The temple of Sakkara is the oldest pyramid in the world. Sakkara is a burial ground about 30 miles south of Cairo and was built by Imhotep somewhere around 2500B.C. Saqqara is located near the entrance of the Nile Delta, at the point where the river starts dividing into several arms, on the west bank of the Nile. Its first tombs, dated to the beginning of the 1st Dynasty, were built on the ridge of the desert plateau, probably immediately to the west of the new capital of Memphis. If this is the first image you ever had of a pyramid you may not be very impressed. It looks like they were still in the process of perfecting the shape of the pyramid. Its roughly hewn stones form a shape that looks roughly triangular like a pyramid but misshapen. It looks like a pyramid made in the sand by a 10 year old.
Approximately 30 of us arrived at the temple at dawn. For some reason surrounding the base of the pyramid were a few stray dogs hanging around the temple. Although many people thought it was symbolic due to the fact that we were to have a meeting with Anubis, the ancient jackal headed god of the underworld. Since it’s hard to get the Brooklyn out of me, I was not nearly as receptive to see stray dogs running around as a good thing.
The group was led by Nikki Scully, a shamanic healer and author of several books on Alchemical Healing. She leads Shamanic tours to Egypt and Peru roughly every year. She was assisted by Star Wolf, her husband Brad and Anyaa McAndrew, a powerful teacher, priestess and healer. Before we went into the temple we were told that we were going to go start our journey, since we already received the blessing of safe passage from the sphinx the day before. They explained to us that Anubis was the god of the dead, the guide who would safely lead us through the underworld. He was also the god of mummification and the funeral process. Back in the early days, the organs would be taken out of the body and preserved, while the body was mummified. The soul or the ka was being cleansed as well. Symbolically speaking, Nikki asked us as part of the rite of the Pharaoh, to allow Anubis to cleanse us and be a part of the ‘rebirthing’ process. I immediately thought of Christianity, which asks you to be born again, to die to yourself and be reborn in the spirit. It is very easy to see that this spiritual concept of being reborn could’ve started in Egypt as the seat of civilization over 3000 years ago. I wish I could say I jumped at the concept. Many thoughts came to mind such as ‘this is creepy’ and ‘I just wanted to sight-see’ etc. All those who said yes went inside the pyramid and those who said no stayed outside. All but one of us went inside. I don’t remember what the ultimate reason was as to why I said yes, but I figured ‘why not?’ and I realized how cool it was, or something like that. Besides I don’t like being left out.
The inside of the pyramid was much bigger than it looked on the outside. Although there were huge caverns, it was very clean and well kept considering its age. You can almost feel the ancient energy simmering inside. We all laid down inside the pyramid and were led through a guided meditation, where we were visited by the gentle Anubis who promised to keep for us that which is sacred, and when we were cleansed and renewed it would be given back to us. After the meditation we chanted and left the pyramid for the rest of our tour. I felt great and was looking forward to the rest of my journey. I wasn’t even afraid of the stray dogs anymore.
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