The Pharaonic Principle of Immortality
ZENtheRapper 02/19/25
Reading: Masks of The Universe: A Physicist’s Remarkable Portrayal of Mankind’s Search For Meaning in The Universe by Edward Harrison, published 1985.
This book is dope. It’s one of those books that I have unlocked for myself by studying a certain connected cluster of concepts over time; we started at Diary of Wimpy Kid and Captain Underpants… and now we here. It’s been a long, arduous, magical journey thus far. I’m trying to establish myself as a certain kind of thinker, one who integrates all sorts of strands of histories of human thought into novel imaginings. What are the ideas humans have had in the past? What caused those ideas to shift and change, leaving me to experience the ideas I was born into?
This book’s focus is on demarcating the dominant “universes” of human thought which have each had their day in the sun. To Harrison, a universe is a “great scheme of intricate thought – grand cosmic pictures – that rationalize human experience.” These “lowercase u” universes tend to reflect understandings of and serve as microcosmic models of the “uppercase U” Universe. The uppercase Universe is, simply put, everything that exists, including ourselves, including those things of whose existence we may yet be unaware.
Harrison has a surprisingly nuanced approach, as he casts theory over the expanse of human history (including much consideration on pre-history, or that time in human existence that preceded the practice of writing). He takes us from the magic universe, to the mythic universe, to the geometric universe, to the medieval universe, to the infinite universe, and finally to the mechanistic universe.
Here, now, I’d like to focus on this very interesting concept that not only spans universes of human thought, but informs the dominant modes of thinking in our current universe, AND it relates to the themes of my first studio album: Book of The Dead (this – obviously – being the most important consideration here).
The Pharaonic Principle of Immortality
Somewhere in-between the medieval universe and the infinite universe, this principle was birthed – or rather, rebirthed – being originally taken (as the name suggests) from Ancient Egyptian ways. During this time in the history of human thinking, Newton had discovered calculus, and began putting forth some pretty convincing recalculations for the motion of planets. Not long before Nietzsche declared God to be dead, the all-knowing authority of the church (and of religious ideas in general) began to seriously break down in the hearts and minds of men (and ladies).
To characterize the shift rather simply, theism (or a universe with ultimate explanations including God or gods) fell wayside among the leading philosophers and clergymen of the day, in favor of deism. Deistic beliefs reconceptualize God as “nature,” and focus on the relationships between humans and nature, as opposed to the relationship between humans and a supreme being.
Resultantly, and being aided by a growing understanding of evolution, heavenly riches… heavenly glory… a place in the afterlife where good deeds and moral lives may be rewarded… these ideas became less convincing. The infinite universe was much less sure about world-pictures that defaulted to this fatalist didacticism.
Instead, for movers and shakers in the infinite universe, their reward was on Earth. Much like the Pharaohs who spent their days building monuments that would reveal their glory to posterity, Modern Human — in both the infinite universe as well as the mechanistic universe — have sought honors, accolades, and achievements that could stand and live on in their place once their body has crossed the threshold of death.
This principle declares that immortality is earned by those whose deeds and words left them remembered through time. In Ancient Egypt, this idea took a more mystical and religious flavor, as Pharoah’s prepared themselves for an active afterlife, one that was different from heaven, and closer to earthly experiences. One that, still, had to be earned through specific earthly preparation.
Nowadays, the principle takes on the flavor of stacking works and deeds high enough in hopes that they couldn’t possibly be ignored by the people of tomorrow. We still remember the Pharaohs, so I guess they did well to hedge their bets.
How do you want to be remembered? It seems to me that the Information Age has thrown quite the wrench in this Pharaonic immortality plan. It seems to me that we have all driven ourselves anxious and neurotic in the effort to be heard amidst the ceaseless cacophony of words and ideas, of accolades and achievements that define our contemporary universe.
It’s something to think about. Maybe you have a strong belief in God. Does that belief give you peace in this sort of environment? Does it free you from this obsession with immortality?
Consider listening to my album “Book of The Dead” while chewing over these ideas; it’s available on all digital music stores – here’s a youtube link:
BOTD Themes: Memory, Mortality, Immortality, Legacy, Spellcasting, Kemetic Journeys of Consciousness, Christian Deconstruction
ZENtheRapper ☀️♾️
ZEN Gardens 