From; Myths, Mysteries and Medicine

by David Little

  One of the earliest schools of healing formed around Thoth, the Egyptian god of wisdom and knowledge. Thoth is depicted as a ibis-headed human-like deity, whose head is surmounted with a crescent moon.

Thoth was worshiped as the moon deity and became the head of the lunar dynasty.

Worship of Thoth originated in southern Egypt at Hermopolis Prava, but later moved to the north and settled at Hermopolis Magna in Upper Egypt.

  At Hermopolis the priesthood taught that Thoth created the universe through the agency of sound. When Thoth awoke in the primordial Nun, he produced a sound from which four gods and four goddess appeared and singing hymns to assure the continuity of the sun's course.

He was also seen as the universal demiurge who, as the divine ibis, hatched the world-egg. The tradition of Ra and the of Thoth were combined when the ancient solar and lunar dynasties were merge in the Osirian mythology of classical Egypt.

  Around Thoth a special priesthood formed which studied astronomy, mathematics, medicine, alchemy, physics, philosophy, music, and the arts.

Osiris and Isis are credited with the creation of religion, agriculture, and the arts and humanities, whereas Thoth is awarded with the origin of science, mathematics, and language.

The cults of the sun and moon are the oldest forms of celestial worship and they grew as two independent influence in the north and south of Egypt in the ancient times.

The complementary combination of the solar and lunar tradition completed the theology of the ancient Egyptians and gave them one unified cosmology.

  In the Book of the Dead, Thoth is the judge of the soul after death. The dead person is led in by Anubis who weighs his heart while the animal-like Amemait and the ibis-headed Thoth looks on.

After Thoth examines the scales of justice, Horus then conducts the dead into the presence of Orisis and Isis. Anubis is closely identified with Thoth, in his aspect as the conductor of souls, as it is Anubis who opens the road to the other world for the dead.

Nephthys marriage with Set was childless, and from the time of his rebellion she had assisted Isis. Nephthys wished to have a child with Osiris so decided to seduce him.

  One day while Orisis was visiting, Nephthys brought her best wine and got Orisis very drunk and lay with him in her bed pretending she was Isis.

In the merriment and love making that followed Anbus was conceived and Orisis left his melilot-garland at her house.

The ungarland Osiris returned home without knowing what had happened but intuitive Isis knew that Osiris's garland was at Nephthys home and that they had conceived Anubis.

Nepthys fearing Set's anger abandoned Anubis at birth, but Isis found him and lovingly brought him up as her own. Anubis was master of embalmments and his role as the conductor of souls gave him an important place in the Osirian family.

Because of the identification of Anubis with Hermes Psychopompus, "the conductor of souls", the Greeks called the combination of Thoth and Anubis, "Hermanubis".

  Hermes Psychopompus and Anubis then became synonymous in the classic Greek mythology. Apuleius, a Greek initiate, witnessed a Egyptian procession honoring Isis which was lead by Anubis holding the cadusceus and a palm leaf in his hands.

It is Anubis, or Hermes Psychopompus, who carries the snake entwined cadusceus, the herald's wand. The heralds wand was a sign that Anubis was the messenger of Thoth, in his aspect of the judge of the dead.

Ever since this ancient time the caduseus has been the symbol of the healing arts because of its association with the school of Thoth-Hermes.

  Study Guide: Hippocrates was an master Asclepiad on the island of Cos. Who were the Asclepiads? What is their origin? Who was Asclepius?