Seker or Sokar by Katjami

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

Seker or Sokar is a falcon god of the Memphite necropolis. Although the meaning of his name 

remains uncertain the Egyptians themselves in the Pyramid Texts linked his name to the 

anguished cry of Osiris to Isis 'Sy-k-ri' ('hurry to me'),[1] in the underworld. Seker is strongly linked 

with two other gods, Ptah the chief god of Memphis and Osiris the god of the dead. In later periods 

this connection was expressed as the triple god Ptah-Seker-Osiris.
 
Seker was usually depicted as a mummified hawk and sometimes as mound from which the head of a 

hawk appears. Here he is called 'he who is on his sand'. Sometimes he is shown on his 'hennu barque' 

which was an elaborate sledge for negotiating the sandy necropolis. One of his titles was 'he of 

Restau' which means the place of 'openings' or tomb entrances.
 
In the New Kingdom Book of the Underworld, the Amduat, he is shown standing on the back of a 

serpent between two spread wings, as an expression of freedom this suggests a connection with 

resurrection or perhaps a satisfactory transit of the underworld.[2] Despite this the region of the 

underworld associated with Seker was seen as difficult, sandy terrain called the Imhet (meaning '

filled up' presumably with sand).[3]
 
Seker, possibly through his association with Ptah, also has a connection with craftsmen. In the 

Book of the Dead he is said to fashion silver bowls [4] and a silver coffin of Sheshonq II has been 

discovered at Tanis decorated with the iconography of Seker.[5]
 
Seker's cult centre was in Memphis where festivals in his honour were held in the fourth month

 of the akhet (spring) season. The god was depicted as assisting in various tasks such as digging 

ditches and canals. From the New Kingdom a similar festival was held in Thebes.[6] Wikipedia
 
Seker (the 3rd sphere of the Tree of Life) is the divine faculty that is in charge of the life-force 

(Ra), which is the formative base of all things in the world. Although the source of life is 

infinite, each entity is allowed to share in its infinity through a series of cycles of births. Each 

entity is thus allotted a finite portion of this life-force at a time, for its adventure in the world. 

This recycling principle governs the cycles of birth, growth, decay, death, rebirth and so on. 

The life-force behaves in this manner in conformity with the divine intention of guiding man 

to the realization of his divinity. Would most people bother to develop themselves, and exert 

themselves if they were to be born with full functionality (as many reptiles and lower 

creatures are), external youth and indestructibility? We are thus spurred on to exert ourselves 

in our youth to provide for the days that will surely come when we will be incapable of doing 

so, and of course by the ultimate, which is death. Metu Neter.

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

xii. In Search of Sokar



Aside from Horus, there was another falcon god called Sokar, Egypt's oldest god of the death. The pharaoh's final journey into the afterlife was periodically enacted during a fabulous festival of Sokar, which included his symbolic death and rebirth in the afterlife. Sokar presided over the Memphite necropolis, which included Giza, ancient Rostau, and since he can be equated with the falcon-headed god of the Northern Group of constellations, which can be identified as Cygnus, then Sokar's role in Egypt sky-religion is vital.

Evidence for the cult of Sokar in and around Giza goes back to the beginning of dynastic Egypt, c. 3100 BC. Moreover, the presence there of intact jars from the even older Maadi-Buto culture argues for the presence here of a funerary cult as early as 3900-3200 BC, while the discovery to the south of the plateau of even earlier chert tools from the Neolithic age is tentative evidence that Giza was active from at least 5000-4000 BC.

Sokar from the tomb of Thutmose III.
http://www.andrewcollins.com/page/links/index.htm



As ancient Rostau (which translates as 'mouth of the passages'), Giza was associated with the most secret part of the perceived underworld through which the soul of the deceased was expected to pass in order to achieve ascension under the guardianship of Sokar. Rostau was intrinsically linked with the Mound of Creation in ancient texts, signifying that the Ancient Egyptians saw Giza as an axis mundi of the physical world.

Rival ideas did exist in Egypt coming mostly from the south, and involving other gods, other cult centres, and other stars such as Sirius, Orion and Canopus. All vied for superiority as early Old Kingdom times, and yet there can be little question that the funerary cult most associated with Giza at the beginning of the Pyramid Age revolved saw ascension as accessible via the north-south meridian line marked, as in Olmec tradition, by the stars of Cygnus and Ursa Major.