Thoth

Thoth, the Great God of Science and Writing

The Moon God

"...Researchers of the ancient Egyptian calendar agree that the solar calendar of 360 + 5 days was not the first prehistoric calendar of that land. This 'civil' or secular calendar was introduced only after the start of dynastic rule in Egypt, i.e., after 3100 BC; according to Richard A. Parker (The Calendars of the Ancient Egyptians) it took place circa 2800 BC 'probably for administrative and fiscal purposes'. This civil calendar supplanted, or perhaps supplemented at first, the 'sacred' calendar of old. In the words of the Encyclopaedia Brittanica, 'the ancient Egyptians originally employed a calendar based on the Moon'. According to R. A. Parker (Ancient Egyptian Astronomy) that earlier calendar was, 'like that of all ancient peoples', a calendar of twelve lunar months plus a thirteenth intercalary month that kept the seasons in place."
     - Zecharia Sitchin, When Time Began

"...the Egyptians and the Sumerian people of Mesopotamia worshipped virtually identical lunar deities who were amongst the very oldest in their respective pantheons. Exactly like Thoth, the Sumerian moon-god Sin was charged with measuring the passage of time."
     - Graham Hancock, The Sign and the Seal

"At the month's beginning to shine on earth, thou shalt show two horns to mark six days. On the seventh day divide the crown in two. On the fourteenth day, turn thy full face."
     - Larousse Encyclopaedia of Mythology
      [Instructions given to Sin on the day of creation by Marduk]

"The name Sin is the Semitic form of Sumerian Enzu meaning lord of knowledge. The Mesopotamians ascribed very great importance to him. It was he who governed the passing of the months through his waxing and waning. ... The unvarying lunar cycle gave Sin a special connection with order and wisdom' and with immortality. The number seven is lunar in origin and is applied to the seven days of creation, the seven levels of hell and the seven great planets, Moon, Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn."
     - Chris King, The Genesis of Eden

Nanna is the earlier name for Sin. "He is the product of Enlil's rape of Ninlil. Nanna was the tutelary deity of Ur, appointed as king of that city by An and Enlil. He established Ur-Nammu as his mortal representative, establishing the third Ur dynasty. Nanna was married to Ningal and they produced Inanna and Utu. He rests in the Underworld every month, and there decrees the fate of the dead."
     - Christopher Siren, "Sumerian Mythology FAQ" (Version 1.5html)

"...The Egyptian Thoth or Tuti...was the moon-god, and is represented in ancient paintings as ibis-headed with the disc and crescent of the moon. The Egyptians regarded him as the god of wisdom, letters, and the recording of time."
     - James Campbell Brown, History of Chemistry

"The similarity between the two...gods is too close to be accidental...It would be wrong to say that the Egyptians borrowed from the Sumerians or the Sumerians from the Egyptians, but it may be submitted that the literati of both peoples borrowed their theological systems form some common but exceedingly ancient source."
     - E. A. Wallis Budge, From Fetish to God

A contrary opinion states:
"Thoth is clearly the Sumerian god Nin.Gish.Zi.Da, 'lord of the artifact of life'. He is a somewhat enigmatic deity, affiliated with the family of Enki, who I believe is his father, making him a brother of Marduk, Nergal, and Dumuzi. He is the master architect and scribe, and thus played a crucial role in the design and orientation of temples and ziggurats."
     - Mark Paonessa (private correspondence)

Another correspondent "could produce no actual scholarly reference that connects Thoth and the Sumerian Ningishzida, other than the Caduceus symbol, used by Ningishzidda and Hermes, who is associated with Thoth by almost all researchers."

The Scribe of the Gods

"The first races [of the doctrine of primordial egg where all life began] can be authenticated in the Pyramid Texts, where a union with the ibis Thoth takes place in the marshy area of the Delta:"
     - Siegfried Morenz, Egyptian Religion

"Go, go to the two [halves of the] egg, go to Pe, to the Abode of Thoth."
     - Pyramid Texts

"Thoth was called in the Pyramid Texts'He who reckons the heavens, the counter of the stars and the measurer of the Earth', the inventor of arts and sciences, scribe of the gods, the 'One who made calculations concerning the heavens, the stars and the Earth'. As the 'Reckoner of times and of seasons', he was depicted with a symbol combining the Sun's disk and the Moon's crescent upon his head, and - in words reminiscent of the biblical adoration of the Celestial Lord - the Egyptian inscriptions and legends said of Thoth that his knowledge and powers of calculating 'measured out the heavens and planned the Earth'. His hieroglyphic name Tehuti is usually explained as meaning 'He who balances'. Heinrich Brugsch (Religion und Mythologie) and E. A. Wallis Budge (The Gods of the Egyptians) interpreted that to mean that Thoth was the 'god of the equilibrium' and considered depictions of him as 'Master of the Balance' to indicate that he was associated with the equinoxes - the time when the day and the night were balanced."
     - Zecharia Sitchin, When Time Began

"In the Egyptian drawings of him, Thoth carries a waxen writing tablet and serves as the recorder during the weighing of the souls of the dead in the Judgment Hall or Osiris - a ritual of great significance."
     - Manly P. Hall, Masonic, Hermetic, Quabbalistic & Rosicrucian Symbolical Philosophy
Ma'at
Ma'at

"The wife of Thoth, Ma'at's name means "Truth", "Justice", and perhaps even "Tao". It cannot readily be rendered into English but "truth" is perhaps a satisfactory translation. Ma'at was represented as a tall woman with an ostrich feather in her hair. She was present at the judgement of the dead; her feather was balanced against the heart of the deceased to determine whether he had led a pure and honest life. All civil laws in Egypt were held up to the "Law of Ma'at " which essentially was a series of old conceptions and morals dating to the earliest times in Egypt. A law contrary to the Law of Ma'at would not have been considered valid in Egypt."
     - Shawn C. Knight (),"Egyptian Mythology FAQ"

"The opposite of Ma'at is called 'Isfet', which stood for negative concepts such as selfishness, falsehood and injustice, and according to Egyptian mythology the leader of these embodimens of 'Isfet' was an evil, dragon-like, monstrous serpent god called...Apophis."
     - Christopher Knight & Robert Lomas, The Hiram Key: Pharaohs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus

"...In Chapter 125 of the Book of the Dead...the dead man's heart, deemed to be the seat of the intellect and will and well as the life-giving center of the physical body, is weighed against the symbol of ma'at [justice] (usually depicted as a feather), which serves as an ethical standard. Anubis, who has become an attendant of Osiris, lord of the nether world, is master of the balance, and is in control of the pointer; the scribe Thoth records the verdict and announces it. If the verdict should be unfavorable, the sinner falls victim to 'the devourer', a hybrid monster with the head and jaws of a crocodile. If the verdict should be favorable, the deceased in invested with the attribute of ma'at and as 'one who has been vindicated' is brought before Osiris, seated upon his throne."
     - Siegfried Morenz, Egyptian Religion

"Thoth was called 'The Lord of the Divine body' and 'Scribe of the Company of the Gods'.
     - Wilkingson, Manners & Customs of the Ancient Egyptians

"...Of all the gods it was Thoth...whose image was set up in private homes and who was extolled with songs of adulation."
     - Siegfried Morenz, Egyptian Religion

"...The ancient Egyptians had...worshipped Thoth as 'the personification of the mind of god', as 'the author of every work on every branch of knowledge, both human and divine', and as 'the inventory of astronomy and astrology, the science of numbers and mathematics, geometry and land surveying, medicine and botany."
"...Thoth, who had been seen by the Egyptians as the source of all their knowledge and science, had been credited with having caused a flood to punish humankind for wickedness. In this episode, related in Chapter CLXXV of the Book of the Dead, he had acted jointly with his counterpart Osiris. Both deities had subsequently ruled on earth after the human race had begun to flourish again."
     - Graham Hancock, The Sign and the Seal

"They have fought fights, they have upheld strifes, they have done evil, they have created hostilities, they have made slaughter they have caused trouble and oppression...[Therefore] I am going to blot out everything which I have made. This earth shall enter into the watery abyss by means of a raging flood, and will become even as it was in primeval time."
     - Thebian Recession of the Book of the Dead

A king list written on papyrus from the New Kingdom is in the Turin Museum.
"Originally it listed around 300 names of kings, and the aim of its compiler was completeness. No king seems to have been too minor or sort-reigned for inclusion. the Palestinian kings who formed the Hyksos Dynasty were included, even though they did not merit having heir names written in cartouches. This, in fact, was a remarkable concession to reality: tacitly admitting a break in the succession of legitimate kings just for the purpose of attaining completeness. Against each king in the Turin list was written the precise length of his reign, sometimes to the exact day. At certain points a summary of numbers of kings and total length of reigns was inserted. Thus a the end of what we now the 8th Dynasty, a summary of 958 years, from the reign of King Menes, the first name of the lists, was provided."
"Immediately before Menes came several lines which summarize the collective reigns of 'spirits', not given individual names, and before these, and heading the whole compilation, a lift of deities. The name of each is written in a cartouche, as if a king, and followed by a precise length of reign. In the case of the god Thoth, for example, this is 7,726 years."
     - Jean-Philipe Lauer, Saqqara

Later Traditions

Thoth "was also regarded as a deity who understood the mysteries of 'all that is hidden under the heavenly vault', and who had the ability to bestow wisdom on selected individuals. It was said that he had inscribed his knowledge in secret books and hidden these about the earth, intending that they should be sought for by future generations but found 'only by the worthy' - who were to use their discoveries for the benefit of mankind."
     - Graham Hancock, Fingerprints of the Gods

"The Greeks had identified their god Hermes with the Egyptian god Thoth, scribe to the gods, and himself a god of wisdom."
     - David Stevenson, The Origins of Freemasonry

"Hermes, the Greek Thoth/Tehuti...is referred to as 'the master of wisdom and teacher of mankind'. The Trismegistus tells us that Thoth 'ordained measure, number and order in the universe; was master architect (hence Hermetic masonry), and his wife or consort was Nehemaut, known to the Gnostics as Sophia and as Ma'at to the Egyptians. His symbol was the white feather..."
"According to the Hermes Trismegistus there were three grades in the Egyptian mysteries of Thoth:

"Mortals. Those who were instructed but who had not yet gained inner vision.
"Intelligences. Those whose vision enabled them to tune into other life forms within the universe.
"Beings of light. Those who had become one with the light."

"...We have the constantly repeating theme of the flood, the master race that dwelt before it occurred, and a knowledge of astronomy comparable to a standard only attainable with the aid of advanced technology."
     - Murray Hope, Practical Egyptian Magic

"...Copernicus, the Renaissance astronomer whose theory of a heliocentric universe had overturned the earth-centered complacency of the Middle Ages, had said quite openly that he had arrived at his revolutionary insight by studying the secret writings of the ancient Egyptians, including the hidden works of Thoth himself. Likewise the seventeenth-century mathematician Kepler...admitted that in formulating his laws of the planetary orbits he was merely 'stealing the golden vessels of the Egyptians'."
     - Graham Hancock, The Sign and the Seal

"In ancient Egypt, the engineers, draftsmen, and masons who worked on the big architectural projects were accorded a special status. They were organized into elite guilds..."
"Evidence of the existence of these special guilds was uncovered by archaeologist Petrie during his expeditions to the Libyan desert in 1888 and 1889. In the ruins of a city built around 300 BC, Dr. Petrie's expedition uncovered a number of papyrus records. One set described a guild that held secret meetings around the year 2000 BC. The guild met to discuss working hours, wages, and rules for daily labor. It convened in a chapel and provided relief to widows, orphans, and workers in distress. The organizational duties described in the papyri are very similar to those of 'Warden' and 'Master' in a modern branch of...Freemasonry.
     - William Bramley, The Gods of Eden

"I am the great God in the divine boat...I am a simple priest in the underworld anointing in Abydos, elevating to higher degrees of initiation...I am Grand Master of the craftsmen who set up the sacred arch for a support."
     - Thoth to Osiris, The Egyptian Book of the Dead

According to a very old Masonic tradition, the Egyptian god Thoth "had played a major part in preserving knowledge of the mason craft and transmitting it to mankind after the flood...."
     - David Stevenson, The Origins of Freemasonry

"...The author of a well researched academic study [The Origins of Freemasonry]...went so far as to say that, in their early days, the Masons had regarded Thoth as their patron."
     - Graham Hancock, The Sign and the Seal

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