Tuesday, June 22, 2010

The World Seen From A Perspective Of A Mummy

Ay - Part I

I have not been dead for very long. At this moment I am stretched out on a table naked, face down. I seem to be alone. My hair keeps growing. Also my fingernails, but I can’t tell about my toenails: I can’t see them.

My heart was the last to give up after most of my other organs turned over to expire. Breathing had been difficult during my last week and I sense my lungs did not want to continue. Nor did my liver, weighted down by cirrhosis despite remedies of pomegranate and wormwood. My stomach, however, had still great quantities of half- digested fruits (some nuts as well) within its perimeters and was not quiescent. It is spring and I still contemplate melons and dates just waiting to be consumed. My belly knows this, I am sure. Having trained tongue and teeth to pulverize these morsels to an acceptable pulp to aid its own digestive juices, there was residual frustration in addiction to shock.

But no anger could match what my intestines expressed. Foul mumblings continued long after my eyes closed forever (was this a death rattle?) . It was only later that I perceived that of all my interior organs apparently only my intestines knew intimately what would follow death: dismemberment, mummification, entombment and enlightenment.

Am I getting ahead of myself? I need you to know who I am so that I can live in memory. Maybe even yours.

To be continued . . .



















I Am Followed By The Spirit Of Sustenace

Watercolor on paper - 2006

Thursday, June 10, 2010

John's Egyptian Home For Sale

New Life - John is selling his house in Egypt.

He has finished with his "lives"
in Egypt and will pursue other "lives" in China.

Artist's Villa for Sale - Luxor, Egypt
http://www.artistvilla.net/

The villa is on the western bank of Luxor beautifully located directly across the Nile from Luxor Temple&Winter Palace Hotel ( 5 minute ride by motorboat )& 3 minute walk to the villa , and 20 min taxi ride to all the important monuments on West bank ( Villa of Kings , etc).

He plans to
visit China next fall

Monday, May 17, 2010

Former Pharaoh Has Yet To Comment

King Tut, former Pharaoh Tutankhamun, is enjoying an extended visit of New York City,

He is staying in midtown Manhattan, New York until February of 2011.

But he has yet to comment on John Phillips' two books based on the Egyptian Book of the Dead, even though Zahi Hawass Secretary General of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities has not only commented he has contributed an essay to one of the books.


See: http://phillipsbookofthedead.blogspot.com/2010/02/hawass-praises-phillips-papyrus.html

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Breathing 2

Many of the images like this can be found in Going Forth By Day”a small compilation from a larger work titled Contemporary Book of the Dead.


Order From:
Going Forth By Day - Amazon


Breathing 2 - Watercolor on Papyrus

Monday, March 22, 2010

Wendy Doniger on Phillips

From A Contemporary Book of the Dead

"As these images pile up on your retina they reinforce one another in ways that make you feel that everything has its reflection and its shadow, that one life is always doubled in another. At the same time, the medium, painting on thin pieces of papyrus, suggests the fragile wrappings of mummies, the shrouds of tombs, the survival of ancient wisdom."


Wendy Doniger Co- Author of A Contemporary Book of the Dead
Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Religions, University of Chicago


My Left Eye In A Canopic Jar - Watercolor on Papyrus

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Phillips and Companions will Eye Ay


“i would like to explore the tomb and the story of ay, the egyptian pharaoh who somewhat followed king tut.

“recently we heard that zahi hawass has discovered that tut was not murdered but died of measles. the traditional story is that ay murdered the boy king for his own selfish purposes.”

Tutankhamun's death at the age of 18 or 19, together with his failure to produce an heir, left a power vacuum that his Grand Vizier Ay was quick to fill. The grounds on which Ay based his successful claim to power are not entirely clear.

More Info: AY -- WIKIPEDIA