Thoth (also Toth) , scribe of the Egyptian gods, was the chief deity
of Khmun, or Hermopolis. He was conceived as either having the head
of an ibis or of a bamboo. Thoth is usually depicted as an ibis-
headed man with a pen-and-ink holder. He became known as the god of
the foundation of the law, mystical wisdom, magic, learning,
hieroglyphic writing, arithmetic, and astrology. Thus, he was
called "The Lord of the Divine Books" and "Scribe of the Company of
Gods."
The symbolic meaning of the ibis, although this exact meaning has not
been discovered, is thought to be associated with healing. Sometimes
Thoth is portrayed as a baboon-headed man holding a crescent moon.
According to legend, Thoth, both a healer and magician, restored the
eye of Horus that was torn to bits when the latter fought his uncle
Seth (Set) to revenge the death of his father Osiris. The eye of
Horus, also known as the udjat eye, became a funerary amulet and
magical, all-seeing eye. Thoth was the patron god of the occultists
of ancient Egypt, and was petitioned in many of the spells contained
in the Egyptian Book of the Dead, such as the opening-of-the-mouth
spell to reanimate a corpse, which was recited over a mummy by a high
priest.
It was the Greeks who associated their god Hermes with Thoth that the
two were almost indistinguishable. Thorth/Hermes became identified
with Hermes Trismegistus, the alleged author of the Hermetic books on
occult, philosophical, and religious subjects (see Hermetica).
Again, according to legend, Thoth/Hermes gave to his successors the
Book of Thoth, or the "Key to Immortality," which contained the
secret processes for the regeneration of humanity and the expansion
of consciousness that would enable mankind to behold the gods. There
are stories, or theories, concerning the Book of Thoth, some say at
first in was kept in a temple in a sealed golden box, and used in the
ancient Mysteries. When the practice of these Mysteries declined, it
was carried to another unknown land, where it still exists after
being safely preserved, and it still leads disciples to the presence
of the Immortals. Others hold the Book of Thoth is actually the Tarot
deck.
A.G.H.
Sources:
Guiley, Rosemary Ellen, The Encyclopedia of Witches and Witchcraft,
New York: Facts On File, 1989, pp. 339-340
Cotterell, Arthur, A Dictionary of World Mythology, New York, G. P.
Putman's Sons, 1980, p. 51
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