The Pharaoh Who Was An Assassin: Hymn to a Sun God
How Akhenaten’s Ode to Monotheism Reveals the True Nature of Infinity
" God is the tangential point between zero and infinity. – Alfred Jarry "
Tweet this
In the polytheistic world, the worship of many gods suggests infinity multiplied. After all, each deity is infinite – in wisdom, power, influence, and so much more – but to suggest as much as to assign to infinity that which cannot be. The singularity is inevitable, as the great Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten expressed through prose.
Chasing the Infinite – There Can Be But One Source
As Jarry makes clear in the quote that opened this essay, God is the human-made manifestation of an infinity we can’t possibly comprehend. Note that Jarry says “God” and not “Gods.” To even begin to express the infinite, we must first accept that there can be only one infinity, as you will discover in this excerpt from my upcoming book.
Excerpt From Akhenaten’s Hymn to the Sun God
Reading an esoterically authentic Playbill, I discovered four hundred years after the Pharaoh’s death, a hymn-like poem surfaces, credited to Pharaoh Akhenaten. Perhaps initially passed down through memorization by way of oral tradition, like most else in Eastern history, the hymn is quite striking:
How manifold it is, what thou hast made!
They are hidden from the face (of man).
O sole god, like whom there is no other!
Thou didst create the world according to thy desire,
…..
When you set they die;
You yourself are lifetime, one lives by you.
All eyes are on [your] beauty until you set.
He begins by praising Atum for making the massive creation – a work of diversity, magnitude, and great quantities of classifications. This is followed by the proclamation, as the counterpoint to the glory of the sun god, that men cannot perceive any of it.
To infer glory, without sight.
I do so too, it’s too might(y).
I don’t think he’s saying we miss some things; he’s saying we cannot see any of the great qualities of his creation.
We are blind to even the reflection of his light in his manifold works.
I blindly sensed the notion of his god as light and life here is omnipresent with the idea that I can see the brilliance of the sun god in the created things. They reflect on our faces, much like the sun warms our faces in Hebrew tradition.
Then comes the line that devastates me still:
“O sole god”.
In Egypt, not unlike Greece, India, or the present-day West, each with its multitudes of gods, he commits the unthinkable.
He assassinates all the false gods.
With three syllables. “O sole god.”
Drawing the ire of his own country by rejecting the majority’s provisions, he’s all in.
Drawing the respect of the yet-to-exist Russian agents, they are pre-impressed.
Now, if I think about this, I realize this takes courage. What if those dozens of other gods were real, and he chose incorrectly? Wouldn’t it be safer to just keep them all – just in case?
Herein lies the problem, which you may share with me:
I only find weak lies slaying me with weakness. "
Tweet this
" When I make decisions based on being safe,
Seeking safety or truth, I will not find either.
I must sacrifice what might be
For that which I deem of highest worth.
" The “shoulds” and “oughts” must overcome the numerical probabilities in my life if I am to live a life that matters. I am more than a calculator. "
Tweet this
Soon you will discover why I had to reject everything false
in order to accept a single truth.
I must also be all in.
Finishing the assassination of all the other gods, he claims:
“like whom there is no other.”
Atum is set apart; he is uniquely god.
The infinite is, by definition, unique.
Three Takeaways
First Takeaway – The Very Nature of Infinity Precludes Multiple Gods
If infinity is unique – which in tangible terms means that it is simply one and that no other is like it – then it stands to reason that God is also unique. There is no other way, as it is impossible to have multiple manifestations of a being that represents something that cannot be replicated. Akhenaten understood this, risking the ire of his people to guide them toward the truly divine.
There cannot be two infinite powers because one will always thwart the other.
Second Takeaway – The Blind Can Often See More Than the Sighted
In my contemplations of the Sun God and what it represents to humanity, I realize that those who have sight can never truly see the sun. You know this yourself – to stare directly into the sun is to damage your vision. However, those without sight can still feel the sun’s presence; the warmth on their face, and the absence of that warmth when the sun gives way to the moon.
Perhaps there is a lesson here – often it is those whose perspective differs from our own that can lead us down the true path to wisdom. The blind are the only ones who can stare into a blinding light.
Third Takeaway – Never Make Decisions Based on Safety
The concept of “being safe” is far more dangerous than having the ability to take risks. To be safe is to be stagnant – sequestered away behind a shield of sickly security. It is only when we follow Akhenaten’s example, in which he risked the wrath of his people to guide them to truth, that we understand that making decisions based on safety will slay us in the end.
It is better to risk it all and lose than to stand still and ignore the cosmic game entirely.
