My Heart My Mother: Death and Rebirth in Ancient Egypt Review

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(More customer reviews)I read the original print of 2000. Alison Roberts clearly prefers to remain on the safe side of egyptology, which concentrates on the myths and rites of ancient Egypt, but excludes the mysticism. At one point, she even laments about that focus in "scholarly" books and goes as far as stating that at least some use of the so called "Book of the Dead" was for an initiation for the very much living. Yet, without the full scale mysticism behind the myths and rites, ancient Egypt cannot get overstood. But then again, this is true for any religion. Yet, any religion is largely practiced - and therefore very real - by the masses to which no mysticism is taught or for whom (quasi universal) mysticism don't say anything. Hence, it gets difficult to rate this book. Clearly, orthodox egyptologists will give more stars than mystics of any branch of religion. As I am a mystic, I would probably give 2 or 3 stars for the first four chapters or 188 pages. However, I bought this book for its final fifth chapter or 36 pages. Which is about the ancient Egyptian source of European alchemy. And here the author leaves the orthodox path for a more progressive view, clearly and very convincingly connecting e.g. the "Splendor Solis" paper to the "Book of Night" and other ancient Egyptian mystic works. The very term "alchemy" shows the Arab origin of "chemistry". Yet, they in turn got it from the Egyptians, and the Jews actually bridged it to Europe as well. Originally not being concerned at all with secular science, but with a lot of spirituality. Which does get explained in this book, minus the very most of mysticism as mentioned. For that connection to overstand, it makes sense to have read the previous chapters in the book. That's why to me personally, this book is worth 4 stars after all.
For those with general interest in all of the book: The title may be a bit misleading as it suggests a much broader spectrum than gets actually covered. The author recommends reading her previous book Hathor Rising: The Power of the Goddess in Ancient Egypt beforehand. Which is about Akhenaten's (Akenten's) revolution. "My Heart My Mother" concerns itself with the "aftermath" (or counter revolution depending on the perspective). Obviously, the author isn't to fond of Akhenaten, mostly for his supposed neglect of female input in his religion branch. (Again, which may due to the author not having a vibe for mysticism, which disregards genders. Akhenaten and his wife are usually depicted in an "androgynous" style.) Yet, Alison Robert's focus narrows further on one temple in Memphis and the Osireion at Abydos. Speaking of which, she uses the orthodox English rendered Greek rendered names of the ancient Egyptian names of god(desse)s and cities.
One of the MANY, MANY examples of the ancient Egyptian branch of religion not to be overstood by reading this non-mystical book is about Seth (Set) killing Osiris (Asar) "for some unstated reason". It isn't about the literal myth, but the symbolism: Seth represents the lower self of everyone which believes in the ego and separations, who hence separates and destructs as in the myth he separates Osiris' body into many pieces. Accordingly, it is besides the point to write about one episode of Seth and his nephew Horus (Heru) as an homosexual encounter and about another with Isis (Aset) and Horus as an incestuous one. Again, the symbolism of what the characters (who are all the ONE, plus all parts of the initiate) stand for is decisive, not the specifics of the exchangeable myth. Besides: All ancient Egyptian deities are meant to be androgynous and all sexuality is more or less incestuous, as couples are often siblings etc. For a mystical approach read e.g. Shamanic Wisdom in the Pyramid Texts: The Mystical Tradition of Ancient Egypt and Muata Ashby's books, for direct reference for example "African Religion Vol. 3: Memphite Theology".
One advantage Alison Roberts has, though: She is not interpreting ancient Egyptian religion as sex hostile, something many modern mystics attempt to due to a post-Egyptian development of a sex hostile meme pool in religion.
Yet, the bottom line is: If you do not take the phenomenological approach of mysticism towards ancient Egyptian religion and society, you are bound to blind both as polytheistic, pagan and utterly unconcerned with I-n-I (us) today. Instead of seeing the very source of all of today's "world religions" and the very relevance in mystical terms.

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My Heart My Mother looks at many different aspects of Egyptian religion from the role of Hathor-Sekhmet, the serpent eye goddess, in the cult of Osiris, to the reliefs in the temple at Abydos, and more general discussions of temple life, ancestor ritual, death, rebirth and regeneration. An original piece of work on female divinities and their role in the passage of the pharaohs from death to rebirth that takes us beyond the New Kingdom period and into the Greco-Roman world.