THE INNER CIRCLE OF THE DUAT

In the Egyptian tradition, the metaphysical Logos was called the Duat, the underworld or underlying hidden world through which the enlightened soul must ascend (or descend) in order to obtain true immortality.

As we have seen, the Egyptians represented the forty-twofold path of immortality with the creation of the forty-two nomes, or ancient divisions of the land, mapped out along the Nile. The goal of the path, on the other hand, was represented by an abstract symbol—the inner circle of the Duat—which was viewed as the supreme abode of all truly immortal souls.

The inner circle of the Duat has twelve inner divisions. Given the correspondence between the solar and supreme wisdoms, these have two complementary interpretations: they can be viewed as the twelve inner divisions of the sun that shines in the lower (physical) sky or the twelve inner divisions of the supreme sun that shines in the upper (metaphysical) sky, the sky of the immortal self.

In spite of its twelvefold inner nature, the symbol used to represent the inner circle of the Duat in inscriptions throughout Egypt was a five-pointed star enclosed within a circle—a potent symbol with several meanings: On one level, it symbolizes the person inside the sun, which is actually a star. This “star person” with its five celestial appendages can be compared to a human with its head, two arms, and two legs. The expanded cosmological meaning, of this symbol pertains to the fivefold celestial body of the Supreme Being, which correspond to the five cosmological spheres:

1. The sphere of the cosmic egg

2. The Hubble sphere

3. The galactic sphere

4. The heliosphere

5. The solar sphere

The Supreme Being dwells ultimately in the inner circle of the Duat. The twelve divisions of the inner circle transcend the fivefold celestial symbol, because they are not celestial. They represent hidden metaphysical divisions, rather than celestial appendages. In this way, the ancient Egyptians, like the Vedic seers, conceived the supreme abode of immortality as having twelve inner divisions, which correspond numerically to the twelve inner divisions of the sun.