We are told in the Midrash, a collection of biblical exegesis, the story of
Joseph, interpreter of dreams and of his coat of many colours. Various scholars,
including Beatrice Brooks, W.F. Albright, Joseph Henderson and Maud Oakes, have
suggested that Joseph’s coat may have marked him as a gender variant priest of
the Goddess, Athirat, the garment perhaps not even being a coat but a wedding
dress belonging to his mother, Rachel, who may well have been a priestess of the
Goddess (Henderson and Oakes, 1990:20). Henderson and Oakes, following the
idea of psychologist Eric Neumann, point out that both Joseph’s experience in the
pit at the hands of his brothers and his interpretation of the dream of the seven
lean cattle and seven fat cattle (Genesis, 37:18–27 and 41:1-34) may be linked to
the shamanic underworld journey undertaken by the Goddess, Athirat and her
consort, El (Neumann, 1970:70-72, 134).
We read also that Abraham built an altar and waited to hear the voice of
God, Moses heard God speak from a burning bush, Jacob practiced sympathetic
magic and wrestled with an archangel, Samuel foretold the future and Solomon is
said to have used magic incantations (Pritchard, 1969:52-57,97-99,107-109, and
Aune, 1983:86-87). I n the Talmud, Solomon is reckoned to have been the
mightiest magician [ shaman] of his age, a sorcerer-king whose wisdom is attributed
to his possession of an enchanted ring with which he summoned the demons of the
Earth (Gardner, 2000:12). I ndeed, ecstatic revelations and visions are an integral
part of the Judeo-Christian tradition that stretches back to Old Testament times and
rhythmical music and other typically shamanistic aids to ecstasy recur as the
technique of Old Testament prophets; the dance that David performed before the
ark was particularly vigorous, perhaps frenzied (2 Samuel, 6: 5, 16-21). I ndeed, 1
Chronicles, 16:4-42 credits David with the invention of the entire musical system of
the Temple in Jerusalem but which might be read also as a description of rhythmic
shamanic ecstasy. Tim Wallace-Murphy and Marilyn Hopkins add to this list of
shamans Melchizedek, Elijah and in ancient Greece Pythagoras, Plato, Socrates and
Aristotle and even Confucius for the Chinese (Wallace-Murphy, et al, 1999:42-43).
Andrew Collins argues that shamanism lies behind the foundation of the
Hebsed-jubilee festival conducted by the Horus kings of Ancient Egypt, a ritual that
was said to have taken place since the ‘Time of the Ancestors’ (Collins, 1998:188).
I f his observations are correct, then we are left with the distinct possibility that
some of the divine inhabitants of Wetjeset-Neter, a sacred, mythical realm and its
environs, were bird shamans who associated themselves with the falcon and
ron
(Ron)
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