Egypt – 1279 BCE

A clash of Ancient Egyptian magic and ruthless power
in the Silent Eye’s 2015 Spring Workshop

The River of the Sun
24-26 April, 2015

A magical journey to explore the ancient
meaning of life and self in a time of hazard

A magical temple of a very different nature . . .
a mixture of ritual drama and workshop discussions
magical work, camaraderie and quite a bit of fun . . .

THIS BROCHURE CAN ALSO BE DOWNLOADED AS A PRINTABLE PDF FILE BY CLICKING HERE:

SE15 Brochure and Booking Form

The Story . . . 1279 BCE

In a land once considered to be the ‘whole world’, – ancient Egypt, a new King is coming to power – Rameses II, know to history as Rameses the Great.
Egypt, known then as ‘Kemet’- the black land, has seen over two hundred years of turmoil, from without and within. First, conquered and ruled by the Hyksos Kings, then faced with the religious revolution of the ‘heretic’ Akhenaten, the self-styled Son of the Sun. This intense period has seen the ‘mind of Egypt’ change radically.
Against this background, the young Rameses sets out to be a ruthless hunter of anything that may indicate a renewal of old interests which lie outside of the mainstream religion of the day, now based on the triadic god, Amun-Ra. Amun-Ra comprises the composite godforms of Ra, the Sun; Khonsu, the fertile god of moon and time; and Mut, strange vulture goddess of motherhood – though herself born of none . . .
On the newly established Island of Philae, a brother and sister gain the dying Seti’s permission to establish a new temple – one dedicated to the renewal of the worship of Isis, in an age which is losing sight of the power of the Divine Feminine. The rapid success of the new Temple of Isis comes to the attention of the incoming ruler and he resolves to land a night raid on Philae, during the next ritual festival, using the might of his elite guard, known as the Talatat, led by the cold and deadly Obion.
But there is another character swept into this confrontation – the enigmatic and elderly Menascare, known as the Eye of the Cobra, whose magic derives from an older time. Groomed by Rameses’ father, Seti I, (Beloved of Seth, the enemy of Horus), the enigmatic figure is sinking from royal favour as the new King sets his mind on a rule based on military supremacy, putting aside the spirit of many of the ancient ways in the interests of stability and the total eradication of the last of the waves from the heretic king, Akhenaten.
On the night of Rameses’ raid, a young novice priest, raised alone by his grandmother, and now adopted by the high priestess, Neferaset, is being initiated by the Vessels of the Temple, when an arriving ship’s bell is heard in the darkness and the clash of the three powerful forces begins . . .

Ritual Drama . . . fantasy or raised consciousness?

In a Silent Eye workshop, everyone plays an important part.

We construct these experiential weekends in a way that allows everyone – experienced magical practitioner to first-timer – to get the most from their experience. We have no hierarchy and no snobbery. Everyone is equal in a Silent Eye temple.

Based on the nine-pointed figure of the enneagram, the circular temple sits within a traditional ‘magical’ square of East-South-West-North. The merging of the two allows you to experience the combination of external circumstance (your world, seen through the drama), and your own inner experience, seen as an evolving part of the story as it progresses to its powerful point of spiritual tension on the Saturday night, with its resolution on the Sunday morning.

You will play a single character for the whole weekend. We encourage people to develop their own costumes so that they can ‘live’ their part, but it is perfectly okay to take part in some form of very simple robe.

We guarantee that, by the end of Friday night, you will be vividly involved in what is happening; and by Sunday lunchtime, you will be very sad to leave . . .

No prior experience is necessary and we provide friendly basic temple training for anyone who is new to a temple setting.

Come and join us in the most dramatic workshop we have ever attempted – The River of the Sun.

Exploratory and Interactive Lectures and Discussions

The lecture component of the weekend consists of a series of talks and mutual explorations which counterpoint the experiences of the ritual dramas. These will include:

Inside the Mind of Egypt
The background to the 19th Dynasty, its origins and its effect on the way Egyptian people thought, worshipped and behaved. The legacy of The Hyksos invaders and the political cataclysm that was Akhenaten’s reign – materially damaging but something that broke apart millennia of stale thought; or did it?
But this, like the rest of the talks, is not about history – they are about finding our spiritual ancestors and view of life, the world and the soul in ancient Egyptian symbolism and rites.

The Eye of Sex
The legends of Horus and Seth are as old as Egypt, itself. But what were the human archetypes of experience that led to the creation of these myths? And why was Seth never destroyed, even when he was judged by more powerful entities? The answers lie in the deep Egyptian concepts of the battle between the forces of sexuality and intelligence.

One, Two, Three, Time
Threaded throughout Egyptian religious thought, and within its sacred rites, are three different concepts of time – all intertwined. We will explore this with respect to our own views of how we confront or cooperate with our daily experience in a life that is often hostile.

Circles in the Sky
The sole sun god Ra travels on his boat through the sky of Nut and then downward into the horizon, where he endures a swallowed death to emerge into the Underworld.
This journey houses the most profound symbolism used throughout Egyptian history. We will examine this daily cycle in the light of our modern objective views of the day and night. Then, we will stand it on its head and ask, subjectively, “What do we really know about the magic of the cycle of the sun as it affects thought, life and love on the Earth?”

The Programme of Events

Booking form – If you would like to join us for the weekend, please print out the booking form and send with payment to the address in the second column.

We look forward to meeting you.

Enquiries: rivingtide@gmail.com

The full brochure can be downloaded as a printable pdf file by clicking here:

SE15 Brochure and Booking Form