THE EGYPTIAN FLOOD MYTH
Another important flood myth was presented in the Edfu Temple Texts of the Egyptian tradition. These tell us that during the first time (zep tepi), the land of Egypt was surveyed by a mysterious group of seven builder gods or seven sages whose original homeland was an island that was submerged in a cosmic flood.
As the only survivors of the flood, the seven sages found their way to the Nile Valley, where they sought to re-create in the land of Egypt an image of their homeland—so that Egypt might be fashioned in the image of heaven. Like the biblical myth, this Egyptian flood myth has a deeper spiritual and cosmological interpretation.When the awareness of the soul ascends beyond the thirty-third layer, which marks the shore of this world, it enters into the shell of water, which resembles a vast cosmic sea. As the soul proceeds to ascend in sequence through the cosmic shells, the qualities of the primordial elements contained in the shells become stripped. As a result, the created form of the universe, which resembles a luminous island floating in a cosmic sea, becomes dissolved progressively in awareness.
In the end, the created form of the universe, which has served as the homeland of the gods from the very beginning, vanishes from awareness as though it was submerged in a great flood. At this point, the ascended soul is no longer identified with the born Creator, the embodiment of the thirty-three universal gods. Instead, it becomes identified with the unborn Creator, the embodiment of the seven cosmic shells or seven cosmic seers, who are the only survivors of the flood.
In order for the universe to be re-created in awareness, the awareness must become established on the scale of the fortieth layer and then descend through the seven shells. In this way, the qualities of the primordial elements contained in the shells are added to awareness so that the universe reappears magically. This reconstruction of the universe taking place on the basis of the imperishable substance of pure consciousness occurs through the agency of the seven cosmic seers, the seven sages who may be viewed as the builder gods or architects of the universe.
In spite of this deeper cosmological interpretation, the Edfu Temple Texts tie the myth to a specific period, the zep tepi (first time), which predates the first historical dynasties. They also tie it to seven sages or seven godlike men who walked the Nile Valley during that time and surveyed the land of Egypt for the sake of future generations. How do we reconcile the cosmological meaning with the historical meaning?