ABSTRACT
It is related in very old Egyptian legends that when Shu-Anhur lifted up the paradise or park of Am-Khemen he was compelled to make use of a mound or staircase with steps to it in order that he might reach the height. This mound, says Maspero, was famous throughout all Egypt. The event (as supposed history) took place at Hermopolis, the city of which Taht was lord ; therefore we may look to the lunar deity for the origin of the step-mound. A figure of this mound may be seen in vignettes to the Ritual as a pyramid with seven steps called the ladder or staircase of Shu. How then did the steps or stairs of the mound originate as a lunar type of the ascent ? and why should the steps be seven in number ? The answer is because they were lunar. The moon fulfilled its four quarters in twenty-eight steps ; fourteen up and fourteen down. For this reason, Osiris in the moon was represented by an eye at the top of fourteen steps. The moon in its first quarter took seven steps upward from the underworld to the summit, which in the annual reckoning was the equinoctial mount. In other words Shu now made use of a lunar reckoning previously established by the moon-god Taht, when the ark of seven cubits was superseded by Am-Khemen. There are two sets of names in the Ritual given to the seven primordial powers in two of their astronomical characters. The first seven are called (1) An-ar-ef the great. (2) Kat-Kat. (3) The Bull who liveth in his fire. (4) The Red-eyed One in the House of Gauze. (5) Fiery face which turneth backwards. (6) Dark face in its hour, and (7) Seer in the night. The second seven are (1) Amsta. (2) Hapi. (3) Tuamutef. (4) Kabhsenuf. (5) Maa-tef-f. (6) Karbek-f. (7) Har-Khent-an-maa-ti. The first four of the latter seven are the gods of the four quarters, who stand on the papyrus of earth and who became the children of Horus in a later creation.
