Dung beetles literally cut through or excavate the crap to make their dung balls. The scientific name for the scarab beetle, or dung beetle is Scarabeus sacer. Scarabaeus is Latin meaning "beetle," from Greek karabos κάραβος "beetle, crayfish, crab,"and sacer meaning "sacred, holy."
A scarab is a beetle, from Old English bitela "little biter," from Old English bitel "biting," from Proto-Germanic *bitan, from PIE root *bheid- meaning "to split, crack.[OE]" Biting does split and crack, but *bheid- could also be said in describing the appearance of the beetle. Beetles have a crack down the center of their backs from the split between their hard outer pair of wings called "elytra(p.)," from Koine Greek elytron (s.) έλυτρον "sheath, cover" [also base of medical terminology such as, elytritis "inflammation of the vagina"], from elyein "to roll around, enwrap.
Scearra, Old English meaning "shears" is from Proto-Germanic *sker- "to cut." So we might also say that the scarab / beetle is also a "cutter" as well as a biter. The beetles collect little bites or bits (related to Old English bite "act of biting," and bita "piece bitten off"). We might say the scarab shears off bits of dung and rolls them into balls with their scored (also from *sker-, "sker"-ed) projections on their tibiae. Scrape, scrape. Very sker-y(and scary view when magnified)!
Ancient Egyptians were some of the first people to make shears / scissors. There have been examples found dating from c.1500 BC, of the spring type below.
Kheperer / Kheprer / Kheper, ḫprr in ancient Egyptian is "scarab beetle." As a symbol the scarab was associated with renewal, rebirth, life, resurrection, and victory over death. Its name was from the Egyptian word khefer / kheper ḫpr meaning "develop, come into being, become, create, transform." According to the Encyclopedia Brittanica, "The scarab hieroglyph, kheper, refers variously to the ideas of existence, manifestation, development, growth, and effectiveness . . ." So rather than being a "bitter" or "cutter," the name of the scarab in ancient Egypt carried significant and profound symbolic significance, which is clearly attested to in the Egyptian mythology.
Khepri / Khepra / Khepera / Kheper / Chepri, etc., ḫprj is the Egyptian solar deity who represented the morning sun, depicted as a scarab beetle or man with the head of a scarab beetle.
Khepri and Osiris, Burial Chamber Ramses I, d. 1290 BC, Valley of the Kings, Luxor, Egypt
The sun could be thought of as the ball being pushed across the sky by the beetle(kheperer) and was reborn each morning, just as the young of the scarab beetles emerge seemingly miraculously out of their dung balls.
Khepri was considered to be a form of the sun god Ra / Re, and self created like Atum ("completer, finisher"), Atum who was called Re of the evening sun, that is the sun in its decent[fall, like autumn].
Khepri / Khepra was a god of creation, life, and resurrection. In fact Khepra is derived from the verb kheper, ḫpr ("develop, come into being, create"). One translation of his name is "he who is coming into being." Or maybe we could say Kheper-Ra, "the one who brings Ra into being," or the one who "rebirths/transforms" Ra, the sun.
Scarabs, as well as being represented in hieroglyphic writing, were often made into amulets. In its hard domed shape a scarab is reminiscent of a mound.
The god Ptah was sometimes represented on the base of scarab amulets or seals, such as this one.
Scarab with Image of Sekhmet and Ptah[center], c.1285-1186 BC, The Met
In the later dynastic periods Ptah was connected to the god Seker / Sokar as Ptah-Seker-Osiris, god of resurrection, and the necropolis at Saqqara.
Ptah meaning "the opener [as in 'beginner'], creator," was patron of craftsmen, artisans, especially stone and clay based arts. Ptah was combined with the deification of the primordial mound Tatenen "risen land" as, Ptah-Tatenen, from ta "earth / land".
So was Ptah a "bit" of ta (the primordial mound)? Or the first land splitting or separating the waters from the land? The land that splits (-bheid)? Bheid-ta? Beetle? Beetle does sound similar to Pe-tah. And the word pt / pet itself as a hieroglyph had the meaning of "sky, heaven," so we might say the pt (sky) is what "splits" or separates the waters above from the waters below, similar to Ptah splitting the surface of the waters as the primordial mound.
And God made the expanse [of sky] and separated the waters which were under the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so [just as He commanded]. Genesis 1:7, Amplified Bible
Flammarion Engraving - "Traveler puts his head under the edge of the firmament."
In Hebrew the word translated in this passage as "separated" is badal בדל!! It seems that this badal and Egyptian pt must have influenced the Germanic *bitan (from -bheid) which is the origin of English "beetle." Perhaps the PIE root -bheid is intimately connected to these certain (both in the sense "particular" and "actual") Hebrew and Egyptian words and concepts having to do with the creator and creation. The sky (pt) hieroglyph itself actually kind of looks like something that could bite, that is like a set of fangs, as crazy of a connection as that may seem. The pet (sky) looks like it could bite.
Pt "sky" hieroglyph
Ptah began (opened) creation with the word of his mouth (when he opened his mouth, the mouth which is also split [as in the lips] when it speaks). In Hebrew the word peh has the meaning of "mouth" and also "word, expression, vocalization, speech, breath." Ptah conceived of creation in his heart and brought it into being spoken through his mouth from his word / tongue. Ptah ("the opener") was one god who presided over the "opening of the mouth ceremony." Ptah is shown as a splitter (bheid-) or separator (badal) of the lips in this passage.
. . . My mouth is opened by Ptah, with that chisel of metal with which he opened the mouth of the gods. From The Book of Coming Forth by Day, rw nw prt m hrw, aka, The Book of the Dead, ch. 23, New Kingdom
Ptah as Tatanen ("risen land") is not that much different in concept to the mythology of the world turtle / tortoise found in different places around the world. This idea of the primordial mound being like a shell or something hard like a skull.
Ptah is often depicted wearing a kind of skull cap. Skull is said to be probably from Old Norse skalli "a bald head, skull," and probably related to Old English scaelu "husk"(also meaning shell) [OE].
Ptah Shown with Skull Cap and Feathered (Wing) Tunic, Tomb of Tutankamun, Guilded wood, faience and glass., 1321-1343 BC, 18th Dynasty, Valley of the Kings
Ptah is also often shown in a tight fitting wrapped garment, or we could say elyein[enwrap]ed. The garment in the statue from the tomb of Tutankhamun looks to be feathered, like golden wings, or perhaps elytra. We could maybe say he is "Fee-tah," or feathered/winged. The origin of the Greek word for "feathers, wings" is ftera, from Koine Greek pteron / pterux [pteryx] "feather, wing," as the ptero- in pterodactyl "wing finger," which we say in English as tera (and terra in Latin is "earth, land", like ta ). Ptah's form fitting wings are perhaps even reminiscent of an insect chrysalis, from Koine Greek χρυσαλλίς khrusallis, from χρυσός khrysos "gold" + second element meaning something like "sheath"[OE] (therefore apparently from elytron "sheath"?). And the modern Greek word for butterfly is, in fact, petalouda . . . from Koine Greek petálon πέταλον "leaf," from petánnumi πετάννυμι "I open, spread out." So very much like Ptah "the opener."
Lapis Lazuli Scarab(Khephra) with ptera "feathers" or "wings" lifting the disk of the Sun Ra with its "hands,"
So you might say Ptah is like the scarab god Khepra here [pectoral scarab of King Tut] represented as a scarab with outstretched feathered wings rather than with beetle wings[beetles are of the order Coleoptera, from Greek koleopteros, from koleós "sheath"+ pteron "wing," due to their outer double set of wings. The outer hard wings covering and protecting the second sheer set when not in flight. This koleós κολεός has the meaning in modern Greek "vagina, sheath, scabbard," similar, then, to the Koine Greek elytron "sheath, cover"].
The 1st of the ancient Egyptian month Rekh Wer / Mechir [Gk.], was the Festival of the Little Heat, when "Ptah lifts up Ra with his hands." So that is like the image above of Khepra lifting Ra.
Khefa / kepha / kafa, ḫfˁ in ancient Egyptian had the meaning "grasp; fist[p.19]" and was represented by the clenched hand hieroglyph. As a determinative this hieroglyph could indicate the words "seize, grasp, attack, fist, booty, make captures in war." It could also express the act of "grasping" a new mental concept, or getting a "grip" on emotions.
Clenched Fist Hieroglyph -Khefa (or Rock, in the game "Rock, Paper, Scissors")
The fist(kafa) also represented the vagina as a thing elyein(rolled around), not unlike cowrie shells (kaparda in Sanskrit) which were sometimes used as symbols of fertility in ancient Egypt due to their shape which is suggestive of the female anatomy.
So, Khepera the "scarab" god, could be, Khefa Ra ("graspting" Ra), holding up the sun. And bringing / birthing the sun into the new day with newness of life, opening the new day, like a butterfly emerging from its cocoon after metamorphosis "a transforming, a transformation," literally meta "change" + morphē "form, shape." Beetles (kheper, ḫprr) also undergo metamorphosis or transformation, or change in form (khepera / pl. kheperu, ḫpr).
The Blue Crown or Khepresh ḫprš was first used during the 18th dynasty by Amenhotep III, c. 1386-149 BC.
The Khepresh (aka, Blue Crown) actually looks kheper-like. It is a smooth hard shell / cover over the head. It is like a beetle on the head, or, maybe, a cap? Cap is from Old English cæppe "hood, head-covering, cape," from Latin cappa "a cape, hooded cloak," possibly from capitulare "headdress," from caput "head".
The Blue Crown / Khepresh is shown with the Ureaus (Gk.) / Iaret on the front, "the rearing/risen one," depicted as a rearing cobra. The Uraeus which represents the snake goddess Wadjet, is sometimes shown with sun disk and/or wings. Wadjet os also known as, "the Eye of Ra." The word Iaret, from Egyptian jrˁt is related to the eye hieroglyph ir / iri, jrt, jr "eye" and words having to do with eye. The open eye is like the rearing cobra and the iris with pupil is like the sun. The Ureaus was a sign of the pharaoh's right to rule and was affixed to the front of the different types of crowns like an activated third eye.
The Khepresh was colored blue, irtiu / irtyu "blue" in Egyptian. The blue pigment was made by the Egyptians from calcium copper silicate and is thought to be the first synthetic pigment ever produced (they were good chemists there in Kmt, one name the ancient Egyptians called their land by, named after the fertile black soil, km "black," deposited by the Nile). The synthetic blue pigment(referred to as Egyptian Blue) was used in place of the more scarce and costly crushed rock pigment, Lapis Lazuli, ḫsbed / khshdj in Egyptian. Ḫsbed irtiu, "Lapis Lazuli to the eye," i.e., artificial Lapis Lazuli, looked "like" Lapis Lazuli, i.e., blue, to the eye(iritu). Blue is like the waters of the sky, and was the blue color powder pigment used for painting the eyelids.
Like this form of the ir / iri, jr "eye" hieroglyph
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| Eye with Painted Upper Lid Hieroglyph |
The rising sun hieroglyph meaning "sunrise," also "crown, coronation; appear in glory; rejoice" shares a resemblance to the painted eye hieroglyph, however, more like a closed eye that is about to open. Wake up!
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| ḫˁ- rising sun "sunrise" |
The sunrise is the rebirth of the sun, everyday made new, and is reminiscent of the mound of the first creation breaking through the waters of the abyss.
And when the sun peeks its head over the horizon and its "eye" opens, it is sunrise, a time of rejoicing for the light that has come into the world. Ahhhh! (which is something like how you would pronounce the hieroglyph ḫˁ [rising sun, "sunrise"], I suppose.)
Ra-Horakhty was the "god of the rising sun" or "Ra is Horus of the Horizon," pictured below.
Ra-Horakhty with Uraeus on his Head, a musician playing a harp decorated with a Khephresh adorned head, The Harpist Stele, 1069-945 BC
Nut / Nuit / Newet / Neuth was the goddess of the sky. Nwt is translated as meaning "sky". She was sometimes pictured in blue covered with stars arching over the earth (Geb), as a cow ( a personification of the Milky Way or "galaxy"[from Greek galaxias kyklos "milky circle"]),or as sycamore tree.
Nut / Nuit / Newet / Neuth was the goddess of the sky. Nwt is translated as meaning "sky". She was sometimes pictured in blue covered with stars arching over the earth (Geb), as a cow ( a personification of the Milky Way or "galaxy"[from Greek galaxias kyklos "milky circle"]),or as sycamore tree.
Her body was thought of as an enveloping and protective layer over the earth, like a womb (or uterus, Sanskrit uderam "belly"; udder, Sanskrit udhar "udder, breast. Her udhar are in outer/udder space), or Nut shell, with a pot (potbelly shaped pot) being one of her hieroglyphic symbols (she wore a nu "pot" as a crown). Ra was said to be swallowed each night and reborn every morning through Nut, presumably born through her koleós "vagina," however, the koleós of the sky would be akin to the western horizon at the crack of dawn, where the sky rolls around/enwraps (elyein) the earth.
Winged Image of the Goddess Nut (found together with winged scarab), Blue Faience, New Kingdom, Tuna el-Gebel, Necropolis of Khmun, Middle Egypt
The company of the gods rejoice at thy rising, the earth is glad when it beholdeth thy rays; the people who have been long dead come forth with cries of joy to behold thy beauties every day. Thou goest forth each day over heaven and earth, and thou art made strong each day by thy mother Nut. -from the Book of Coming Forth By Day, i.e., Book of the DeadSo the symbolism of Nut is reminiscent in part to Khepera, and similarly depicted to the kheper (scarab) which were sometimes shown donning a set of feathered wings and were often colored blue, or made with lapiz lazuli.
Some people say the symbolic meaning of the Blue Crown (Khepresh) is the sky because of its blue color, however, there seems to be a connection with the Khepresh to the kheper (scarab) as well. It might be noted that the Khepresh is often depicted with what are look to be be sun disks, as opposed to stars, like might be found on the body of Nut "sky".
The sun hieroglyph, meaning "sun," rˁ , Re / Ra, and also having meanings of "to rise; day; hour; time" is a circle with another tiny circle at the center. Why does the sign for the sun have a dot in the middle of it?
Sometimes in hieroglyphs having to do with the sun, the sun appears simply as a disk (such as in the akhet "horizon" hieroglyph), and there is a similar disk in the middle of the eye hieroglyph, so they may have viewed eyes as types of "suns" just like the disk of the sun is shown in its hieroglyph like an iris with pupil, perhaps. The sun represented Ra, and was also equated with the Eye of Ra / Eye of Horus, i.e., Iaret / Uraeus / Wadjet.
Since the Khephresh was a crown worn by Pharaoh (for ceremony and sometimes war) it seems reasonable that it might have had the "suns" to depict many days or a long reign for Pharaoh. The Phonesian O (a circle like the sun hieroglyph), from the Proto-Sepetic letter ayin "eye," were derived from the ir "eye" hieroglyph. Its shape gave rise to the Greek Ο, Latin O, and Cyrillic O vowels.
A sheave is a wheel with a groove on the outside of it. A rope is placed or wrapped around it. It is used to raise things up on a pulley.
The Uraeus as rearing / raised cobra with sun disk, kind of looks like a sheave with a snake as a rope lain over it.
The Uraeus as rearing / raised cobra with sun disk, kind of looks like a sheave with a snake as a rope lain over it.
Amamhet and Ra-Horahkty[detail], Sun disk and Uraeus, Tomb of Nefertari
Shiva "the Auspicious One," called Paramashwara "the Supreme God," has mounded coiffed hair (from Old French coife "skull cap") and a conch looking tilaka (forehead mark)." Conch / Conk" is from Greek konkē "shell." A conch is a shell with a crack (bheid).
And look at this guy, Dr. Manhattan, he has some similarities with Wadjet / Iaret "the green / blue one." He has a forehead mark that looks like the hieroglyphic sun glyph. Actually, the mark depicts a hydrogen atom (with the extra dot on the outer ring). However, the sun is made largely out of Hydogen. So the largest object in the solar system, has a similar symbol to the smallest element, of which it is made out of. Cool!
The last shall be first, and the first shall be last.
The letter Resh in Hebrew has the meaning "head." Reshon is "first." Just like the one who has the most reason is the head, but is destined, due to that same reason to serve the rest. The head is the chief who must protect his people. The origin of "chief" is given as caput "head" in Latin, but perhaps it is also kepha "fist," that is the rock (foundation), the first mound or solid ground.
The Greeks related the Egyptian god, Ptah, to Hephaestus and the Romans, Vulcan. Hephaestus was the god of craftsmen, artisans, sculptors, metal, metallurgy, fire and volcanoes. Hephaestus wears a craftsman's cap resembling Ptah's skull cap or the primordial mound.
Hephaestus Wearing Craftsman's Cap(Coiffe)
So Ptah (Petah), is the primordial mound, the first rock, who is also related to Khepra, the beetle, who kepha, ḫfˁ (grasps) Ra and bears him up every morning.
Peter is from Greek Πέτρος Petros "rock, stone," it is the Greek word used in translating, Κηφας Kēphas as in Jn. 1:42, Latinized as Cephas, from Aramaic kefa / kepha "stone,". Cephas, the rock, is said to be the first head of the Catholic Church.
And I say to you, You are Petros [a detached stone or boulder] and upon this petra [a (large mass of) rock, a cliff, cave, stony ground] I will build my church. Matthew 16:18
Cephal- is a word forming element from latin meaning "head, skull, brain," from Modern Latin, from Greek κεφαλή kephalé "head; corner stone; ruler, lord". Cranium is from Greek kranion "skull, upper part of the head," from PIE root *ker- "horn, head, uppermost part of the body".
Kaphar in Hebrew means "atonment, cover over, pacify." Kaph is also the shape of a crown, keter/kether in Hebrew. Keter is at the head of the Sephirot, the Tree of Life, called the "regal crown" in Kabbalah.
Capricorn on a zodiac Wheel "Yule"
Old English hæfer "he goat, buck" is from Latin caper / capri (genitive) capro (s. ablative) "goat," and capreolus is "wild goat, roebuck" from PIE *kap-ro- "he-goat, goat." Goats do have hard keters.
Capricorn is the goat sign of the zodiac meaning "horned like a goat." It is the sign placement of the sun at the head or the opening of the new year.
Coffee it is one of the first things you want as you head out for the day. It is your defense, stronghold, shield, rock(kepha) as you begin your work. It jumpstarts your brain (cephal).
Some sort of Cephal "brain" looking coffee sludge. Maybe a Walnut, or Nut as the Sycamore, photo by Julie O. /chthonickore
And what do you know? One morning I cut my coffee with cream and a Pooh shows up out of nowhere.
Cut the crap! Pooh?
No shit, its the god's honest truth. No trick photography or manipulation. Purely God sent. Maybe Khepri sent? The god Khepra (represented by a dung beetle) sent me a pooh in my coffee? God has a sense of humor.
But actually coffee beans do resemble scarabs or beetles. They have a hard keph (rock) and curved kaf (cupped hand) shape and have a split, crack, i.e., -bheid, down the middle resembling kafu ("fists," pl. of kafa). So it's not surprising that the name could be connected to the beetle, kheper, little scrapers of dung.
Care for a cup of coffee?
I do. I woke up at the crack (bheid) of dawn today. I'll take some of those little beetles.
