Humanity's Sacred Vow
This document, known as the Papyrus of Ani, depicts the deceased (Ani) facing judgement before the Gods and listing the Commandments he was able to follow.
The human brain cannot invent. If this is your first time hearing of this concept, like me, you’re probably saying to yourself “yeah, right”. But really, think about it for a moment. Slow down for a second and think about everything that humanity has created, all of the inventions, all of the accomplishments. I will give you a minute to let it sink in……
That’s right, everything that you can come up with, came from somewhere. I challenge you to think of something that a human has created that does not have any roots in something else that already existed. Let’s take for example, an airplane. This is something that we celebrate as being a true symbol of our ingenuity. Although airplanes are very convenient and I am grateful they exist, I can’t say that people came up with this idea out of thin air (no pun intended). In order to engineer an airplane, humans first witnessed birds flying through the sky and longed to be able to do the same. Eventually, we were able to replicate a bird well enough to mimic its flight and move about the earth in this convenient way. Similarly, we saw animals gliding through the water with ease and created boats and submarines.
If you can agree that it is impossible to think of a new idea out of nothing, then you must be wondering, how in the world did our Ancestors figure out how to communicate? How did they learn about mathematics? How did they learn about science, farming, spirituality, etc.? Basically, how did they begin to do all of the things that make us human?
The story that I am going to share with you is a very old one and it answers all of these questions. As you read on, I want you to notice that really, nothing fundamentally new has been introduced by humanity since the time of this story.
It begins long ago when our first Ancestors were living in darkness, and were not different from any other animal. Back then, your neighbors might be what’s for dinner and basic hygiene was non existent. It was the era in which people who we refer to as “cave men” roamed the earth. If you can imagine people living that way, and you know that they were incapable of inventing anything, then you can see what a pitiful situation we found ourselves in. So pitiful that the Divine World took notice.
Seeing this dreadful situation, one Neter (God) by the name of Wsr decided to come to our aide, despite the great risk he was putting himself in. For those of you who don’t know about the risk, imagine you have never been exposed to any filth, corruption or uncleanliness. However, you decide to travel to a land where everyone is sick, unclean and corrupt, much like the fate of indigenous people who encountered European colonizers who did not understand basic hygiene. You are likely to end up with an unfortunate fate, plagues and death after being exposed (but that’s another story).
Wsr was merciful enough to put himself in a situation where he was surrounded by corrupt humans. During his time with humanity, it was Wsr who taught people what we know. He taught us how to farm, so we no longer had to live like hunter gatherers, or eat our neighbors. He taught us how to communicate through speaking and writing. He taught us about mathematics. He even taught us about hygiene so we no longer had to live in filth. But the most important thing that Wsr shared with us was the concept of spirituality. All of these things were brought to us by a Divine Being. We did not invent any of it.
After Wsr had accomplished his mission and humans were no longer in a barbaric state, humanity found itself in a unique situation. Although we had accomplished so much, we didn’t really know why we were doing any of it. Humanity had no goal. We were just going about our days, living life. The Divine World took notice again and asked humanity: “what is your purpose?” Of course, people once again found themselves stuck by their lack of ingenuity. Unable to come up with anything on their own, they decided to do what they do best...imitate. After being exposed to the World of the Gods, humanity told the Neteru (Gods) “we want to be like you”.
Even though Wsr knew this was nearly impossible because we are just mortals, he accepted our wish and consulted the other Neteru to give us assistance. What they gave us is the most precious thing that humanity received from this interaction with the Divine World. On the 19th day of the first month of the Sidereal Calendar, Tehuti, the Neter by the name of Tehuti presented humanity a list of 77 ordinances or guidelines collected from various Neteru to help us replicate their world. Knowing that we would not be able to replicate the World of the Gods on our own, they gave us detailed commandments that are designed to help us know what not to do if we want to be like them.
As mentioned before, nothing new has come since that interaction with the Divine. All religions, all languages, all customs, all inventions can be traced to that defining encounter. If you don’t believe me, you can investigate for yourself and see how many inventions have been created since then that do not have roots in that interaction with the Neteru. If you are honest about your investigations you will see that most things you think are inventions are simply modifications or mutations of something that already existed.
To this day we still celebrate the 19th of Tehuti. On this day we celebrate by eating fruit dipped in honey after repeating, “Ma’at is sweet, Ma’at is our light. The truth is sweet, the truth is our path. Justice is sweet, justice is our path. Goodness is sweet, goodness is our path.” We are forever indebted to Wsr, Tehuti and all of the other Neteru for allowing us the opportunity to try to be like them.