Ra Day

Today would have been the celebration of the Egyptian God Ra.

Every culture has its own ways of looking at god.  Some cultures tend to think that god appears in just one form, or no form at all.  Other cultures such as the ancient Egyptians tended to think that God is kinda everywhere and that seeing god or knowing god is more in the eye of the beholder.  I would put the modern-day Christians in the latter group, with its saints, angels, rainbows and the occaisional Virgin Mary appearance in a blueberry muffin.

It's sometimes hard to keep things in perspective, when we're part of the things, but the pre-Roman, pre-Christian Egyptian culture lasted about 3,000, or about 1/3 again as long as Christianity has existed so far.  Just like in Christianity, Ra's nature changed for the Egyptians as their understanding of the world evolved.   Ra was for the most part, the God of the Sun, and as such, he was a nourisher god, like Vishnu and Krishna.  He was also the creator God at various points of the way the ancients understood him.  He went from being a minor to god to being the primary god at various points along his 3,000 years of fame.

Happily, our evidence seems to indicate that at no point in Ra being an important God did the worship of God involve any sacrifice of anything or anyone.

So, I am going to celebrate Ra today.  I may even write myself a little song I can sing.