THE FINAL THEORY PART ONE

I am wrapping up my final hiatus recaps to go ALL IN! on an Egyptian myth based literary stew in order to try to predict what LOST is all about. It is a literary stew because it is a variation of Egyptian-Greek-Roman myths and modern religion stories weaved, like Jacob's tapestry, to tell a story of man and his god(s). It is odd that with all the Egyptian mythology, there is only one character with an Egyptian name: Horus. Richard(us) implies a Roman name. Olivia, Eloise: English. Jacob: Hebrew. It is like all the island names correlate to all the nations who once conquered North Africa. And hence the enhanced verse about many different civilizations leaving their marks on the Island. First, the ancient Egyptian elements to LOST:

Jacob's tapestry holds many clues. At the top, the sun rays flow from the symbol for the Eye of Horus (Ra). The mural also contains non-Egyptian themes including Greek letters. This is to symbolize the long work through the centuries and different cultures (progress) which Jacob has been tending to on the Island.

My composite translation/interpretation of Jacob's Tapestry (from various sources); from top to bottom:

Greek text: "May the gods grant you all your heart (soul) desires."

Next: the Eye of Ra with 17 sun rays (with hands) to 17 Egyptians flanked by two thrones. The sun rays with hands is a symbol used by the Cult of Aten, thought to be the first "single deity" religious belief. The two thrones may represent the split kingdoms, Upper and Lower Egypt.

Next: 8 dancers giving offerings to the heavens.

Next: Greek text "May the gods grant you happiness."

Next: 5 people toiling in the fields. The representation looks like a depiction of the shabtis, a deceased pharoah's servants in the afterlife who toil in the eternal fields of the gods.

Next: 3 Egyptian ships crossing the waters. The tapestry found in Jacob's cabin would appear to be from the lower right corner, towards where the ships are sailing. A soul crossing the river is symbolic of the journey to the Maat for final judgment.

Bottom: Greek text "Only the dead have seen the end of war."

The Eye of Horus represents the right eye of the Egyptian falcon god Horus. It represents the sun, and it was associated with the Sun God Ra. The mirror image, or the left eye, represented the moon, the God called Thoth. And here is the duality of the storyline: light and dark. The power of the sun rules the day light, and the power of the moon rules the night. There is a natural balance depicted between those forces in nature.

According to the myth, the left eye was torn from Horus by his murderous uncle Seth, and magically restored by Thoth, who was considered the god of magic. Some stories state that after the eye was restored, Horus made a gift of the eye to Osiris, which allowed this solar god to rule the underworld (which explains the phases of the moon as the eye is torn from the sky every month).

Together, the eyes represent the whole of the universe. LOST has continually focused on close up shots of eyes opening as a jumping point for a story line. The never ending cycle that Jacob and the MIB (Seth) discuss on the beach is the solar cycle. In Egyptian myth, this solar cycle represent's Ra's nightly journey through the underworld where he would defeat monsters and enemies in order to rise to power each morning upon the Earth.

The Eye of Horus was extremely important in Egyptian society. In the Ancient Egyptian measurement system, the Eye Of Horus was used a form of fractional notation, each of the parts of the eye representing a different fraction. The parts of the eye were divided as follows:

* 1/2 was represented by smell,

* 1/4 was represented by sight or the sensation of light,

* 1/8 was represented by thought,

* 1/16 was represented by hearing,

* 1/32 was represented by taste,

* 1/64 was represented by touch.

These fractions were used as the basis of all medicine and prescriptions. In math, they add up to 63/64; so it was said the last 1/64th was Thoth's magic.

I also found that these numbers (2,4,8,16, 32, 64) are the same numbers on the Doubling Cube in the game of backgammon (Locke and Walt's early white/dark discussion as an metaphor for the game of good vs. evil). The great evil story was Seth tricking his ruling brother, Osiris, to a feast in his honor. But Seth killed his brother, carved up his body into pieces, and cast them across the Nile valley. Osiris' wife gathered up the pieces and went to the underworld where Thoth's magic reunited the parts to create the judgment god of the underworld.

I also thought that Jacob touching six people may be a clue that he was hiding one his six traits in them, to be re-combined like Osiris' body parts when the "touched" 815ers are all reunited in the same time and place.

If that is the case, it would be a perfect example of Sawyer's creed, "what's in it for me?" In Jacob's case, he has devised a way to be reincarnated (again?)

The ancient Egyptians had complex rules for man on earth, preparation for the afterlife, and one's body and soul journeying through the afterlife to paradise or punishment. In Egyptian culture, Man was regarded as a complex being that could exist both before and after death in different manifestations, known as kheperu. The physical body was one of these modes of existence, as were also the heart, the shadow and the name, which embodied a person's distinct identity.

Over the centuries the Egyptians evolved several different concepts of human survival after death. These ideas were first formulated to ensure safe passage for the dead king into the hereafter, but over time people of lower status were able to share in the same destiny. Common to all of the concepts was the idea that resurrection was achieved through integrating the deceased into the natural processes of the cosmos.

During life, the body was known as "khet" meaning form or appearance.
At the time of death the corpse was known as "khat".
When the corpse was transformed into a mummy, it was known as "sah". Mummification was considered the transfiguration of the corpse into a new body which was "filled with magic."

The Egyptians believed that a person's essence or soul was composed of several elements that at the point of death would become separate entities:

The "ka"

The "ka" was considered to be the essential ingredient or dimension that differentiated a living person from a dead one; considered to be the "life force" or "sustenance."

Each individual's "ka" would come into existence at the moment of birth, subsequently serving as their "double."

Although every individual would eventually die, their "ka" would continue to live on after their death, and as such it would require exactly the same sort of sustenance as the living person would have enjoyed during their life. The "ka" would be provided with genuine food offerings, to be absorbed into their life preserving force.

After death, the "ka" would be at rest while the body was prepared and transformed into a mummy. The "ka" then needed to be reactivated so that the spiritual transformation of rebirth could take place. The deceased could then travel to join their "ka," and the link to the land of living through their tomb would then be established. It would be the person's "ba" that would make this journey.

The "ba"

The "ba" is considered to be an individual's distinctive manifestation, similar to our concept of personality which make each human unique. It was necessary for the deceased to journey from their tomb to rejoin their "ka" if they were to be transformed into an "akh." As the physical body could not do this, it was the job of the individual's "ba" to do so.

In order for the physical bodies of the deceased to survive the afterlife, they had to be reunited with their "ba" every night.

Closely linked to the physical body, the "ba" was considered to have the same physical needs as the living body. These needs included earthly pleasures such as food and drink.

The journey of the "ba" was still only a part of the final transformation of the deceased. Another journey followed, to the sky, sunlight and stars, and it was in these celestial realms that the deceased hoped to reach higher status, second only to a god, and resurrection as an "akh."

The "Akh"

The "akh" is the fully resurrected and glorified form of the deceased in the Afterlife. An "akh" comes close to our concept of a ghost or spirit, as it was believed that the "akh" could reach beyond the limits of the tomb to have both positive and negative effects on the realm of earthly life. The deceased was now free to roam on and over the earth. After the successful union of the "ba" with its "ka." the deceased was considered enduring and unchanged for eternity.

Jacob's tapestry was housed in the foot of an ancient statue of Tawaret. Tawaret mythology changed during the various Egyptian kingdoms. She was once an evil god which combined all early Egyptian fears (crocodiles, hippos and lions). She became a less evil, motherly figure when it was shown that aggressive Nile hippos were usually female, protecting their young. Even then, it was said that she consorted with a crocodile god. Then in the latter kingdoms, she was seen as the wife of Apep, the serpent god of the underworld. So if you mash-up the stories, she is both evil and protective. Some have speculated that since the statue's demise (destruction), the Island has had feritility/birth problems with the Island inhabitants.