Was the Egyptian prince Thutmose the real Moses and other intriguing mysteries of the ancient forgotten religion Atenism

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Throughout most of the known history of Ancient Egypt, the population worshiped several gods, and ordinary citizens were free to worship whatever gods they saw fit at home. However, there is also a relatively short period during which the country suddenly became monotheistic and Atenism, one of the most intriguing and mysterious beliefs, began to spread everywhere. Where did this strange and obviously alien religion to the Egyptians come from and where did it suddenly disappear after the death of the pharaoh, who tried to introduce it …

1. Religion appeared out of nowhere

It may seem strange to many that after more than 2,000 years of ingrained polytheism, Pharaoh Amenhotep IV, in the fifth year of his reign, changed his name to Akhenaten and introduced Atenism. Four years later, Akhenaten, instead of worshiping several gods, proclaimed Aton the only god. It was forbidden to make any images of this god, since he "did not appear in any way in this world and could not be seen." The only personification of Aten was a flat solar disk. Even more interesting is the fact that, despite the rather rare mentions of Aten in old (even ancient Egyptian) scriptures, it is confirmed that this was a solar deity, which, paradoxically, was not a god in the understanding of the ancient Egyptians.

2. There was no visible resistance to change

Despite the fact that it would be logical to expect resistance to the violent introduction of Atenism (for example, attempts to overthrow the pharaoh and his new religion), the entire population of the country simply calmly accepted the radical changes. Despite the fact that there was a strong and well-trained army in Ancient Egypt, there were no attempts to overthrow Akhenaten. And this despite Akhenaten's move from Thebes to the new capital - Amarna. And even stranger is that Atenism almost instantly disappeared after just two decades, and one of Akhenaten's successors restored the old faith in Amun-Ra.

3 similarities with early Abrahamic religions, secret societies and freemasons

Many of the apparent practices of Atenism, especially those that (scholars suggest) were taught in the mystery schools at Heliopolis, appear to predate the three major Abrahamic religions that followed, especially early Judaism and then Christianity. These claims seem even more compelling when you consider the enigmatic figure of Aper-El (also called Aperel), who served as Akhenaten's chief vizier. A number of nuances that were found in his grave led to the assumption that Aper-El was very likely of Hebrew / Israeli origin.

In fact, there are quite a few connections of Atenism with early religions, and with very specific scriptures of the Old Testament. As studies by numerous authors show, the same can be said about various secret societies, about their customs and origins. This is especially true of the Knights Templar and Freemasonry. And even after thousands of years in the teachings of Christianity and the Roman Church throughout Europe, it is easy to notice traces of these secret teachings.

4. Attempts to Erase Atenism from Ancient Egyptian History

After the disappearance of the new religion in ancient Egypt, an obvious attempt was made to erase all records of Atenism from history. Indeed, much of what is known today about this period is based on those bits of information that they accidentally forgot to destroy in Egyptian records, as well as on records of other civilizations neighboring Egypt. Even one of the most famous ancient Egyptian pharaohs is a mystery in itself. Of all the pharaohs of that period, despite the fact that Akhenaten was essentially erased from history, his mummy was perfectly preserved and was not desecrated, unlike the mummies of many other rulers.

All the pharaohs who followed him struggled not only to distance themselves from Atenism, but (starting with Horemheb) actively persecuted anyone who practiced or preached this ideology, destroyed monuments and erased inscriptions. There have been many speculations about the cause of this "belated reaction" - from a simple revolution to insanely wild claims of extraterrestrial interference.

5. Links with Tutankhamun

Before moving on to the potential reasons for this intriguing but strange period in ancient Egyptian history, perhaps attention should be paid to the famous pharaoh, whose reign fell on that era, but who tried to restore the old religion as it was before Akhenaten. We are talking about Tutankhamun. Today he is perhaps the most famous of the ancient Egyptian pharaohs.

During his lifetime, the young pharaoh changed his name from Tutankhaton (translated as "living embodiment of Aten") to Tutankhamun as a public demonstration of his rejection of Atenism. Despite this, his name was removed from official documents along with other rulers of the time. Even more interesting is the tomb that sits directly opposite Tutankhamun's final resting place (just a few meters away): Tomb 55, also known as KV55.

6. Mysterious "Tomb 55"

It is quite possible that the most intriguing and enigmatic aspect of Atenism is the discovery of the contents of what has become known as Tomb 55. Particularly strange to archaeologists, it immediately seemed that KV55 was originally sealed with the seal of Tutankhamun (this statement remains unverified.) Tutankhamun himself, although he was buried nearby, his grave was discovered several years later. Even more interesting in "Tomb 55" is that it was sealed so that … as if to keep the mummy inside, and not to contain thieves and robbers. Considering what is known about the beliefs of those times (in particular, about the curses and revenge of the gods), this is an interesting, albeit ominous, detail. In addition, the mummy's body was deliberately desecrated and also buried as a woman, despite being discovered to be a man.

7. The sudden appearance of the statues of Sekhmet

During his reign, Amonhotep III installed 600 statues of Sekhmet in the Temple of Mut. In total, a total of about 730 such statues were created, and archaeologists are perplexed why they began to be built so massively. The thing is that it was this goddess who was associated, among other things, with disasters. This, according to some researchers, suggests that something very serious was happening in ancient Egypt. By the way, according to ancient Egyptian mythology, Sekhmet, the daughter of Ra, tried to destroy the world, and Ra was forced to stop her. This can be very important.

8. Accidental Catastrophic Disaster

In his book The Law of God, author and researcher Graham Phillips argues that more than 700 statues of Sekhmet were made due to a catastrophe, namely, a colossal and deadly volcanic eruption in Santorini, the consequences of which would be more than tangible in the lands of Egypt. It is possible that after the sky turned black due to the huge amount of ash thrown into the atmosphere, Akhenaten decided to worship Aton - the solar disk. The subsequent rejection of the new religion can also be explained by this reason. As the calamities continued, the people lost faith in the worship of Aten to stop them, and the return of faith in the old gods was considered the only way to end the horror. Considering what we know about ancient Egyptian ideology, culture and thinking, there was an unintentional manipulation of a natural but catastrophic event that not only gave rise to Atenism, but also forced it to be abandoned.

9. Hyksos and Exodus

Another intrigue for scientists is the presence in the region of a mysterious group of people, the Hyksos. This mysterious people, according to some researchers, were the early Jews of the Old Testament and, in turn, part of the lineage of Jesus. Some researchers even claim that Jesus may have been born into the family of a Pharaoh from the Heliopolis region, who was exiled to Jerusalem. When he came of age, Jesus was probably taught the same teachings that were taught in the mystery schools in Egypt thousands of years before his birth. It may also appear that the Hyksos were part of the Exodus, which, although generally considered a myth, could well have happened due to the prohibition of Atenism.

Much of the Old Testament has obvious links to ancient Egyptian writings. And although history, the Bible and even films claim that the Exodus led by Moses took place during the reign of Ramses II, there is reason to believe that most of what was described above actually happened a century earlier, during the reign of Akhenaten.

10. Was Thutmose the real Moses

Researcher Graham Phillips notes that Crown Prince Thutmose rightfully should have assumed the throne after Amenhotep III. However, instead, Akhenaten ascended the throne, and Thutmose disappeared (most historians assume that he died). Considering that the recovered inscription on Akhenaten's wine jug describes him as “the son of a true king,” this begins to sound like the story of Moses and Ramses II. It is also worth noting that the word for "son" in ancient Egyptian sounds like "mose" (Moses). If we assume that Thutmose had to go into exile due to the fact that Akhenaten might have wanted to kill him as the rightful heir to the throne, it turns out that all three main Abrahamic religions of our time are directly related to the religious ideology of the mystical schools of ancient Egypt.