Hieroglyphic Words of Power: Symbols for Magic, Divination, and Dreamwork

by Normandi Ellis, Nicki Scully (Foreword by)

Overview

A guide to harnessing the ancient power of hieroglyphs

• Reveals hieroglyphs as magical tools for manifesting ideas in the material world

• Offers in-depth interpretations of 60 hieroglyphs and guidelines for understanding them as words of power, oracles, and dream symbols

• Explains how to create your own hieroglyph cards and amulets and use them for divination, meditation, and manifestation work

Words are magic. They operate on many levels through both sound and symbol. Egyptian priests understood that language and thought could create realities if the exact words are uttered at the right time, properly intoned, and filled with intention. They called their magical language of hieroglyphic symbols medju neter, meaning “the Word of God.” These symbols were said to have been created by Isis and Thoth and were presided over by the goddess Seshet, keeper of the Akashic records. Through their chant lines and repetitions, sound vibrations, and hypnotically recurring images, hieroglyphs, such as those found inside the pyramids, were intended to activate a trancelike state that allowed the individual to ascend into the heavens and thus, riding on this incantatory language, converse with the ancestors and the Creator.

In this detailed guide, author Normandi Ellis explores how to use hieroglyphs as words of power for manifesting ideas into the material world as well as how to utilize them in magic, meditation, divination, and dreamwork. She offers a deep look at the many layers of meaning contained within 60 important hieroglyphs, breaking down the elements within each symbol and explaining the myths behind them, the gods and goddesses they are connected to, their initiatory significance, and their oracular and dream meanings. She also shares guidelines for interpreting hieroglyphs so readers will be able to come to their own understandings about the secrets they hold.

Providing instructions for creating your own hieroglyph cards, amulets, and other magically empowered objects, Ellis offers practices and strategies to use them, with detailed explanations for the historical, magical, practical, and symbolic reasons why each method is effective. She offers several layouts and card spreads for divination readings based on Egyptian myth, numerology, and astrology. Revealing the depth of meaning behind each of these powerful ancient symbols, Normandi Ellis shows that we can still harness their millennia-old magic today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781591433767
Publisher:	Inner Traditions/Bear & Company
Publication date:	05/05/2020
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	488,246
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Normandi Ellis is an award-winning writer, workshop facilitator, and director of PenHouse Retreat Center. The author of several books, including Awakening Osiris, and coauthor of Invoking the Scribes of Ancient Egypt, she leads tours to Egypt with Shamanic Journeys, Ltd., and lives in Frankfort, Kentucky.

Nicki Scully has been a healer and teacher of shamanism and the Egyptian mysteries since 1978. She lectures worldwide and specializes in spiritual tours to sacred sites in Egypt, Peru, and other countries. She is the author of Power Animal Meditations and Alchemical Healing, and the co-author of Shamanic Mysteries of Egypt and The Anubis Oracle. Nicki lives in Eugene, Oregon, where she maintains a comprehensive healing and shamanic consulting practice.

Read an Excerpt

The Hieroglyphs

For nearly two years I used the hieroglyphic symbols as a focal point in ongoing meditations. To make meditations easier, I drew the images I was seeing onto blank papyrus slips and placed them where I could see them during the meditation. The writing of the oracle notations began after several months of meditations, several dreams, and some encouragement from my spirit guides.

The more you write or copy a hieroglyph in a notebook with your own hand, the more you inscribe the image into your own flesh. The more often you work with these symbols, the more you will expand your consciousness, your understanding of life, and your ability to create a life around yourself through your attention and intention. The magic is inherent in the hieroglyph itself and lives within you. In other words, each word written in hieroglyphs offers a world to be explored.

I suggest that you draw these images on papyrus, if you can, or on cardstock. Copy them by hand. Then study the oracle hieroglyphs as you hold each card, imbuing it with your energy and deepening your own understanding of the multiple meanings.

Ankh

This ubiquitous, well-known hieroglyph offers messages of renewal, fertility, and eternal life. Nearly everyone who has ever seen the Key of Life knows immediately what it means. Most gods and goddesses, the pharaoh and his queens, and many of the comforting beings in the underworld clasp or offer the ankh. It is the key to the mysteries, the key of life, and the breath of life.

The ankh particularly invigorates those who have entered the afterlife. For example, the goddess Hathor fondly offers the ankh to her newly departed companion Nefertari in the duat. The goddess holds the ankh to the queen’s nose so that she may breathe in the fragrant renewal. Whatever seems to have died—person, project, love—yet it shall be renewed and live again. Like the sa hieroglyph, which the ankh resembles, it offers magical protection. Still others suggest that the ankh may represent a sperm penetrating an ovum at the beginning of life. I do not dispute any of these ideas, believing that these similarities are the way one’s mind constellates a fuller poetic meaning of a simple, albeit somewhat abstract, image.

The ankh, often offered by the hands of goddesses, becomes an especially feminine symbol. Like the thet, the ankh represents the mother and the womb through which everyone of us are connected. That protective, nurturing spirit of the divine and its emblem of self-sacrifice – that is, giving one’s life to a higher purpose - reappears in later Christian traditions as the sign of the cross. The physical world appears as the cross, or four directions, surmounted by a circle of the eternal.

1. Through all of our incarnations we attain one life eternal; but in this particular body, we have one physical life. Live yours to the fullest. Gather wisdom from all experiences. Become a shining example to others. God gives you life from Life.

2. Live for others. It’s all about how we on this planet treat each other and all life forms. The Golden Rule applies. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. You understand that we must all live in like manner: nurturing others as well as ourselves. Listen with your heart.

3. A new creation is coming straight out of your being. You will need to nurture it as it grows. Eventually you will release it and it will live on after you. This could be a creative project or a child. The work takes on a long arc of being; this is only the beginning.

4. Put your work under a microscope. Investigate what will make it pulse with life. Listen with a stethoscope to what you have not been hearing. Hear it now in order to fix any irregularities. Work the “Big List” of things that you need/want to accomplish today, this month, this year, in your life. Doing is being.

5. Live in the moment. Change things up. Go to the window to gaze out over an expansive vista for inspiration. Life is meant to be enjoyed. Let go of the melodrama. Read some inspiring books or poems; then go about living inside them, or write some poems, or paint some pictures. Your life is grand theatre, enjoy the play. Resurrect some forgotten themes.

6. Our family connections are lifelines to the world. Keep those connections Love Light clear. If there are family riffs, release and forgive. Life’s too short for anger. Your body is a temple for Spirit. Care for it. Let hope in. The ankh here may indicate an addition to the family.

7. God is Love. Even when you are alone, your spirit guides love you and work with you to keep you connected to the source. Isis cradles you in her arms. Live an inspiring life to others. Read and emulate someone else’s inspiring life. God wants you to embrace your true calling. The power of the ankh celebrates “high doing.” This means engaging in the spiritual work of learning through life experience that leads us toward tremendous insight and spiritual wisdom.

8. God is in the details. If you are living a life of purpose, every day is a particular day in which particular energies occur and particular things are happening that will never be the same again. You may wish to track them through astrology, numerology, even the colors you wear. Do something that matters for others, for your work, for yourself. In all things, express gratitude.

9. Get rid of distractions that keep you from living in the now. Whatever is passing will transform when you let it go. Something new is rising. The seed must be planted in the dark, which requires radical trust. Prosperity waits in the wings.

Table of Contents

Foreword Nicki Scully xi

Acknowledgments xix

Introduction to the Hieroglyphs 1

The Word of Gods

The Unique Magic of the Hieroglyphs 11

Opening the Way to Meaning

Familiarize Yourself with the Hieroglyphs in Meditation 15

Use the Hieroglyphs as an Oracle 18

Invoke the Hieroglyphs When You Dream 19

Engage in Ritual Work with the Hieroglyphs 22

Create Amulets to Access the Hieroglyphs' Healing Power 25

Use Number Magic to Broaden Your Understanding of Hieroglyphs 27

A Final Caveat 36

The Hieroglyphs 38

Words of Power

Akh 41

Akhet 45

Amen 48

Ankh 52

Anpu (Anubis) 55

Arit 59

Asar (Osiris) 63

Ast (Isis) 67

Aten 70

Atum 74

Ba 77

Benben 79

Blank 82

Djed 84

Djhuty (Thoth) 88

Dser 93

Duat 96

Geb 98

Heh 100

Heka 103

Heru (Horus) 107

Het (Khet or Khat) 112

Het-Hor (Hathor) 115

Hotep 121

Hu 125

Ib (Ab) 128

Ir-ma'a 132

Ka 136

Khaibit 139

Khat 142

Kheper 147

Ma'at (Ma'aty) 151

Manu 156

Meri 158

Nebhet (Nephthys) 161

Nefer 164

Nefertum 166

Nu 169

Nut 171

Per-a 175

Ptah 179

Re (Ra) 181

Rekht 186

Ren 188

Sahu 194

Seba 199

Sekhem 204

Se-Shen (Lotus) 209

Se-Sheshet 212

Seshet 215

Set 219

Shen 224

Sia 226

Sopdet 229

Ta 233

Thet 236

Wab 240

Wadjet 245

Waz 250

Zep Tepi 253

The Layouts 258

Tools for Divination

The Dendera Zodiac Layout 258

The Djed Pillar or Tree of Life Spread 269

The Sphinx Reading 280

The Conversational Reading 284

The Daily Numerology Reading 285

The Ennead (Journey) Reading 287

The Ogdoad Reading 291

Notes 296

Bibliography 300

Index 306

Hieroglyphic Oracle Card Deck 316

Editorial Reviews

"The book demonstrates how the reader can use hieroglyphics to manifest desires, and intentions. Once you have gone over the basics, the majority of the book is the Words of Power, the Hieroglyphs. Each entry has an image as well as a photograph, the nine interpretations that can be used. This section has sixty hieroglyphs to learn and work with and is a handy guide to have on your shelf to reference when needed. The last section is the layouts for card divinations for readings. Each is well explained with images for your own practice. Overall this was a good book but it is not for the casual or light reader."

FacingNorth.net Amber Barnes

Normandi Ellis dreams into the mind of ancient Egypt, and Egypt dreams through her. She is one of those who passed through the lion skin, as Egypt said of initiates, and now invites us to taste the mysteries. With Hieroglyphic Words of Power, this word priestess gives us access to ancient codes for creation through the heart and the tongue. She takes us on a tour of the magic library of Seshet—scribe, goddess, and celestial consort of Thoth—where gods and glyphs come alive. This beautifully designed book is a workout for the visual imagination and an invitation to awaken to the power of naming and constructing personal oracles from ancient words of power. Through essays on sixty medju neter (words of the gods), Normandi introduces us to ‘hieroglyphic thinking’ and leads us with poetic clarity through a profusion of deities, creation myths, and spiritual bodies. She leaves us with a reference book to which I will return again and again—a resource unlike others, because, beyond scholarship, the author’s shining love for her theme blazes through every word.

Robert Moss

This is a work of genius! Normandi Ellis, the author of this mind-cracking, soul-shaking work, is a once and future priestess, poet, and practitioner of the mystery, magic, and spiritual arts of ancient Egypt. She illustrates the enormous difference between our material thought and what we might call our soul thought or hieroglyphic thought. The Egyptians lived closer to the depths of their intra-dimensional minds than we do. By learning to perceive hieroglyphically, we can tap the many levels of consciousness; we can accommodate ourselves to the many transformations of our time; we can discover the many meanings, the sacred ambivalences. By consciously shaping our lives through spiritual attunement by thinking hieroglyphically, analogically, and symbolically in charged multi-patterns with webs of meaning, we can begin to create changes in our own forms—in our bodies and our minds. Thus, we approach the enantiodromia, ‘the big turnaround,’ that leads to a higher and deeper culture for us all collectively.

Jean Houston

Normandi Ellis’s latest book has given me something precious: access to a door that for years I thought had no key, behind which—I just knew—were wonderful things just out of reach. At last, with the surprising and multilayered techniques given, I see a way to crack it open.

coauthor of The Inner Guide to Egypt and author of Alan Richardson

Normandi has created a very mysterious and beautiful book on ancient writings. Hieroglyphics are unknown to most people but is now a subject we can study thanks to this wonderful collection of work. This author’s research is impeccable. This book is a portal into ancient teaching that have been obscured for centuries. A power accomplishment.

NY Times Bestselling author of The Medicine Woman Lynn Andrews

This book is almost as good as being in class or traveling with Normandi Ellis, as she shares her immense wisdom from her even bigger heart. As the class or tour eventually ends, this beautiful book ensures that the teaching does not—you can delve into it anytime to discover new layers and revelations. Normandi presents the hieroglyphs of Egypt as tangible oracular tools to navigate the magical cosmology of our existence and to divine ourselves as living images of the magic that created us. This book is not only about the magic; it vividly helps us to remember that we are the magic.

author of How to Create Sacred Water Kathryn W. Ravenwood

If you’re into Egyptian history and culture, you’ll love this read. These magical symbols were ‘said to be’ created by Isis and Thoth and were presided over by the goddess Seshet, keeper of the Akashic records. Through their chant lines and repetitions, sound vibrations, and hypnotically recurring images, hieroglyphs, such as those found inside the pyramids, were intended to activate a trancelike state that allowed the individual to ascend into the heavens and thus, riding on this incantatory language, converse with the ancestors and the Creator. It’s an incredible reference guide for those interested in the mystical sciences and magic.

We Blog the World Renee Blodgett

Ellis has put together a method of study that is comprehensive, accessible, and transformative when undertaken. I recommend this book to anyone who is looking to begin strengthening their connection to the magic of Egypt, whether to develop relationships with deities or learn another method of divination based on the combination of dreamwork, numerology, and hieroglyphs. There’s a lot interwoven in this book and I’m sure it will remain one I refer back to often over time.

Indie Mystic Alanna Kali

"An extraordinary and impressively informative study, Hieroglyphic Words of Power is an outstanding and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, and academic library Metaphysical Studies collection in general, and Occult/Taro/New Age Mysticism supplemental studies lists in particular."

Midwest Book Review

As Normandi writes, ‘truth is more than one thing.’ To break the spell that reality is something fixed, Normandi conjures spells of imagery and poetry, tricking us into a larger truth. Don’t be confused that in your hands now is a book of words. For if you dare suspend your usual perceptions and expectations, you may recognize that you’re being handed a prism of realization—one facet, one image, one key to the kingdom at a time. Beyond the relative reality that we unconsciously construct moment by moment lives the imaginal realms. Step into these pages. Let go. Become ancient and available to the gods through your own nonrational self.

executive director of the Nine Gates Mystery Schoo Deborah Jones