Hieroglyphs and Headrests - Word Magic and Symbolic Objects of Sleep

The most simple representation of the word or idea 'dream' in Egyptian hieroglyphs is an open eye 👁 over a bed 🛏.

'Rswt' was the Egyptian wordsound for dream and translates literally as 'to come awake'. The Egyptian view of dreams was an awakened state within sleep.

The ancient people of Kemet recognised dreams as an opportunity to see into another world and have contact with gods and ancestors.

Hieroglyphs and other pictoral language systems work in a way that is very compatible with dream reality. Often with puns, wordplay and double-meaning.

I'm trying to learn some basic hieroglyphics at the moment and I have noticed that they very much creep into dream consciousness.

Could this language of God, this - word magic - be a sort of bridge into the unconscious?

Another interesting object to look at to get a deeper understanding of the Ancient Egyptian perspective on dreaming is the 'headrest' - weres. I've always been very intrigued by this ritual object. Elaborately decorated headrests are found frequently in funeral chambers, here cradling the hollow head of the deceased in the eternal dream of death.

The use of a rock-hard headrest for every day slumber seems to suggest polyphasic sleep at least and dreaming for purpose highly likely. The shape - when filled with the head of a dreamer echoes that of the hieroglyph for 'horizon' and it is likely that the experience of sleep was equated in some way with the motion of the Earth and the cycle of day and night, life and death, lightness and darkness. 

#thoth #ancient #imnotsayingitsaliens #magic #egypt #egyptian #hieroglyphs#symbol #dream #lucid #consciousness #bed #sleep #dreaming#dreaminterpretation #homedecor #egyptianhistory #pharoahnough #god Dream Magic #ancientcivilisations #gaia #headrests #lucidity #wake #matrix #earth#lightanddark #dayandnight #awaken #ritual

Headrests shown are from the British Museum in #London and Egyptian Museum#Cairo. 

If you're interested in checking out a collection of headrests, I highly recommend the Pitt Rivers Museum's collection in #Oxford, Glencairn Museum's Egyptian Collection. There are also some fascinating online resources about the continuity of headrests in Egypt and elsewhere in Africa at the The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge website here: 

https://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/galle…/headrests/index.html

Sweet dreams.