Akhet

Ankh

Atef

Ba

Bennu (Phoenix)

Cartouche

Crook and Flail

Deshret

Djed

Eye of Horus

Hand Drill

Hedjet

Imiut Fetish

Ka (Spirit)

Khepresh

Menat

Nebu

Nemes

Ourboros

Pschent

Sekhem Scepter

Senet

Serekh

Scarab

Sistrum

Shen Ring

Tyet

Uraeus

Was

Winged Sun

A sistrum is a musical instrument of the percussion family, chiefly associated with ancient Iraq and Egypt. It consists of a handle and a U-shaped metal frame, made of brass or bronze and between 76 and 30 cm in width. When shaken the small rings or loops of thin metal on its movable crossbars produce a sound that can be a from a soft CLANK to a loud jangling. The name derives from the Greek verb σείω, seio, to shake, and σείστρον, seistron, is that which is being shaken. Its name in the ancient Egyptian language was sekhem and sesheshet. Sekhem is the simpler, hoop-like sistrum, while sesheshet (an onomatopoeic word) is the naos-shaped one.

The sistrum was a sacred instrument in ancient Egypt. Perhaps originating in the worship of Bastet, it was used in dances and religious ceremonies, particularly in the worship of the goddess Hathor, with the U-shape of the sistrum’s handle and frame seen as resembling the face and horns of the cow goddess. It was also shaken to avert the flooding of the Nile and to frighten away Set. Isis in her role as mother and creator was depicted holding a pail symbolizing the flooding of the Nile, in one hand and a sistrum in the other. The goddess Bast too is often depicted holding a sistrum, symbolizing her role as a goddess of dance, joy, and festivity.

Sistrum are still used in the rites of the Coptic and Ethiopian churches. Besides the depiction in Egyptian art with dancing and expressions of joy, the sistrum was also mentioned in Egyptian literature. The hieroglyph for the sistrum is shown, but there are other varieties (sistrum and castanets).

Article Source: Wikipedia.org

Hand Drill-(reconstructed)

A Hand drill is a hieroglyph, (and tool), used in Ancient Egypt from the earliest dynasties. As a hieroglyph, it can also be used as a determinative for words related to the profession of vase, bowl, pot-making, etc., typically from fine-grained, colorful rare stone, for example unguent jars. The size of drills was small-to-large, small for small unguent jars, and large for more massive, grain-storing pottery. The original jars found in tombs were more often used for ceremonial usages, presumably the reason they are found as grave goods or tomb offerings.

Hand drill hieroglyph and tool explanation

The hand drill was a vertical type of weighted, and counterbalanced boring bar, (used today in horizontal lathe-work boring, for example: rifle tubes). The hieroglyph shows the weights used as pictured on temple reliefs; the weight of the stones does the tool work, and the artisan simply supplies the rotational motion of the tool, for boring the hole.

Of note: with the weighted device, the Egyptians were performing a lathe operation long before the invention. Instead of the lathe-(massive metal: weight and forces) doing the work, essentially the Egyptians were using a form of a vertical lathe-using gravity-weights, with the boring bar doing the cutting.

Article Source: Wikipedia.org

It is mentioned in the 156th spell for the Book of the Dead:

“You possess your blood, Isis, you possess your power, Isis, you possess your magic, Isis. The amulet is a protection for this Great One, which will drive off anyone who would perform a criminal act against him.”

In all these cases it seems to represent the ideas of resurrection and eternal life.

Also called Tyet, Tet, Tiet, the Knot of Isis, Buckle of Isis, Girdle of Isis, and the Blood of Isis.

The Egyptians also believed that the ka was sustained through food and drink. For this reason food and drink offerings were presented to the dead, although it was the kau (k3w) within the offerings that was consumed, not the physical aspect. The ka was often represented in Egyptian iconography as a second image of the king, leading earlier works to attempt to translate ka as double.

Article Source: Wikipedia.org

The winged sun is a symbol (sometimes known as Behedeti, a name of Horus associated with divinity, royalty  and power.

In ancient Egypt, the symbol is attested from the Old Kingdom (Sneferu, 26th century BC), often flanked on either side with a uraeus. In early Egyptian religion, the symbol Behedeti represented Horus of Edfu, later identified with Ra-Harachte. It is sometimes depicted on the neck of Apis, the bull of Ptah. As time passed (according to interpretation) all of the subordinated gods of Egypt were considered to be aspects of the sun god, including e.g. Khepri.

The winged sun is symbolic also of the eternal soul. When placed above the temple doors it served as a reminder to the people of their eternal nature.

Article Source: Wikipedia.org

Through different time periods, about 3000 years, the use of the scarabs became many and varied. As amulets, and a flat surface on the bottom (as a similar artifact of a paper weight), it became a surface with other utilitarian purposes. Other nations and regions, especially in the Levant, even came to reproduce Egyptian styles, or to adapt their use to their own gods or personal uses. They were also found as grave goods, amulets, talismans, jewelry types, or gifts of affection.

Beginning in the Old Kingdom of Ancient Egypt, memorializing scarabs became common. They were often incorporated into tombs, as grave goods, or given as ‘gifts’.

Amenhotep III is famous for his commemorative scarabs that memorialized events of his day. A type of these relates to his lion hunts in the first 10 years of his reign (with claims of extraordinary lion numbers); others of the series relates the building of ‘the lake for his wife, Queen Tiye’.

Miniature Scarab seals

Miniature scarab seals were carried, or kept in the later periods of Ancient Egypt. They often had “catch phrases”; for example: “A mun-my-Strength“. (A mun-my-Rock)

Scarab, “Kheper” as transformation

The scarab, Egyptian language (kh)pr is used in many pharaonic names, for example Thutmosis III as Mn-Kheper-Re. Because it is used so frequently in pharaonic names, for example:

Kheperkare Senusret I, Khakheperre Senusret II, Aakheperkare Thutmose I, Aakheperenre Thutmose II, Menkheperre Thutmose III, Aakheperrure Amenhotep II, Menkheperrure Thutmose IV, etc.

its meaning needs to be presented. As the word “transform“, or “transformation”, the phrase Men-(Kh)eper-Re becomes: strong-transforming-Ra, and some renderings in common English are The Transforming Strength (of) Ra, or Ra’s Steadfastness (of) Transformations. A much later word that replaced the kheper, ‘transforming’ was the Greek language “epiphanous“, the word for manifesting. A similar usage, but not with the implications of transformation, as an insect larva, transforming into an adult-form bug. The Ptolemaic era Ptolemy V of the Rosetta Stone, 196 BC is named Ptolemy V Epiphanes. Coins of Greece and other Greek influenced kingdoms had coins using the King’s profile and the word epi(ph)anous, namely basileus epi(ph)anous, (King-Manifested).

The Ouroboros or Uroborus  is an ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon swallowing its own tail and forming a circle.

The Ouroboros often represents self-reflexivity or cyclicality, especially in the sense of something constantly re-creating itself, the eternal return, and other things perceived as cycles that begin anew as soon as they end (compare with phoenix). It can also represent the idea of primordial unity related to something existing in or persisting from the beginning with such force or qualities it cannot be extinguished. The ouroboros has been important in religious and mythological symbolism, but has also been frequently used in alchemical illustrations, where it symbolizes the circular nature of the alchemist’s opus. It is also often associated with Gnosticism, and Hermeticism.

Carl Jung interpreted the Ouroboros as having an archetypal significance to the human psyche. The Jungian psychologist Erich Neumann writes of it as a representation of the pre-ego “dawn state”, depicting the undifferentiated infancy experience of both mankind and the individual child.

Historical

Plato described a self-eating, circular being as the first living thing in the universe—an immortal, perfectly constructed animal.

The living being had no need of eyes when there was nothing remaining outside him to be seen; nor of ears when there was nothing to be heard; and there was no surrounding atmosphere to be breathed; nor would there have been any use of organs by the help of which he might receive his food or get rid of what he had already digested, since there was nothing which went from him or came into him: for there was nothing beside him. Of design he was created thus, his own waste providing his own food, and all that he did or suffered taking place in and by himself. For the Creator conceived that a being which was self-sufficient would be far more excellent than one which lacked anything; and, as he had no need to take anything or defend himself against any one, the Creator did not think it necessary to bestow upon him hands: nor had he any need of feet, nor of the whole apparatus of walking; but the movement suited to his spherical form was assigned to him, being of all the seven that which is most appropriate to mind and intelligence; and he was made to move in the same manner and on the same spot, within his own limits revolving in a circle. All the other six motions were taken away from him, and he was made not to partake of their deviations. And as this circular movement required no feet, the universe was created without legs and without feet.

The notion of a serpent or dragon eating its own tail can be traced back to Ancient Egypt, circa 1600 BC. In the Pyramid of Unas dated between 2375 BC and 2345 BC, hieroglyphs on the west wall gable of the Sarcophagus chamber can be read: “A serpent is entwined by a serpent” and “the male serpent is bitten by the female serpent, the female serpent is bitten by the male serpent, Heaven is enchanted, earth is enchanted, the male behind mankind is enchanted”  From ancient Egypt it passed to Phoenicia  where it was used as a symbol for Janus,  before it passed to the Greek philosophers, who gave it the name Ouroboros (“tail-devourer”).

In Gnosticism, this serpent symbolized eternity and the soul of the world.

Christianity adopted the Ouroboros as symbols of the limited confines of the material world (that there is an “outside” being implied by the demarcation of an inside), and the self-consuming transitory nature of a mere “worldly existence” of this world, following in the footsteps of the preacher in Ecclesiastes 3:9-14. G. K. Chesterton, in The Everlasting Man, uses it as a symbol of the circular and self-defeating nature of pantheistic mysticism and of most modern philosophy.

Article Source: Wikipedia.org

Senet or also spelled as senat is a board game from predynastic and ancient Egypt. The full name of the game in Egyptian meaning the “game of passing.”

Senet may be the oldest board game in the world. By the time of the New Kingdom in Egypt, it had become a kind of talisman for the journey of the dead. Because of the element of luck in the game and the Egyptian belief in determinism, it was believed that a successful player was under the protection of the major gods of the national pantheon: Ra, Thoth, and sometimes Osiris. Consequently, Senet boards were often placed in the grave alongside other useful objects for the dangerous journey through the afterlife and the game is referred to in Chapter XVII of the Book of the Dead.

The game was supposed to be a past time for the deceased. However, symbolically the game also was connected with the attainment of the afterlife by the dead. In many tomb paintings and Book of the Dead illustrations, the deceased is shown playing the game with no visible opponent. It may be that in these cases, the person is playing against the powers of the beyond. Winning against these opponents may lead to good fortune in the afterlife.

The Senet gameboard is a grid of thirty squares, arranged in three rows of ten. A senet game has two sets of pawns (at least five of each and, in some sets, more). The actual rules of the game are a topic of some debate, although historians have made educated guesses. Senet historians Timothy Kendall and R.C. Bell have each proposed their own sets of rules to play the game. These rules have been adopted by different companies which make Senet sets for sale today.

Article Source: Wikipedia.org

The menat consisted of a plate termed aegis (Greek for “shield”) worn on the chest, to which strands of beaded strings were attached. The other ends of the strings were tied to a counterweight which dangled on the wearer’s back. The aegis was often made of faience, but other materials as varied as leather and bronze were also used. It was often inscribed or bore depictions of deities associated with Hathor, such as the one of Sekhmet displayed to the right.

The necklace was hoped to provide good luck and fortune, and to protect against evil spirits. It was also worn for protection in the afterlife and is often found buried with the dead, given as a grave gift since Ramesside times (the nineteenth and twentieth dynasties that are the last two thirds of the period known as the New Kingdom). Worn by women it was expected to foster fruitfulness and good health, while among men it signified virility.

Article Source: Wikipedia.org