Osiris

Osiris was the evergreen Prince of Peace:

His name was the Latinised form of the Egyptian Wesir  which was interpreted as “powerful” or “mighty”. He presided over the organic cycle of deaths and rebirths that a normal person experiences in their evolution. This process may have continued for hundreds of lifetimes as someone slowly edged towards enlightenment.

Mercy (the crook) and severity (the flail) played key roles in this process. Mercy was conveyed by the crook, because this was a merciful way of gently “guiding” a stray animal back into the fold. Severity was embodied by the flail, which was a severe way of “forcing” a rebellious beast back into line. In this way we are reminded of the human psyche.

The “Osirianised” dead, by crossing two symbols above the heart indicates that the middle was found—the pathway between perceived polarities. By using these instruments of self-control to balance these extremes, Tutankhamun had “followed in the footsteps” of Osiris and found peace within. Even our hands have played a pivotal role in religious rituals across time. Crossing the hands is deeply rooted in spirituality, symbolising a connection to the divine.

So the crook was held by the left hand (right brain) and the flail was held by the right hand (left brain). In other words, the receptive and resistant brain correspondences had specific registers in the body. When the crook and flail were brought together across the heart, it symbolised the balance where peace could be experienced. In the famous myth, Osiris was cut into 42 pieces by Set, a reference to the Seed of Life. So the “X” meant crossing over: the union of physical and metaphysical, universe and soul.

Above: the nose is at the centre of this shape, representing spirit

The head of Osiris is inspired by the reversed pentagram. As an expression of balance it invites us to connect with our true nature. As the sacred aether, its presence supersedes all structures on the material plane, creating a conscious blueprint beyond time and space—the starseed of life itself.

Russian physicist George Gamow predicted how the twenty edges of a dodecahedron (or twenty triangular faces of its dual—the icosahedron) can be used to represent the twenty standard amino acids in DNA.  From this, protein bonds into sequences of amino acid tetrahedrons, forming into a dodecahedron that is then twisted by hydrogen around a fixed polar backbone into the ten-step spatial symmetry of the DNA double helix.

The ancients called the dodecahedron ‘the quintessence’ or the building block of geometrical creation—the pattern of pure life energy and the basis of practical alchemy. Here we begin to see that the dodecahedron functions at the microcosmic and macrocosmic scales. Plato called the archetypal dodecahedron the supreme spiritual metaphor for the One and the Many, a model that serves as the archetypal framework for every possible manifestation.

Plato called aether (Ākāśa) the “living fire,” or “spirit of life”. As the highest deity that built the universe in the geometrical form of life as water, its “first begotten” emerged from the chaos and primordial light of the Great Central Sun. In this context, aether is simultaneously the prima materia and the ultima materia.

This Egyptian metaphysical doctrine was inherited by occultists, alchemists and philosophers as new civilisations were born. Over the centuries it became grouped into different sub-genres including Alchemy, Hermeticism and Gnosticism. Its insights on the geometry of life, however, remain as relevant today as they were 3,300 years ago.