Conventional religions
Most of the world’s conventional religions prefer influence over their members from birth, so that they have the advantage of working with a “blank slate”. Knowing nothing else, the child is indoctrinated into the religion, taught that it is the true and only answer to questions beyond tangible experience. If such indoctrination is strong enough, that religion will remain the metaphysical boundary for that individual for life. Using the implied authority of its superior vantage-point, moreover, the religion will attempt to dictate ethical and moral codes for the individual, inculcating feelings for “rightness” and “wrongness” that will flow into his personal behavior and the social institutions he shares with others.
The more primitive and closed the society, of course, the more effective and enduring such religious indoctrination will be. But at various times and circumstances in history, such as the Greek Hellenistic and the Enlightenment eras, and in at least certain advanced cultures today, persons will eventually be exposed to other religions, and non-religions, besides the “inherited” one. The more inquisitive the individual concerning metaphysical truth, the more he may “shop” among such alternatives, looking for the one with the [most] right answers.
Early time
The earliest existing evidence of human culture in the Nile valley dates to more than 250,000 BCE, as the remnants of handaxes and other stone tools have been uncovered 50–100’ below the Nile’s silt terrace.
Sometime between 10,000 and 7,000 BCE, according to conventional archæology, a most important event took place — the domestication of the wild African goat and the subsequent freedom to begin cultivation of grain. This effectively heralded the beginning of human civilization, as for the first time primitive man was free to turn his thoughts to matters other than a constant search for food.
Inhabiting a land characterized by the regularity of the elements (behavior of the winds, the Nile, the climate, the Sun, and the skies), the Egyptians sought perfection in stability, harmony, symmetry, geometry, and a cyclical [as opposed to progressive or linear] concept of time. Egyptian achievements, correspondingly, were notable in areas such as astronomy, mathematics, medicine, and architecture.
Egyptian religion and art tend to be oversimplified in many modern treatments, due in part to the absence of verifiable data in later history until the deciphering of hieroglyphics by Champollion in 1822. Because of the destruction and despoliation of ancient Egyptian records and works of art by religious fanatics of later eras, it is estimated that modern archæologists have at their disposal less than 10% of that country’s cultural creations from which to reconstruct its values.
The Egyptians perceived the Universe as actively controlled by conscious, natural principles (neteru) (neteru) of which Sir E.A. Wallis Budge remarks:
The word neter has been translated “god-like”, “holy”, “divine”, “sacred”,
“power”, “strength”, “force”, “strong”, “fortify”, “mighty”, “protect”; but it is quite impossible to be certain that any word which we may use represents the meaning of neter, because no one knows exactly what idea the ancient Egyptians attached to the word. The truth is that the exact meaning of neter was lost at a very early period of Egyptian history, and even the Coptic does not help us to recover it.
To the Egyptians, all of “nature” (derived from neter) was alive and the direct
consequence of the wills of the neteru. Nature was intelligible not just through inanimate, automatic, general regularities which could be discovered via the “scientific method”; but also through connections and associations between things and events perceived in the human mind. There was no distinction between “reality” and “appearance”; anything capable of exerting an effect upon the mind thereby existed.
Magick as a belief
Hypnosis was known and used in ancient Egypt, where magician-priests officiated at “sleep temples” in which sufferers of various afflictions were cured by visitations of the Gods — most probably while the patients were in a somnambulistic trance. Egyptian magicians hypnotized animals such as lions and cobras. In India the occult hypnotist first hypnotizes himself before operating on his subject. This is a most magical approach and very effective. It seems unknown outside of esoteric circles.
Most of the magick we see today comes to us from ancient Egypt and Chaldea. The Chinese, Hindus, and Tibetans developed their own unique types of magick. Western magick was locked up by the Egyptian priests for thousands of years and then supressed by the rise of Christianity. It was not until medieval Europe that magical knowledge was rediscovered by the alchemists and Cabalists. Only during the past hundred years or so has western culture been open minded enough to permit widespread investigation of the subject. Only since the start of the twentieth century has science shown much interest in it al all.
The “unknown religion”
It is likely that the Hebrew mystical beliefs (which later formed the Cabala) developed during the time the Israelites lived among the Egyptians. Prior to the development of the Cabala, the Jewish religion was a fertility cult of the god Adonai, or El. The Israelites were Syrian foreigners to Egypt, Osiris being the Egyptian name for the Syrian fertility god of the Jews. A similar mystical system (to the Cabala) developed in Egypt centered on the god Amen. Followers of the Egyptian god Amen began to teach that there was one god, Amen, and that all other gods were manifestations of this one true god. The development of monotheism and mysticism occurred simultaneously among the Egyptians and Israelites. To know more about the unknown religion check out: https://saitamaff.medium.com/birth-of-the-zohar-kabbalah-f24947f08d2d
The Babylonians were used to simple relationships and lived in peace and serenity. They made up a nation, speaking the same language. In fact, they formed almost the same family, as it is written (Genesis, 11, 1): “All the earth had one language and similar words”. They weren’t prepared for the process that suddenly started and touched them without warning and they couldn’t figure it out. It seemed that an invisible hand was manipulating them like puppets, themselves not being able to control it.
The Babylonians, who until then revered sculptures and the forces of nature, were to a great extent in the grip of the fear and awe inspired by these idols. They decided to change the rules of the game. A bit like a child rebelling against his parents. Driven by their ego, the Babylonians rose up against the Upper Force. They attempted to place the ego, which had grown out of proportion, above and dominate the Upper Force.
The beginning of the struggle is symbolized by the construction of the Tower of Babel, which reached heaven and even beyond (Genesis 11, 4): “They said: come on, let us build a city and a tower whose top reaches heaven to make a name for us ”. The need that arose in them led them to revolt against the Upper Force. The Tower, a construction of colossal size, allegorically represents the push of the human ego to dominate Nature. The skies that the Babylonians tried to conquer, symbolize the Upper Force.
The process of erupting the ego engendered several phenomena, creating a chain reaction that had become unstoppable. The snowball effect began.
Soon the Babylonians ceased to understand each other. They went from a single language to a multitude of languages, the ones we know today; the people moved away from each other and dispersed in all directions. Growing selfishness pulled them apart like a sword, and each began to be more and more self-centered, ignoring the needs of others. Over time, the phenomenon of exploitation began to emerge.
It turns out that the origin of the name Babel comes from the Hebrew word Balal (confusion, mixture), after the confusion of tongues (Genesis 11, 9): “this is why it was called Babel, because the Lord confused the language of all men on the whole earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over all the face of the earth.
