The Double Crown of Horus

Alice C. Linsley

The double crown of ancient Egyptian rulers represents the Upper and Lower Nile regions which were united under the Kushite Pharaohs.

The Kushites were descendants of Kush, the son of Ham, the son of Noah. One of Kush's sons was Nimrod, the great Kushite kingdom-builder.

The king list on the Palermo stone begins with the names of Lower Nile pharaohs (Kushites) and shows them wearing the Red Crown. The Cairo fragment shows these rulers wearing the double crown, which the Greeks called the "Pschent." The invention of the Pschent is attributed to Menes, but a rock inscription shows his Horus wearing it. This indicates that the double crown was a symbol of Horus who was often called "Horus of the Two Crowns". He was also called "son of God" because his mother Hat-Hor conceived when she was overshadowed by Re, the Creator.

This is the origin of Messianic expectation.  It wasn't invented by the Jews.

The totem of the Upper Nile was the Griffin Vulture (called neshser in Hebrew and rendered "eagle", as in Job 39). The totem of the Lower Nile was the Cobra and the crown was originally made of reeds which represent the masculine principle of erectness.  The sema sign (shown right) represents the Osiris phallus divided into rhizomes for planting. The cultivation of reeds transformed the ancient Egyptian landscape from one wetlands to grasslands.

Gold and the color yellow were associated with the Sun, and white was associated with the Moon.  It is likely that silver and silver-gold alloys (electrum) which is found in nature, represented the Moon. The Sun and Moon were paired as binary opposites and they represented the Masculine and Feminine. Before appearing in public, royal Egyptian women were painted white. The sister wife is described as having been "made white" while her beloved has skin as dark "as the tents of Kedar" because he was made to work in in the Sun by his older brothers (like David). Gen 25:13 tells us that Kedar was a son of Ishmael and his Egyptian wife. The tents of Kedar were black.

In most ancient depictions of Saharan men, they are painted with red ochre. Red can also represents the Sun. Red symbolized the fiery radiance of the sun and amulets representing the Eye of Re were made of red stones. (From here.)

The Sun and the Moon are spoken of in Genesis 1 as two powers: the Sun is the greater power which rules the day and the Moon is the lesser power which rules the night. When the two appeared in the sky just before dawn or dusk it meant to the ancients that God was watching. The "two lights" (or two powers) were interpreted as the eyes of Re or of his son, Horus. Horus' left eye, the Moon, was weaker because it had been damaged in mortal combat with his brother Set. So Jesus Christ, who is one with the Father, was mortally wounded by his brethren, but rose before dawn and rules over all.

"Har-Ur" refers to Horus in maturity, or the Elder Horus. In his infancy he was depicted in ancient Egypt as either a calf or a lamb and in his maturity as a bull or a ram.  Horus is the only mythological figure in ancient Egypt who was understood to be a man. And only as a man does he wear the two crowns.

Red (desher) was the color of life and of victory. During celebrations, ancient Egyptians would paint their bodies with red ochre and would wear amulets made of cornelian, a deep red stone. The normal skin tone of Egyptian men was depicted as red, without any negative connotation. Egyptian artisans created paint by using naturally oxidized iron and hematite.

The color white (hedj and shesep) suggested omnipotence and purity. Due to its lack of color white was also the color of simple and sacred things. The name of the holy city of Memphis meant "White Walls." White sandals were worn at holy ceremonies. The material most commonly used for ritual objects such as small ceremonial bowls and even the embalming table for the Apis Bulls in Memphis was white alabaster. White was also the heraldic color of Upper Egypt. The "Nefer", the crown of Upper Egypt was white, even though originally is was probably made of green reeds.

The pure white color used in Egyptian art was created from chalk and gypsum.  The white crown appears like a linen turban and suggests purity. The red crown suggests the blood that purifies. The double crown association with Horus speaks of both purity and blood sacrifice. Among the ancient Afro-Asiatics these were linked as is evident from linguistic studies.

The Hebrew root "thr" = to be pure, corresponds to the Hausa/Hahm "toro" = clean, and to the Tamil "tiru" = holy. All are related to the proto-Dravidian (Sudroid) "tor" = blood. This relates to the injunction that the ancient Egyptian/Kushite priest (harwa) be pure (w'b) before entering the temple. These priests shaved their heads. Korah, Moses' half-brother, was such a priest. His name means "shaved head" and according to Numbers 16:17-18, he carried the censor to offer incense to the deity. This suggests that "kor" and "tor" are cognates.


Related reading:  Jesus Christ of the Two Crowns; Who Were the Kushites?; Linguistic Evidence for the Afro-Asiatic Dominion; Jesus From Lamb to Ram