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Ancient Egyptian Word Correlations to the Maori

If our intent was to try to synchronize the Maori and Egyptian outlooks on their respective cosmologies, the place to begin might be with the Maori concept of tapu, which we have noted that Tregear defines to mean “under restriction” or “prohibited.”¹ Again, the Maori term tapu properly applies to all restricted or esoteric knowledge and practices. This is arguably the same body of knowledge that, as Griaule described in his book Conversations with Ogotemmeli, Dogon priests took such care to reveal only to trusted initiates. The Dogon word ta can mean “gate” or “doorway,”² and the word pu refers to the concept of “totality.”³ Taken together, the Dogon term tapu would refer to a body of knowledge that might be seen as “the gateway to totality,” the same knowledge that was restricted to trusted initiates. From an Egyptian perspective, and knowing that the precise pronunciations of Egyptian words are uncertain, we see a likely reference to this same body of restricted knowledge reflected in the ancient Egyptian term tepa, which Budge defines to mean “to overstep” or “to transgress.”⁴

By way of a few examples cited so far in the preceding chapters, we can see that likely relationships exist between some Maori and ancient Egyptian words of cosmology. Likewise, if our Te Kore comparisons suggest that the Maori and Dogon cosmologies align, and we know that we have already correlated many of the Dogon cosmological words and concepts to ancient Egyptian words, then by a kind of transitive property of cosmology and language we can reasonably presume that parallels will be found between some words of Maori cosmology and ancient Egyptian words. However, there are a number of key Maori terms that very obviously seem to express ancient Egyptian concepts, and so it makes sense to review a few of these.

Perhaps the most recognizable of these words begin with the name of the Egyptian sun god Ra. Tregear tells us that the Maori word ra refers to “the sun, the name of the solar deity.” It’s fair to say that during the dynastic era, Ra was the premier god of Egyptian culture. In fact, our outlook is that one of the ancient names for Egypt, Mera, can be interpreted to mean “loves Ra.” Similarly, Tregear goes on to say that this Maori deity Ra “was known by this name almost everywhere in Polynesia.”⁵ He adds that in New Zealand, although no deity can be said to have been overtly worshipped, great respect was paid to the beneficial attributes of the sun, which were also assigned to the term ra.

From a cosmological perspective, Ra aligns symbolically with the notion of the bending and warping of mass that is associated with the force of gravity. Within the purview of our immediate solar system, the sun is the prime generator of gravity, whose tug keeps the other bodies of the solar system in their orbits, and so Ra might well have come to be symbolic of that concept. In keeping with this outlook, the Maori word rahu means “to gather” or “pull about.”⁶

Obvious similarities can be seen between the Maori Earth Mother Papa and an Egyptian word papa, meaning “to bring forth,” “to bear,” or “to give birth to.”⁷ Symbolic links to the cosmological notion of the emergence of space can be seen in the glyphs of the word, which are expressed with the square glyph (the square can represent the material universe and, by its form, illustrates the concept of “a space”) and the bent arm glyph , meaning “to give,” “to cause,” or “to measure out.”

The Egyptian concept of light is often given in relation to the phonetic roots ak and akh. From the perspective of the ancient cosmological tradition, matter begins as a kind of collected pool of primordial waves, from which matter grows in a manner that is compared metaphorically to the growth of a tree, known as the Tree of Life. These waves are associated with the nonmaterial universe and are said to be of a nature that is similar to light. Consistent with that perspective, the Maori word akar means “root, origin, principle or foundation,” and the word akaaka can refer to “the rays of the sun; the tree of life rooted in heaven above; the root of all existence; a spirit located at the very lowest point of the universe and sustaining the creation.”⁸

In the Egyptian and Dogon languages, the concept of water or waves was conveyed by the term nu. This meaning is emphasized by the Egyptian term nun, which was assigned to the deified concept of the primeval waters. We can see evidence of the same phonetic symbolism in the Maori term honu, which means “fresh water.”⁹ The prefix ho in the Maori language implies the notion of a gift that is given, and so the suggestion is that the term for “fresh water” implies the only type of water that would be suitable to bring to someone for drinking, perhaps to be contrasted with salt water. It may also be cosmologically significant that the Hawaiian counterpart to the biblical character Noah, who is also associated with a great flood, was called Nuu.¹⁰

From both a scientific and an ancient cosmological standpoint, the processes that transform matter in its wavelike form into particles are initiated by an act of perception. The Egyptian term that defines this act is pronounced maa and means “to see, to examine, to inspect.”¹¹ Various hieroglyphic spellings for the word include the Egyptian eye glyph . The word maa provides a phonetic root for the word maa-t, meaning “sight.” A comparable Maori word is pronounced mata and means “eye.”¹² The Maori word ahi refers to the concept of “fire.”¹³ This may correspond to an Egyptian word for “fire” that is given by Budge as aaa, pronounced roughly as ahay or ayah.¹⁴ From the perspective of our comparative studies, fire can represent the act of perception that initiates the processes of the creation of matter.

The Maori word ka means “transformation” and is used “to denote one action changing into another.”¹⁵ The word is a likely correlate to the Dogon phoneme ke, which, like the Egyptian word kheper, referred to a “dung beetle.” From a cosmological perspective, the dung beetle represents the concept of nonexistence coming into existence, and its name relates to an Egyptian word kheperu that means “transformation.”¹⁶ In our view, an Egyptian glyph that is pronounced ka is meant to depict the image of an embrace, comparable to the conceptual embrace that occurs between the nonmaterial and material universes when the processes of the creation of matter are catalyzed.

The Egyptian word ar means “to go up” or to “ascend” and can imply the concept of a staircase.¹⁷ In our view, the same phoneme ar was reflected in the ancient name Argat for Orkney Island in Northern Scotland, where a series of megalithic structures was erected that appears to symbolize a series of ascending stages of matter. We interpreted the name Argat to refer to the “ascending gateways” of matter. In the myths of various cultures, these ascending stages of matter are symbolically associated with the notion of waking up, in much the same way that the modern act of waking up is commonly referred to as “rising.” By comparison, the Maori word ara means “to rise,” “to rise up,” or “to awake.”¹⁸

The Maori word ara also refers to “a road, a path, a way.” The progressive stages of matter are characterized in the traditions of various cultures like the ancient Chinese as a road, way, or path. The Chinese word dao, which forms the phonetic root of the religion of Daoism, carries these same meanings, and likely correlates exist in the ancient Egyptian language. On Orkney Island, the megalithic structures that we interpret to represent progressive stages of matter were linked to one another by an actual physical road.

In the view of the cosmology, the progressive stages of matter could be conceptualized as seven structures or houses (defined by the Egyptian term arit) that were separated by gateways or obstacles. Consistent with that outlook, the Maori term arai can imply the concept of an “obstacle.”¹⁹

In the Dogon and Egyptian cosmologies, the concept of the emergence of space is compared to the opening of a mouth. This process relates to a Dogon word yala and correlates to an Egyptian term that is pronounced auau. An Egyptian homonym for the word can refer to a dog barking. Although the word is onomatopoeic (meaning that the word’s pronunciation seems to mimic the sound of a dog’s bark), the likely cosmological symbolism is to the < shape made by a dog’s mouth as it barks, which calls to mind the image of an expanding dimensional space. From this perspective, it makes sense that the Maori word auau also refers to “the bark of a dog.”²⁰

During the stages of the creation of matter as the Dogon understand them, space loops as it expands to create the seven wrapped bubble-like divisions of the egg-of-the-world. In the Dogon and Egyptian cosmologies, this repetitive looping is compared to the action of a herald, a messenger who went from town to town repeating an urgent message. Appropriate to this symbolism, Tregear tells us that the Maori word auau can also imply the concept of something that is “frequently repeated.” The sound of a dog’s bark may also relate to this same aspect of the symbolism in that, in many cases, it is also frequently repeated.

We have previously mentioned that as a way of conceptually categorizing symbols of the tradition, Dogon cosmology defines several four-stage guiding metaphors. Perhaps the most familiar of these is the progression of water, fire, wind, and earth, which are often cast as four primordial elements of creation. From the perspective of the cosmology, they also seem to align with four conceptual stages of creation. (By this interpretation, water represents matter as waves, fire represents an act of perception, wind represents vibration, and earth represents mass or matter.) Given in a more generic form, another comparable progression defines four stages of the construction of a house or building. The first of these stages is defined by the Dogon word bummo and the Egyptian word bu maa, and it implies the initial concept for a structure. Likely Maori correlates to the term bu center on the roots pu and hapu, which express notions of conception. The second stage is expressed by the Dogon word yala, which we see as a likely correlate to the Egyptian and Maori words ahau and which relates to the opening up of a defined space. The third stage, during which further definition of the structure is continued, is given by the Dogon word tonu and the Egyptian word tennu. It seems likely that this relates to the Maori word tonu, which Tregear defines to mean “still, continually, right, straight, correct.” The last of these four stages relates to the Dogon word toymu and the Egyptian word temau, both of which mean “complete” and refer to the completion of a fixed, finished structure. It seems likely that these words bear a relationship to the Maori word tumau, which means “fixed” or “constant.”

In chapter 4, we discussed the Maori word po and its likely relationship to the Egyptian words pau and pau-t, which refer to concepts of mass and matter and of primordial time. On one level, Maori concepts of the po also relate to a shadowy world of darkness or night, and of death, that might also be seen as a correlate to the Egyptian concepts of the Underworld, or Tuat, which was understood as a place that related to death.