Darkness Is Just The Absence Of Light

Can you use your clairvoyance to explore the relationship between the visible and invisible worlds, creating something truly new from scratch?

- Cheops, said Ibebi then, I congratulate you on your clairvoyance. It is very true that this creation by the word, starting from nothing, is absurd, unless we admit that this word itself possesses a magical power of creating forms.

- Why would I admit that? replied Cheops. I have never seen a man who could create anything just by opening his mouth and making sounds.

- Maybe not a man, but why not a god?

- Can a god act against the laws of Maat, which says that nothing is born from nothing?

- Well thought ! I could also say: unless somehow the god, not by the simple power of the word, but rather starting from his own substance, created the visible and invisible world, the luminous spirits that we call "ahu" and the matter that takes in our eyes the forms that have become familiar to us are those of the mountains that dominate Egypt, as well as the plants that grow in the valley, both the animals that populate it, and the people that inhabit it. But we will talk about that later, because Memphis theologians seem to ignore that the world is much more complex than they think and that a simple sound cannot create the world from Nothing, even if it is emitted by a god.

Have you ever meditated on how "primordial chaos" is reflected in the compositional structure of your work, so that a truth is revealed behind some descriptions of facts?

- As for creation, according to the words of the clergy from Heliopolis, Cheops continues, I only focused on the problem of light and darkness. It seems to me that the priests of Ra received from distant ancestors the tradition of the creation of the world by Atum, starting from the primordial matter, Nun. But they themselves are the heirs of the cult of Ra manifested in the sun, the source of all light. The difficulty they could not solve is that, if Atum is none other than Ra, that is, the sun, light could not precede the darkness of the primordial chaos. For in that case it could not exist in darkness, and it could not exist by itself, since light is prior to it, and from this fact there would have been adversity even before darkness came into the world.

Contemplating the teaching of others, how do you use the clarity and directness of your vision to highlight often ignored aspects of the surrounding reality?

- You judged well once again, son. For, contrary to the teaching that is transmitted in general, that is, the popular doctrine, darkness has no reality of its own, no substance, which is easy to ascertain when it surrounds us; it is only the absence of light. We imagine it only by referring to the night, but even in the starry night there is a diffused light in the sky. Darkness, absolute blackness, is only an artificial creation: if I blow into these lamps, we shall find ourselves in darkness, but this darkness has no real existence, for it is enough to light these lamps again, so that it is dissipated. It is very true that the identification of Nun with the primordial darkness is an error of appreciation, and this aporia makes the cosmology of the Helopolitans appear to us as absurd as that of the Memphites, who claim that the world was created by the word of god, starting from nothing, from nothing.

Ibebi was silent. Silence settles between them, barely disturbed by the puff of breath. Then Ibebi said:

- Now, tell me what you know about the creation of the world according to the teaching in this temple of Thoth.

- Once again, I can only tell you what I read in the first book of Thoth, Cheops answered. In the beginning, everything was in Thoth, he is confused with the eight mysterious primordial divinities.

All that emanates from leadership is about identifying the vision with which you animate your creation, so as to guide it into the depth of an authentic teaching about spiritual life drawn from an ever-changing reality.

"Darkness is only the absence of light" suggests that everything we perceive can be interpreted on a dual level, and that everything we imagine, if it is to find a place in our own creation, is actually a manifestation of our inclination towards the divine. And when it comes to the divine, we must recognize that every aspect of our lives can become a manifestation of duality and our human tendency to seek or create light and understanding in the midst of uncertainty.

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