can communicate with nature and other dimensions. It is a skill we all have that is underutilised in our modern world. If you would like to learn how, or techniques to deepen your connection get in touch with me for private coaching or join me on a retreat where we can share the experience together.
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