Any Creation Can Only Be Made Starting From The Initial Matter

Becoming aware of an image can be likened to the discovery of a great fact, inviting you to see beyond the obvious, culminating in an achievement that exceeds all expectations.

- This conception of the priests of Ptah, according to which the god, about whom it is not known how he came into the world, seems to have created the gods by word, after having conceived them by intelligence, is implausible, absurd, it is only an exercise of the spirit, a dance step of thought, an acrobat's pirouette.

- I listen to you, Ibebi told him then. Tell me why!

- It is very true that the living being that has not received a name is, compared to others, nothing, it does not exist. If the term man had existed only to designate our species, if it had not been given a name, which in a way became your very substance, it would pass among us like a shadow. No one could shout at you, and if someone were to address you in the street by shouting in some way, you would have no reason to turn your head, to approach him, because the shout could be addressed to everyone and no one. Through your name, Ibebi, and through my name, Cheops, we truly exist, we have a being that all can look upon.

If I hear this name that is mine, I come to the one who called me. If I'm talking to you and I want to tell you something about someone I know, how would you know who it is if I can't name the person with a name that would identify him among other people alive? Likewise, when I turn to these two statues, I say that one represents an ibis, the other a baboon, for I was told so, for I saw them living in the valley, because they were named to me, and I also know that both the one and the other are the symbols of Thoth, that the god manifests himself through one or the other of these animals, and you also know that, and that is why we understand each other.

In terms of the subjective interpretation of visuals, have you ever wondered how the reality around you could be perceived through the lens of image and form to highlight your sense of self and vision?

But if the raw matter were placed before me, the still-form stone in which the sculptor fashioned these two forms, what could I say about them, except that it is stone or wood or clay? But nothing could permit me to call the one an ibis and the other a baboon, unless we both agreed that each represented one of these animals, even if they did not have their shape. But if a third comes, who has not heard of our agreement, he will see only rough stones. Because the chisel of the sculptor has given them this form existing in nature, I know that it is one or other of these animals, and because I have been told that the god manifests in them, I can say that they are Thoth.

Thus the creator god, by the magic of the word, can give form to pre-existing matter, as the sculptor does with his chisel, and can name a created form, as we have named our own children, sprung from our seed, whose forms were fashioned from this initial matter. But naming them at birth does not mean that we created them. Any creation can only be made starting from an initial matter, which is called Nun or Tatenen. Therefore, I conclude that, as conceived by the priests of Heliopolis, creation, even if it sins in some aspects, is more logical than that proposed by the priests of Memphis, because the latter is purely artificial. I remember those illusionistic figures, made by some skilled jugglers, who beat the country roads and thus live by fooling the poor peasants.

The conclusion that leadership imposes is this: "Be aware of the emotion and virtue that can be conveyed through a work of art, even when it is only an image, without clear content."

Any creation can only be made starting from an initial matter, taking into account the fact that every creation requires a form, and this is obtained by modeling the pre-existing matter. For example, you might see in every picture, in every work of a sculptor only rough stones, their outline and form defined by a vision and a perspective that governs how they are perceived and shaped.

You too can be an artist if you heed the following advice: "Your understanding of an image without content can evolve once you realize that its value depends on subjective interpretations of visual elements."

* Note: Rachet, Guy - Cheops and the Ibis conjuration, Lucman Publishing House, 2003.