The Blood Covenant: A Primitive Rite and its Bearings on ScriptureTrumbull, H. Clay (Henry Clay)
Religion
The Blood Covenant: A Primitive Rite and its Bearings on Scripture
Trumbull, H. Clay (Henry Clay)
Blood -- Folklore; Covenants -- Religious aspects
Again, when the deceased comes to the gateway of light, he speaks
of himself as linked with the great god Seb; as one “who loves his
arm,”[162] and who is, therefore, sure of admittance to him, within
the gates. By the covenant of the blood-giving arm, “the Osiris opens
the turning door; he has opened the turning door.” Through oneness of
blood, he has come into oneness of life, with the gods; there is no
longer the barrier of a door between them. The separating veil is rent.
An added indication that the covenant of blood-friendship furnished
the ancient Egyptians with their highest conception of a union with
the divine nature through an interflowing of the divine blood--as the
divine life--is found in the amulet of this covenant; corresponding
with the token of the covenant of blood-friendship, which, as fastened
to the arm, or about the neck, is deemed so sacred and so precious,
in the primitive East to-day. The hieroglyphic word, _tat_, _tet_, or
_tot_, ([Illustration]) translated “arm,” is also translated “bracelet,”
or “armlet,” ([Illustration])[163] as if in suggestion of the truth,
already referred to,[164] that the blood-furnishing arm was represented
by the token of the arm-encircling, or of the neck-encircling, bond,
in the covenant of blood. Moreover, a “red talisman,” or red amulet,
stained with “the blood of Isis,” and containing a record of the
covenant, was placed at the neck of the mummy as an assurance of safety
to his soul.[165] “When this book [this amulet-record] has been made,”
says the Ritual, “it causes Isis to protect him [the Osirian], and
Horus he rejoices to see him.” “If this book [this covenant-token] is
known,” says Horus, “he [the deceased] is in the service of Osiris....
His name is like that of the gods.”
There are various other references to this rite, or other indications
of its existence, than those already cited, in the Book of the Dead.
“I have welcomed Thoth (or the king) with blood; taking the gore from
the blessed of Seb,”[166] is one of these gleams. Again, there are
incidental mentions of the tasting of blood, by gods and by men;[167]
and of the proffering, or the uplifting, of the blood-filled arm, in
covenant with the gods.[168]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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