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Thoth the Master of wisdom. Thoth (teḤuti). Thoth according to Pietschmann. The three grades of the Egyptian Mysteries
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III
THOTH THE MASTER OF WISDOM
THOTH (TEḤ UTI)
The present chapter will be devoted to a brief consideration of the nature, powers, and attributes of the divine personification Thoth (Teḥ uti), the Master of Wisdom and Truth, on the ground of pure Egyptian tradition. As I have unfortunately no sufficient knowledge of Egyptian, I am not in a position to control by the texts the information which will be set before the reader; it will, however, be derived from the works of specialists, and mainly from the most recent study on the subject, the two sumptuous volumes of Dr E. A. Wallis Budge, the keeper of the Egyptian and Assyrian antiquities in the British Museum.
First of all, however, let us see what the German scholar Pietschmann has had to say on Thoth in his monograph specially devoted to Thrice-greatest Hermes according to Egyptian, Greek, and Oriental traditions. 1
The first part of Pietschmann’s treatise, in which he seems to be content, as far as his own taste and feeling are concerned, to trace the original of the grandiose concept of the Thrice-greatest to the naï ve conception of an “ibis-headed moon-god, ” is devoted to the consideration of what he calls the god Teχ -Ṭ eḥ uti among
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the Egyptians. Why Pietschmann should have chosen this double form of the name for his sub-title is not very clear. The variants appear to be Teḥ, Teḥ u, Teḥ ut, and Teḥ uti—of which it would seem that the Greek form Thoth is an attempt to transliterate Teḥ ut. There are, however, it may be remarked, no less than eighteen variants of the name found in Greek and Latin. I should thus myself be inclined to use the form Teḥ ut if it were permissible; but of this I am not quite sure, as the weak-sounding though undoubtedly more common form Teḥ uti, is usually employed by scholars. As, however, Teḥ uti, to my ears at any rate, is not a very dignified sounding cognomen, I shall use the Greek form Thoth as being the more familiar to English readers.
THOTH ACCORDING TO PIETSCHMANN
Horapollo tells us that the ibis was the symbol of Thoth as the “master of the heart and reason in all men, ” 1 though why this was so must remain hidden in the mystery of the “sacred animals, ” which has not yet to my knowledge been in any way explained.
And as Thoth, the Logos, was in the hearts of all, so was he the heart of the world whose life directed and permeated all things. 2
Thus the temple, as the dwelling of the God, was regarded as a model of the world, and its building as a copy of the world-building. And just as Thoth had ordained measure, number, and order in the universe, so was he the master-architect of temple-building and of all the mystic monuments. Thus, as the ordering world-mind, a text addresses Thoth as follows:
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“Thou art the great, the only God, the Soul of the Becoming. ” 1
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To aid him in the world Thoth has a spouse, or syzygy, Nehe-mā ut. She is, among the Gnostics, the Sophia-aspect of the Logos. She is presumably the Nature of our Trismegistic treatises. Together Thoth and Nehe-mā ut are the initiators of all order, rule, and law in the universe.
Thus Thoth is especially the representative of the Spirit, the Inner Reason of all things; he is the Protector of all earthly laws, and every regulation of human society. 2 Says a text:
“His law is firmly established, like that of Thoth. ” 3
As representative of the Reason immanent in the world, Thoth is the mediator through whom the world is brought into manifestation. He is the Tongue of Rā, the Herald of the Will of Rā, 4 and the Lord of Sacred Speech. 5
“What emanates from the opening of his mouth, that cometh to pass; he speaks, and it is his command; he is the Source of Speech, the Vehicle of Knowledge, the Revealer of the Hidden. ” 6
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Thoth is thus the God of writing and all the arts and sciences. On a monument of Seti I. he is called “Scribe of the nine Gods. ” He writes “the truth of the nine Gods, ” and is called “Scribe of the King of Gods and men. ”
Hence he is naturally inventor of the hieroglyphics, and patron and protector of all temple-archives and libraries, and of all scribes. At the entrance of one of the halls of the Memnonium at Thebes, the famous “Library of Osymandias, ” called “The great House of Life, ” we find Thoth as “Lord in the Hall of Books. ” 1
In the Ebers papyrus we read: “His guide is Thoth, who bestows on him the gifts of his speech, who makes the books, and illumines those who are learned therein, and the physicians who follow him, that they may work cures. ”
We shall see that one of the classes of priests was devoted to the healing of the body, just as another was devoted to the healing of the soul.
These books are also called “The Great Gnoses of Thoth. ” 2 Thoth was thus God of medicine, but not so much by drugs as by means of mesmeric methods and certain “magic formulæ. ” Thus he is addressed as “Thoth, Lord of Heaven, who givest all life, all health. ” 3
THE THREE GRADES OF THE EGYPTIAN MYSTERIES
Moreover, Thoth was also Lord of Rebirth: 4 “Thou hast given life in the Land of the Living; Thou hast
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made them live in the Region of Flames; Thou hast given respect of thy counsels in the breasts and in the hearts of men—mortals, intelligences, creatures of light. ”
The Land of the Living was the Invisible World, a glorious Land of Light and Life for the seers of ancient Egypt. Mortals, Intelligences, Creatures of Light, were, says Pietschmann, the “three grades of the Egyptian mysteries. ” 1 These grades were, one may assume from our treatises: (1) Mortals—probationary pupils who were instructed in the doctrine, but who had not yet realised the inner vision; (2) Intelligences—those who had done so and had become “men, ” that is to say who had received the “Mind”; (3) Beings (or Sons) of Light—those who had become one with the Light, that is to say those who had reached the nirvā ṇ ic consciousness.
So much for what Pietschmann can be made to tell us of Thoth as Wisdom-God among the Egyptians.
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