BY WILLIAM HENRY
“The doors of the sky are opened, the doors of the firmament are thrown open at dawn for Horus of the Gods. He goes up to the Field of Reeds, he bathes in the Field of Reeds.”—Utterance 325, Pyramid Text.
In numerous ancient traditions there is a description of a hidden and blessed place linked by a chain of symbols, a repetition of place names (the Reed Place), and references to this place as a door to a parallel dimension. As I document in my book, Starwalkers and the Dimension of the Blessed, whether we look to the Mayans, the Egyptians, the early Christians, or the Holy Grail legends, we find a recollection of an essential teaching about this ‘blessed’ place.
For instance, in the ancient Egyptian records of Amenta, the “Hidden Place,” we learn of two mounts. Atop the higher mount we find the gate to the Field of Reeds, also known as the Aarru Fields of Heaven. Aarru means “blessed”. The ancient Egyptian’s direct experiences of this blessed realm are recorded in texts and in scenes on temple walls.
Ancient traditions the world over are also loaded with stories about beatified beings that travel between our world and the blessed realm. Sages, shamans and bodhisattvas who used spiritual technology—dreams, visions, hallucinogens, remote viewing—to expand consciousness to explore this realm left us these descriptions. They who learned about it also spent much of their lives preparing spiritually to enter it.
In Lost Secrets of the Sacred Ark, Laurence Gardner makes a valuable contribution to the understanding of this “Field” (plane, zone) by declaring that Aaru is also called the Dimension of the Blessed. Science fiction TV shows and movies often mention the concept of dimension. In the common mind this word connotes parallel universes, alternate universes and planes of existence. Was the ancient mind also tuned to the concept that one could travel to parallel/alternate universes/planes/fields? As many stories say (and physics theorizes), these universes are closer to us than we realize.
Hesiod called this dimension the Isle of the Blessed and the Elysium. Those mortals who were fortunate enough went to dwell on the Blessed Isle for eternity. Elysium was an “Apple-land,” like Avalon or Eden.
In the Aeneid, Virgil referred to it by additional names, including “Land of Joy,” “the Fortunate Wood” and the “Home of the Blessed.” It is claimed to have been located on the White Island, which was called Leuke or Leuce, a word that is very close to Luc, which means light. In the apocryphal Book of Enoch, Enoch, the prophet who walked the stars with God, speaks of proceeding to ‘the middle of the earth,’ where he beheld a ‘blessed land,’ ‘happy and fertile.’ An angel shows him ‘the first and last secrets in heaven above, and in the depths of the earth: In the extremities of heaven, and in the foundations of it, and in the receptacle of the winds.’ Jesus also descended to what some believe to be the ‘inner earth’ between his crucifixion and resurrection.
The Field of the Blessed resonates to the Christian ideal of the Kingdom of Heaven. They share the same message. Jesus urged us to “go within” to seek it. … and to not stop seeking until we find the truth. Only then will we be free.
Those with a blessed heart, Jesus said, will see this kingdom. In addition, in the Pistis Sophia he is more direct, saying: “Cease not to seek day and night and remit not yourselves until ye find the purifying mysteries which will purify you and make you into a refined light, so that you will go on height and inherit the light of my kingdom.” It appears that the wisdom taught to Enoch in the ‘inner earth’ may have had something to do with transforming himself into a being of light preparatory to entering the dimension of the blessed.
The Afterlife Journey
Among the primary source materials for the Greek and Roman tales about the Field of the Blessed, and I believe Jesus’ statements, is the Book of the Amduat (or Tuat). This Egyptian text began appearing c. 1500 B.C. It describes the after-life journey of the initiated pharaoh to the Field of the Blessed (Aarru), the netherworld kingdom ruled by Osiris, where all the wishes of the deceased would be fulfilled.
The Egyptian Pyramid Texts, which provide instruction about the afterlife, are also loaded with references to the Field of the Blessed. Another Egyptian source is the Edfu Texts written in stone on the walls of the Temple of Horus, the Sun-god, at Edfu, Egypt, which was constructed around 250 B.C., but whose sources are much older. The walls of this temple feature the story of the arrival of sages from the stars who created a civilization beside a Field of Reeds.
In Egypt, the papyrus reeds grow abundantly along the banks of the Nile. Intriguingly, Byblos is the Greek word for papyrus. Bible comes from byblos. Our English word “paper” is derived from the word “papyrus,” an Egyptian word that originally meant “that which belongs to the house” (the bureaucracy of ancient Egypt). The Egyptians used the reed and triangular shape (when viewed in cross section) as a metaphor for many aspects of life. The pyramids at Giza, sometimes referred to as the Bible in Stone, are magnificent examples of this metaphor.
In Egyptian hieroglyphs, a rolled papyrus made from the papyrus reed is the symbol for knowledge. A roll of papyrus symbolized the unfolding of life itself. Correspondingly, writing utensils were originally made of reeds. Thoth, the Egyptian god of divine magic and alchemy, is shown writing with a reed pen. Hence, the reed simply and elegantly symbolizes also wisdom. Perhaps this is why reading is fundamental to acquiring wisdom.
The metaphor of the reed continues in the afterlife Field or Place of Reeds where it signifies the unfolding of life in a finer realm, along the heavenly Nile, the Milky Way. Interestingly, the Hopi, ancient inhabitants of America, who reside in northern Arizona, use the word Songwuka, literally “the big reed,” for the Milky Way. This is strange. Bamboo grows in tropical areas, not arid Arizona. Had the Hopi somehow heard the tales of the reed from tropical Egypt or Canaan, the land across the ocean or from elsewhere? From afar, our home galaxy is a whirling white or light island of stars in the ocean of life. Is the bright center of the Milky Way the Field of Reeds at the center of the heavenly Nile? Is our galaxy’s black hole a gateway to another dimension?
Time and again we see paintings of priests and priestesses sailing on the waters of the heavenly Nile in the Blessed Field of Reeds. They are sailing the stars of the river of life, the Milky Way. The early 20th century British egyptologist Wallis Budge explains: “The Egyptians…from the earliest days… depicted to themselves a material heaven wherein Isles of the Blessed were laved by the waters of the Nile…others again lived in imagination on the banks of the heavenly Nile, whereon they built cities; and it seems as if the Egyptians never succeeded in conceiving a heaven without a Nile…”
The gods traverse the Field of the Blessed upon boats of eternity (which, by the way, precisely match the way modern science portrays a wormhole). Occasionally, they ascend and descend upon sky ropes, vines, and pillars. A key Egyptian symbol, the Djed pillar (also written TET), was originally made of papyrus reeds bundled together and was connected to the mother goddess, Hathor, and to Osiris, the Lord of the Eternity and the Field of the Blessed. The raising of the Djed was a symbol of the king’s ascent to the sky, the heavenly Nile, for it was thought of as the world pillar or ladder that connects the earthly realm with the heavenly Field of Reeds. As such, it was a multidimensional symbol. Its function suggests that a tether—a rope or cord that fastens two poles together—is also involved.
In the East the reed, which sprouted from the universal waters, stands for manifestation and equates with the lotus. It is the earliest stalk or tree of ascent. The Babel builders knew it well.
The Old Testament story of Moses parting the Red Sea (or properly the Reed Sea) with the Rod of God corresponds with the Egyptian ideas about the Field of Reeds and the Djed. As such, the story of parting of the Reed Sea is easily interpreted as an allegory for the opening of the Field or Dimension of the Blessed.
CANA
It is highly significant that Cana (‘reedy’) is the place where Jesus performed his first miracle, turning water into wine at a (his?) wedding feast, demonstrating his magical ability to interact with the other dimensional sacred reality… or to alter this one. In early Christian art Jesus, in the role of the Redeemer (phonetically reed-e-mer), is repeatedly shown performing this miracle, and all the others, with a rod or wand in his hand. What is this wand? Where did he get it? What is the rod made of? What happened to it? I’ve wondered about this for a very long time.
The reed symbol next reappears as a prominent tool in the crucifixion, first subtly, then overtly. After Pilate washed his hands of Jesus, the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall, and they stripped him, and put on him a purple robe, symbolic of royalty and sovereignty.
After putting the purple robe on Jesus, “they [had] platted a crown of thorns, they put [it] upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews!”
Next, “they took the reed and smote him on the head”.
Finally, a “reed” on which was put the sponge filled with vinegar was raised to Jesus’ mouth. They said, “Let’s see if Elias (Heb. ‘Eliahu, “Yahveh is God” also called Elijah) comes to save him.” And Jesus gave up the ghost.
Like Enoch, Elias was “translated,” so that he should not taste death. He became a starwalker. He was last seen talking with his spiritual son Eliseus on the hills of Moab when, “a fiery chariot, and fiery horses parted them both asunder, and Elias went up by a whirlwind into heaven.” In effect, the Romans are saying, “let’s see if Elijah comes out of the whirlwind to save him.” It appears the whirlwind (symbol of a vortex) and the reeds (symbol of another dimension) are entwined symbols.
Based upon the spotlighting of the reed symbol in the Passion of Jesus it is clear to me now that his rod was likely a ‘reed’ rod or wand that conducted the rays and radiations, the song of the Dimension of the Blessed. By portraying Jesus as a magician (or musician) with his reed wand the early church (A.D. 1st-2nd century) returned to him his power symbol or tool, which was turned against him by the Romans. This ‘reed wand,’ I propose, is the Holy Grail.
Intriguingly, the Holy Grail tradition kept the memory of the blessed place alive. For instance, Avalon is sometimes referred to as the legendary location where Jesus visited the British Isles with Joseph of Arimathea and was later the site of the first church in Britain. This church, known as the Wattle Church, was composed of reeds—a reed church.
Joseph of Arimathea revived the ancient tradition of symbolizing the Church by a reed.
One of the first of the Holy Grail romances was a poem called The Tale of the Grail, written by the French poet Chretien de Troyes around the year 1190. Curiously, introducing the book Chretien says he got the story from an older book given to him by his patron. He refers to the Grail Castle as the White Castle. Another Grail Romance, now known as the Didot Perceval, refers to it as “the White Castle in the White Town.” Another anonymous Grail author attempted to advance Chretien’s Tale of the Grail and stated that the White Town is in a region called “the White Land.” Yet another grail tale written around the time of the twelfth century, the Welsh story called Peredur, adds the incredible detail that the White Land is an area situated in the “Old Marshes” or… Old Reeds.
The reed symbolism reappears in the word Canon-ization, the ultimate act of consciousness in the Christian tradition. This is when one becomes a saint, effectively dividing or setting oneself apart from the rest of humanity.
According to some writers, the origin of beatification (becoming a blessed one) and canonization in the Catholic Church is to be traced back to the ancient pagan apotheosis: Deification, the exaltation of men to the rank of gods, or god making. The apotheosized are translated, like Elijah, to heaven—presumably in a whirling vehicle—and become starwalkers.
In Acts 2:4 the apostles were recognized as canonized when a “flame of invisible light,” a lamp, appeared on top of their heads (as it did on the Buddhist bodhisattvas). This flame streaming from their heads signified superintelligence and illumination.
Webster’s says the word can-dor, honesty in expressing oneself, comes from candere, to shine. This is also the root of candle. In early Christian history, those who had received baptism were called illuminati and were given a lighted taper as a symbol of their spiritual enlightenment. It is easy to see why a lit candle symbolizes ‘Christ,’ the light… of the Field of Reeds or the Dimension of the Blessed.
Whether spelled Canaan, Cana, Canon, Kanon, Kan or Kenon this word-vibration refers ultimately to the most mystical of paths, the one leading to the Field of Reeds, the Dimension of the Blessed. In one of those ironic twists of history the word Canon was applied cannon, a weapon, and to an ecclesiastical law or code of laws established by a church council and to scriptures ratified (adopted as law) by the church. The books of the Bible officially accepted as Holy Scripture are known as the Canon.
Ironically (or perhaps not), in the collective consciousness of the 21st century the Cana word-vibration is most closely associated with a space port. I speak, of course, of the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral (Spanish for “Cape of Canes or Reeds”), where many space shuttle launches take place. Though the place was named 400 years before NASA came along Canaveral, rings of its purpose: the connecting place to the blessed Field of Reeds. Humorously, its telephone area code is 321.
From the ancient to the modern world the reed place has meant the same thing. Now you know the rest of the story.
Hotep*