Walk Like an Egyptian

Book excerpt: The calendar material in this expanded edition of Walk Like An Egyptian provides further insight into the mind of the ancient world, a glimpse into a world in which every element of reality was a manifestation of the divine and the cosmic, a time in which even the counting of days and months into years was a mystery of divine proportions. The calendar of ancient Egypt is older than astrology. The Egyptian calendar itself is almost forgotten, yet it is the direct ancestor of the Western calendar in use today. The ancient Egyptians were keenly focused on the concept of life as a journey through time, and the calendar was their map. In Walk Like An Egyptian, you will find one of the world's oldest guides to self-navigation in an easy-to-use format, a daily horoscope from the dawn of history. Each season, month and day is listed with its ancient name, together with the warnings and requirements, stories and scenarios of the gods involved in the story of the year. The day is divided into eight-hour segments of morning, afternoon and night. Sacred ceremonies and ritual feasts are also listed, making the calendar a complete guide to the Egyptian year, a horoscope unlike any other available in the modern world. The earlier editions of Walk Like An Egyptian brought the concepts of ancient Egyptian religion and philosophy into the context of the modern world. Readers around the globe found the once-obscure ideas of ancient wisdom interpreted as profound contemplations of the reality of human nature. Many familiar names in the ancient pantheon were revealed in modern terms, such as: Osiris, the divine and immortal portion of each human's soul clothed in mortal flesh; Re, the divine light of consciousness in the mind; Horus, who is the paradox of the universal nature of each soul's unique identity; Isis, bonding force of the soul; Thoth, representing the power of human thought and intellect, and more. The success of Walk Like An Egyptian led to Wheeler's collaboration with Diana Janeen Pierce, who had assembled a daily calendar of ancient Egyptian ceremonies, rituals and festivals. Wheeler and Pierce worked together on a translation of the lengthy and difficult Cairo Calendar Papyri, one of the few surviving documents detailing the system by which Egyptians organized their daily lives. Wheeler's accompanying interpretation of the Egyptian cosmos makes a lively counterpart to the horoscope, clarifying the often confusing material. Together, Wheeler and Pierce provide a modern evaluation of how to "walk like an Egyptian," attuned to eternity in your daily life and guided by eternal principles.