Written by Gary Osborn, 2004.

Copyright © G Osborn. 2004. All Rights Reserved

Thoth Hermes – otherwise known as Djehuti, Tehuti or Tautuus – was sometimes depicted with a dog’s head and the body of a baboon, or alternatively a human figure with the head of an Ibis (see Figures 1 and 2). The role of Thoth is complex but should not be underestimated. It’s advisable to cross-reference his character with the Greek god Hermes or the Roman Mercury, as well as that Hermetic icon of wisdom, Hermes Trismegistus.

  Thoth was the archetypal master shaman and sorcerer, and his role as the wise teacher, guide and instructor of the ‘shaman god-kings’ was much like Merlin to Arthur, John the Baptist to Jesus and more recently, Gandulf to Frodo in The Lord of the Rings saga – even Master Jedi Yoda to Luke Skywalker in Star Wars. [1]  

  Possibly going back further than the dynastic Egyptians, Thoth (pronounced ‘Foff’) was also a scribe, mathematician and astronomer, and an educator of men and was said to have written many books – his science and higher wisdom having become the foundation of Alchemy and the Hermetic mystery schools.

So in the way I myself would understand it: if Thoth was associated with ‘balance,’ then surely to enter the Underworld, the opposite energies - male and female sides - of a dead person were required to be perfectly balanced and in equilibrium.

  And if so, then we can see that Thoth represents this ‘midpoint’ or ‘neutral point’ between the conscious-self and the subconscious, which like the two Equinoxes in the annual cycle was seen as a kind of “gateway.” Therefore he also personifies the intelligence, knowledge and wisdom granted to the individual who experiences the shamanic trance state and the associated enlightenment experience and via this fusion in consciousness – being the reintegration of the mind – i.e., its two divisions.

  If true, then its no wonder that one of Thoth’s roles was that he judged the dead – an allusion to the belief that the dual reality of opposites and that the two divisions of one’s mind should be reintegrated – fused together again so as to move on up to the next level of existence – or even to the source itself – Atum-Ra.

  This was even demonstrated in the crucifixion of Christ – of which more will be said elsewhere in this work. See Figure 3 below. Many have failed to notice that the scales are actually a model for the cross of crucifixion as featured in the 'Passion of Christ'.

But here we can see that the axis of the scales represents the man’s own spinal column, as the device which Anubis is adjusting is in line with the man’s eyes and would align with them if his head was placed there.

  And if it is the human spine, as the head of the goddess Ma’at (Justice) placed on top also suggests, then it is also the ‘Cross’ used in the crucifixion – the perfectly horizontal bar of the cross signifying the balance of opposites and therefore one’s entry into the ‘world mother’ the Underworld or Kingdom of God as again exampled later in the so-called ‘Passion of Christ.’ This means that the goddess Ma’at is also Virgo the virgin (‘world mother’) who holds the scales of balance – representing the ‘gateway’ into her - which would be correct.

Ma’at, like the Hindu goddess Kali and other similar goddesses (Isis and Sophia for instance), represent the Kundalini energy that rises up the spine when one’s consciousness is neutrally balanced in the hypnagogic state.

  Therefore the vertical human spinal column would also find correspondence in the equinoctial line that’s strung between the two equinoctial points on the eastern and western horizons and on which the sun rises during the equinoxes.

  This line runs in-between the opposite ‘solstice positions’ of the sun that mark the extreme points in the summer and winter halves of the year. So in terms of the individual and the Chakra system, which we will be looking at later, the hot summer half of the year makes a correspondence with the hot, solar pingala nerve channel that aligns the spine in the body, and the cold winter half of the year makes a correspondence with the cool, lunar ida channel.

  Thoth therefore is an important figure in regard to the shamanic tradition and also the origin of the Grail. In my mind, Thoth embodies the wisdom of those who actually devised the code associated with the Grail – which sheds light on these shamanic concepts and more importantly the shamanic techniques associated with ‘rebirth’ – concepts which no doubt led to an advanced stage in development regarding man’s knowledge of himself and the world around him and also the world’s first ever religion which predated Paganism and was its precedent.

  During the 'Golden Age' or the gods, and perhaps before the tilt of the earth's axis, Osiris ‘ . . . made sure that Maat remained in balance, that the law was kept. And so Maat smiled upon the world. All peoples praised Osiris and Isis, and peace reigned over all, for this was the Golden Age.’ [2]

After the tilt of the axis, and when man fell into the cycles of opposites, Thoth, who now held the Caduceus he got from the sun god Apollo in exchange for his Lyre, played his role as ‘mediator’ between the human male-related conscious and female-related subconscious – uniting them like the serpents on the Caduceus wand and like some great alchemist when he helped the ‘living’ Isis obtain the seed from her “dead” brother and husband Osiris.

  The sexual union of the ‘living’ Isis and the ‘dead’ Osiris also reveals this ‘Life’ and ‘Death’ struggle going on within an individual, as one tries to attain a conscious balance between these two opposites and come off the life-death cycle. If successful, then this ‘third force’ neutralizes these two opposites. In this state, one is both alive and dead at the same time or neither – a third state of existence, just like the ‘dead and alive’ cat used in Quantum Theory. Again, the snake or serpent is a symbol of this neutral ‘third force’ and it is precisely the state that one is in while going through the trance state by which one enters “other worlds” through that neutral point in consciousness and more importantly the enlightenment experience by which one comes face-to-face with the source-centre of creation – the ultimate point in this fusion. This is why today we now have all kinds of devices that synchronize the two sides of the brain, and why people report strange experiences when using such devices – like ‘Hemi-Sync’ of the Monroe Institute for example. However, its not well known that the ancients already understood this and communicated it through their myths and the attributes of certain gods – like Thoth for example who personified this synchronization.

  This would mean that the story of Osiris and Isis is also an allegory revealing that Thoth was the one who first initiated the fusion of opposites that stirred the potent ‘third force.’ In other words, Thoth stands as a ‘figurehead’ to the first shamans to have discovered the techniques to achieve this union – hence his association with knowledge and wisdom.

  He therefore granted illumination and enlightenment to the ignorant and “lifeless” conscious-self of man by resurrecting it as this powerful ‘third force’ and by bringing it into the world as the god Horus – the saviour of mankind. Again, Osiris/Horus was the model for Jesus – Thoth the model for John the Baptist.

Thoth is closely associated with the goddess Isis, the mother of his young protégé – the archetypal ‘shaman saviour-god’ Horus. All three being associated with wisdom. As we know, Horus is really the reincarnated father Osiris, reborn through the ‘world mother’ Isis, and so like Thoth, this ‘shaman saviour’ who learns from him, also represents the “gateway” into the Underworld. We should note that Jesus too was known as “the Door” or “the Way.”

  We can see that this ancient Egyptian Triad of Osiris, Isis and Horus, is really anthropomorphic – in that this Triad symbolizes the three aspects of the human mind: Osiris – the ‘conscious-self,’ Isis the ‘subconscious’ and Horus the ‘superconscious.’ Set, the evil brother of Osiris and Isis, would be the ‘Unconscious’ (the shadow relating to all three aspects) in that he divides the mind of god (the Superconscious) in two – between conscious and subconscious – male and female. After murdering Osiris, he had really separated Osiris and Isis, and so Isis spent her days looking for her husband’s body.

  This is the present mental state of mankind – i.e., divided and then fragmented. Like the dismembered Osiris, the focus of the conscious-self is on the physical world of “unrelated” subjects and objects – an illusion, so say the eastern mystics.

  We see in this myth, that ‘Creation’ is really due to the mind of god – the ‘Superconscious’ – having become momentarily “Unconscious” of itself. This momentary lapse then creates a division in energy between God and the “runaway energy” – the energy dropping ever lower; fragmenting into the different frequencies we know as creation. We can see how difficult this would be to understand, however it will make sense later when we explain further how it relates to the same processes going on within the consciousness of each individual.

For those readers who are familiar with the story of Osiris, we can see that the battle between Horus and Set to avenge his father and himself is the struggle to finally overcome his unconsciousness – which has since been related to ignorance and evil. Set (Satan-Lucifer) – is the Light of consciousness having fallen into darkness – the shadow aspect of God.

  However, Thoth and all what he stands for, can be related to the ‘midpoint’ in consciousness – as represented by the centre of the brain and the spine in the body where the two divisions are healthily balanced or fused together. The spine is also presented in the axis of the scales shown in the funerary scene above.

  Being a 'Moon god' also, Thoth is allied more to the female-related subconscious, and so it is his wisdom, the wisdom of the feminine subconscious, that hopefully guides the conscious-self so as to unite with the subconscious and bring these two aspects of the mind back together again.

  Once a god, man is now a mere “mortal” – being divided from the source he is always fearing death – and in effect, through this fear he is no better than ‘dead.’ Thoth – the ‘archetypal shaman alchemist’ – grants man the chance to glimpse the god or source within him. In other words, he presents man with the knowledge of these internal processes by which man can become a god again, and this ‘resurrected god’ is ‘played out’ in the saviour role of Horus. This is why Thoth also carries the Caduceus – a symbol of the spinal column and these internal processes.

  As some readers will know, Thoth was known as the ‘Thrice Greatest’ – meaning ‘three times great.’ This again, seems to be an allusion to the Triad and the Holy Trinity which are really better defined as ‘positive,’ ‘negative’ and ‘neutral’ – and there is enough reason to suggest that together, the Three Wise Kings or Magi also represent Thoth – i.e., his three aspects – much like the ‘world mother’ who also possesses three aspects – as in the Triple Goddess, the Three Fates and the Three Muses or Graces.

  It’s a possibility that the reason why the Ibis was associated with Thoth, was because it was noted that the colours of the Ibis are White, Black and Red – the same three colours that keep cropping up in the myths and also in esoteric symbolism. This is not something I could ignore, as the three aspects of the Triple Goddess – the three goddesses are each associated with these same colours – white, black and red.

I discovered that Thoth has more in common with the ‘world mother’ and is like her ‘male counterpart’ – the illumined male-related conscious-self who teaches, instructs and guides the conscious-self of every mortal man.

  However, according to author Tom Gilmore, the Greek name given to Thoth, Hermes Trismegistus means ‘three great men,’ not one man who is ‘three times great.’ This is why – he reasons – that there were three cities named Hermopolis, all dedicated to Thoth. Gilmore adds that Thoth was possibly ‘a Triumvirate of powerful men and that the great men were filling positions belonging to family lines represented by icons’ – meaning the different figureheads of Thoth – i.e., an Ibis, Dog, and Man. [3]  

  Now if as Gilmore says, Thoth was really ‘three men’ all using the name associated with wisdom – then its possible that ‘Thoth’ who incorporates these ‘three men,’ is represented by the Three Wise Kings or Magi who were said to be present at the rebirth of Osiris as Horus. Perhaps this detail was later added to the story of Jesus’ birth and maybe because it is an important part of a recurring code to entice those who would try to decipher it and understand it.

Thoth personifies the shaman’s inner knowledge and wisdom. He is also the god of balance and equilibrium, and like the shaman is a psychopomp – one who conducts the dead to the Underworld with his Caduceus staff. Like the god Hermes – his Greek counterpart – he is the “messenger” of the gods – i.e., a ‘mediator’ between this world and the next – and this is why he represents the guiding influence and “gateway” into the ‘world mother’ (the Underworld) and the ‘god’ within us all.

  However, in Egyptian cosmology another dog guards the Underworld. – this is the dog or jackal-headed god Anubis.

  Author Robert Temple tends to focus on Anubis, and not without good reason.

  We find that the archetypal shaman is usually accompanied by two dogs, and there are actually two star constellations given to the theme of the dog – Canis Major, which includes the bright star Sirius, and the lesser well-known Canis Minor. So its possible that one dog represents the ‘gateway,’ and the means to enter it, and the other dog merely represents its guardian. However this is sheer conjecture at this stage, and we found that the role of Thoth was more significant than Anubis and in more ways than we at first realized.

Thoth is associated with balance and equilibrium, and with Anubis he stands in judgement of the dead by recording the weighing of the heart against a feather in the Hall of Ma’at. It is said that if the heart weighed more than the feather – symbolizing the heart weighed down by sin – then one failed to enter the Afterlife.

  The weighing of the heart against the feather is really an allusion to this ‘mind reintegration’ or balance – i.e., the perfect working relationship between the conscious and subconscious. If the “heart is too heavy,” signifying one’s preference of one opposite over that of the other, resulting in division and an ‘out of balance’ prejudiced state of mind – which in turn leads to all kinds of inner and outer conflict based on ignorance and wrongful thoughts and acts – then the individual is a “bad apple” and cannot enter into the Afterlife.

In the scene, an Ibis-headed Thoth records the verdict. The scales are also held by Virgo “the virgin.” Virgo is the sixth Zodiac sign and signals the Autumn Equinox, being the halfway point in the annual cycle. This is the time in the year when the sun moves from Virgo (“the Virgin”) into Libra (“the Scales”) the seventh sign. This point is opposite the 'end-beginning point', which is where the sun moves from Pisces (“the Fishes”) into the sign of Aries (“the Ram”) being the Spring Equinox around March 21.

  The cusp between Virgo and Libra represents the ‘half-way’ point in the cycle and therefore the equinoctial ‘balance point’ – hence the scales. And its symbol of a goddess (the Virgin) holding a set of scales has been adopted as an emblem of the British Judicial system.