Arkhenaten was Egypt’s most profound pharaoh to rule Egypt. He led Egypt in a direction that would tag him “The Heretic Pharaoh.” He brought forth new ideas mainly in religion and art that would leave a lasting impression on the world. Unlike most pharaohs, Akhenaten presented himself in a way that would lead to controversy and would shock the world and his culture.
In fact after having taken the kingship from his father (and new information is that they ruled together) Arkhenaten changed his name (from Amenhotep IV), shifted his Kingdom from Luxor to a dusty sandpit called Armana and turned his back on all the pillaging Pharaohs were known for and settled with his gorgeous queen Nefretiti to raise 6 children. Just 15 years after rising to power he disappeared, never to be heard of again, his name erased from history, reliefs destroyed and writings scratched from reliefs.
What led to this shambles?
Why did Arkhenaten shift the capital – no small task – and build a city in the middle of no where and what has this got to do with Tutankhamun and us in 2011.
To appreciate the scale of his accomplishments also consider this. For over 2000 years the Egyptians worshipped the various Gods particularly ISIS and OSIRIS and then in the stroke of a pen, Arkhenaten changed all that, and everyone happily started worshipping the ‘Aten’ (a symbol representing the sun that could not be made tangible in any way or form). Imagine in one pen stroke no one believes in God, Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed and within a year we all believe in the moon. It was exactly what he was able to pull off. But if he was so great…why did he disappear?
Here are the facts and they read like a Dan Browne / Steven Spielburg Production:
Just prior to his reign the mighty volcano of Thera (Santorini) blows its top. The result send a tidal wave that destroys the Minoan civilisation. Scientific research shows the wave would have been over 100 metres high. The resulting plume of smoke and ash falls on Luxor and upper Egypt and blanks out the sun for weeks. The Pharoah who is GOD sees this as his failure and cannot compute the damage it causes and steps down Arkhenaten steps in.
He creates a new religion. Why not…the old one failed and caused massive death and destruction (The Santorini explosion was estimated as the same as 50 A-Bombs that hit Nagasaki) Everyone follows him to Armana and rebuilds the capital.
He lets everything go to focus on love – like a bit of a hippy reformist – yet he doesn’t sire a son, only six daughters, most of them dying young.
Illness comes to Egypt and the Hyskos attack. People lost faith. Nefretiti dies and Arkhenaten is left broken, sad, blamed and the new religion is failing as well.
He is succeeded by Smenkhare who is married to his daughter. Smenkhare believes that all the death and sickness in Egypt that persists is because of the new religion of Atenism so he orders every memory of Arkenaten to be destroyed. A year later he dies.
Smenkhare’s successor is Tutankhamun who himself practices Atenism. When he dies his tomb is hidden by Ay, his head of security and successor so that no one destroys his leagcy
So what is the legacy and where does Moses come in?
Fascinatingly Smenkhare is blamed by Tutankhamun after his death for all the sickness in Egypt. Whilst it was really caused by the eruption twenty years earlier, factually Smenkhare was born on the night Thera erupted.
What most of us don’t know is that the picture we have of King Tut from his middle coffin, which is his number one PR shot is actually Smekhare. Ay, reburied Smekhare as a girl in a tomb called Tomb 55, to discredit him and distributed his wealth. Tut inherited a casket as he died early and was buried and hidden to keep watch on Smenkhare and ensure he is never reborn.
The night of the eruption was also the night Moses (or Thutmosis), the prince who was a son of Israel left by the river, found by a princess and became a brother to Arkenaten took the Israelites in exodus from captivity and slavery in Egypt. In fact as the elder he was the true heir to the throne, but Arkenaten was never going to allow an Israelite the throne. Moses had to go. His parting of the Red Sea (in fact Reed sea as the translation was incorrect) has now been very well documented as a land bridge created between the mediterranean and Lake Manzala caused when the massive Tsunami (which is Egypt was no where near as big as it was in the other direction) drew the water away from the coast for a few hours. Luck?
The worship of Aten is based on ancient Hebrew not Egyptian traditions.
So what is the message here for us?
1. We are living in some of the most significant times right now
2. We are experiencing tidal waves, earthquakes and floods like unknown in recorded history
3. The world’s power brokers are stirring. There is a change coming. China is growing, the USA is falling.
Whether you understand what was written above – understand this for your life:
Where there is power available there are people who want it
It’s easy to place blame – you are responsable for you
You have the power to love, hate, forgive and create
You have your beliefs, they are not right or wrong, just what you believe…so make sure they are yours and not what someone else wants you to believe. Trust your heart.