Reflections on: The HORIZON OF KUFU- JOURNEY IN ANCIENT EGYPT

Standing above the pyramids yesterday — in VR — was unexpectedly powerful.

Not because of the tech (though it’s impressive)… but because of what it revealed.

Standing at the top of the Great Pyramid, looking out over Giza — across the ruins and into the modern city — I felt the overwhelming scale of what once was.

All this wasn’t “ancient” in its time.  This would have been a living, extensive, and advanced civilisation.

What remains today — are fragments.

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What struck me most was their worldview.

Ancient Egypt didn’t separate “religion” from life.

It wasn’t an institution — it was embedded in everything:

Architecture. Ritual. Animals.

At one point, a simple house cat  appeared — and then revealed itself as Bastet — the goddess of fertility, protection, home, and feminine power.

And it clicked.

Cats weren’t just domestic animals.They were sacred — protectors of the household, symbols of harmony and order, and living expressions of the divine moving through everyday life.

** The sacred wasn’t separate from the ordinary. It moved through it.

What I found particularly interesting was this:

Our guide through the experience was a female archaeologist.  

And alongside her — Bastet.

Both feminine.

Both guiding.

It felt intentional.

And it raised a question for me:

** We often assume ancient civilisations were purely patriarchal —  — but this suggested something more layered.

Because while power structures may have been male-led in many ways…  - the feminine was clearly not absent.

It was present. Revered. Embedded.

In symbolism. In protection. In the continuity of life.

Not secondary — but integral.

———

One of the most striking moments was witnessing the embalming process of Khufu.

It wasn’t hidden or clinical. It was intentional. Structured. Reverent.

They didn’t fear death  in the way we do.

They understood it as a transition.

The body was prepared carefully — not out of avoidance, but out of relationship to what comes next.

There was continuity. A system. A coherence.

And it made me reflect on how disconnected we’ve become towards death in modern culture.

- We outsource it.

- We minimise it.

- We avoid it.

Our rituals have, in many ways, disappeared.

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And then there’s the technology itself.

This wasn’t watching history — it was being INSIDE it.

Even at its current level, it is powerful.

-- your can feel where this is going:

Heat. Wind. Scent.  More precise sound.

Higher fidelity environments.

With the right level of detail — this could come very close to physical reality.

Which changes everything.

I can see cinemas   moving from passive consumption… — to embodied experience.

Once you’ve felt something —  watching it is no longer enough.

—-  

What stayed with me most wasn’t just the history.

It was the coherence of a way of life where:

* the sacred and the everyday weren’t separate

* life and death were part of the same continuum

* rituals were lived, not occasional

It feels unfamiliar to us now.

And yet — something in it feels recognisable.

Like remembering something we’ve forgotten.