by Patricia Awyan Lehman
“Let there be Peace on Earth
And let it begin with me.” ~ Vince Gill
The Crook and Flail are said to be associated with royalty and the rulers’ dominion over Khemit (Egypt), the Black Earth. However, this is only one level of understanding the depth of their symbolic significance. The crook and flail were not only carried by the pharaohs, but also by the Neters, Min and Osiris, who represent the metaphor of the ‘seeding’ of consciousness into manifested form and a symbolic account of the journey of this seed through stages and ages of its own perception of embodiment as it experiences reality.
When gods become men, Osiris embarks on this journey of descent into a perceived containment in a physical body that is reflected as the Fool in the Tarot deck. He comes equipped with a knowing and freedom granted only to the eternal gods, and quickly falls through the electro-magnetic field of forgetfulness, only to become veiled by the waveform that is acknowledged as cosmic consciousness, the Torus field that is symbolized by the wings of Isis and her sister, Nebhet.
His now limited senses of what he is experiencing hold him hostage, now wrapped in his very own wings (mummification within an earth based consciousness). He no longer knows that he is free and powerful and is now subject to the whims of his own fallible core beliefs.
The ancient Egyptians and indigenous cultures worldwide illustrate the completion of this fall from grace into physical form occurring in the Age of Taurus, as the moment when we become ‘Bulls of our Mother’, the Cosmic Cow or Milky Way.
Osiris is the Land, the Black Earth, as well as the multi-faceted face of humanity. His journey is our journey and its telling provides clues to how we can navigate a path back to freedom and Gnosis.
He holds the crook and the flail as tools to remind us that we must be aware that our very thoughts and emotions can easily become boundaries and ties that bind us from becoming masters of the mysteries of our newfound perception of reality. Can we remember that we were once powerful and free…. or will we turn our power over to forces of nature that lie outside our perception of self?
The moment we give our power away, we are held hostage in the illusion of form and the perils of a belief in an earthly death. There can be no ‘Peace on Earth’ when man believes he is fallible and in danger. Our emotions can now be controlled through agendas that create fear.
When we forget that we are eternal beings of light, we allow our perception of linearity to be used as a weapon that motivates our behavior.
The crook (heka) and flail (nekhakha) are symbolic tools that were later associated with authority and the king’s ability to provide for his people. The shepherd’s crook stood for kingship or dominion and the flail for the fertility of the land– and especially its harvest. On another level, this speaks to the harvesting of our own labors.
Who is your Ruler, your King, your Priest, your Guru?
Crooks are used by a Shepherd to protect his sheep from danger, to scare a prowling wolf and/or to tug a wayward sheep back into line. The Crook is the shepherd’s or controller’s staff for keeping those he is responsible for within a contained environment. The Flail is a tool for harvesting and/or punishment if one does not stay within the boundaries of a system of laws, judgment and discipline.
It is an agricultural tool used for threshing– the process of separating grains from their husks. It is usually made from two or more large sticks attached by a short chain; one stick is held and swung, causing the other to strike a pile of grain, loosening the husks.
As with most agricultural tools, flails were often used as weapons.
Both tools can also be viewed as symbols for what happens to spirit when it descends into a physical container or body to begin a life on earth. We begin this Hero’s Journey (the journey of Osiris through the gates of Amenta), as a seed of consciousness traversing cycles associated metaphorically with the seasons of agricultural processes. We are born as the seed placed in the darkness of the earth during a night or lower cycle of consciousness. We strive to meet the challenges of growing and finding our way to the light of day where we can be nurtured by the rays of the sun, and bear fruit–a harvest from our labors.
Many creation stories, including the Egyptian and Christian versions, speak of a transference of dominion (over nature and lower life forms) from a god or gods to men, thus beginning the concept of kingship and rulers. The Ruler (also a device for measuring), defines our boundaries for time, space and action.
Are we disciples needing discipline as sheep — by design?
The crook and the flail are the control mechanisms used to keep us ‘in line’ in order to harvest our energetic potentials and resources. 
They are tools designed to define our boundaries for time and space when we forget our own personal power and look outside ourselves for definition. When we turn our power over to a force or ruler– our personal accountability becomes subject to their level of integrity.
The multi-level meaning of this symbolic expression can be associated with kingdoms, religions and corporations…etc., including core beliefs or thought forms.
The ancient Egyptians understood this concept of giving away our personal power and the fear associated with the belief in a physical death and confinement (loss of personal freedom).
My father in law, and famed Khemitologist, Abd’el Hakim Awyan, spoke of this descent beginning with the Priests of Amun, whom he said created the first harvestless jobs. They didn’t need to be productive if they could control the resources of others through the manipulation of their KA, their physical vital force.
The priests of Amun, or the Hanut, as Hakim called them, appear in the New Kingdom, at the beginning of the Eighteenth Dynasty. Christianity later uses this shepherd symbolism to reflect a promise to protect…or essentially contain its own flocks of sheep-ple.
Oh Come all Ye Faithful!
“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” ~ Psalm 23:4
We are the shadow within the container of form during this night cycle. It is a time when we must have faith that the sun will rise again, and we can shine our lights freely when we fly out of the darkness and into the sunlight to begin a day cycle again. But, if we lose our faith, we become falsely comforted by our shepherds, laws and justice systems that provide ‘definition’ and boundaries.
We have been led to believe that laws, justice and fear of punishment will keep the peace…. however, in truth, the fear instilled within this paradigm creates the opposite expression of chaos, especially when we are not led by a ‘good shepherd’.
He Rules the World with Peace and Grace
Isis gives birth to Horus as the ascended form of his father, Osiris. He is the Sun or Son who rises on the Horizon of a new Day Cycle. His conception occurs when she shape-shifts into a Kite bird and finds the broken pieces of Osiris’s separated aspects of self that have been scattered throughout the land. She pieces them back together…with the omission of his phallus, which has been eaten by the Piscean fish. She magically fashions him a new one, copulates with him and becomes pregnant with Horus/Heru, our Hero, who is ultimately born from a virgin womb.
As his reflection in Christianity’s version of this legendary epic, Jesus is born from the womb of the ‘virgin’ Mary, as the Sun, and or Son of God in the Age of Pisces.
We are told that Jesus comes to tell us that he IS the good shepherd—and to warn us about the bad shepherds. Jesus declares himself the true and good shepherd of men.
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd will give his life for the sake of his sheep. But the hired man, who is not the shepherd, and does not own the sheep, will see the wolf coming, desert the sheep and run away. And the wolf will attack the flock and send them flying. The hired man runs away because he is only a hired man and has no interest in the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and I know those that are mine and my sheep know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I am giving my life for the sake of the sheep.” ~ John 10 6-15 
Where is our Good Shepherd today?
Were the ancients reminding us that we are ultimately responsible for our own harvest and whether we give our power away or not. We are the ultimate creators of our own destiny and are being challenged to wake up forgotten sleeping senses to remember who we really are.
Heka is an Egyptian Neter who can harness the currents of his innate duality and create portals to unlimited resources. He takes back his crook and flail and becomes the master of his own kingdom.
Our outer world is an illusion of a misguided understanding, resultant of our own limited ability to sense our reality. We rely on limited senses that are incredibly fallible and rulers that often have a vested interest in distorting the truth. We often choose to lie to ourselves to feed our own obsessions and addictions, and in so doing lose touch with our own inner knowing.
We are challenged to remember that we are eternal beings of light and always have the choice to create peace and harmony on this earth….our dominion.
As the old Native American legend asks us: “Will we feed the white wolf or the black wolf?” It is our own choices that determine which doors, gateways, or portals we will open….in our outer and inner experience of this reality.
The first step is to know that duality can only be resolved if we understand that guidance and boundary setting must come from within (to be mirrored without). When we know that our perceived positive and negative sides are mirror images of the same thing…and we can transmute the innate friction and embrace them both, we can move closer to our source….at our center, our heart.
Deeper into the darkness of the physical… closer to our center, our source, our heart—is where the crook and flail are crossed as the portal to heaven. We can reclaim these tools of control and find the ultimate balance that creates harmony within and in so doing, a beautiful reflection of harmony without…..true Peace on Earth.
Oh Come all ye Faithful, Joyful and Triumphant!
This is the FREEDOM we are all seeking. It’s the freedom to express ourselves without the Id, Ego or even the super-ego constraining us (keeping us in those densely physical containers or prisons of thought forms) with their own agendas.
“My sheep recognize my voice and I know who they are. They follow me and I give them eternal life. They will never die and no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. And no one can tear anything out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are One.” ~ John 10:27-29
We are all one with this creation. It is our mirror. We choose what is reflected in it.
Separation IS the Illusion…
We must be mindful of our inner dominion over ourselves and our responsibility to love, nurture and protect all that is sentient and flowing in our natural world.
Freedom comes with the realization that we are all integral parts of a whole that co-exist within an ocean of water (waveform creating one ‘body’) with eternally flowing patterns of form and formless existence that breathes into and out of a unified oneness at its center.
This ‘knowing’ creates the peace and harmony we long for as we find appreciation and compassion for all vibrating life forms. Stability and security is attained when we achieve balance.
Be the King and Good Shepherd of your own Castle and Let Heaven and Nature Sing!
Everybody sing
Joy to the world
The Lord is come
(Let Earth receive her King)
Let every heart
Prepare him room
Let heaven and nature sing
Let heaven and nature sing
Let Heaven, let Heaven, let Heaven and Nature Sing!
