SACRED WAY
Luxor Group
Schwaller de Lubicz Memorial ©
LUX, LUCIS, LIGHT, LUCIE
The "Temple of Man" in three volumes (1957) was composed by Aor since his return to France in 1951. It would have been impossible to achieve this task without the immense work of his daughter-in-law Lucie Lamy who realized in Egypt surveys and tracing papers according to the scientific method od Egyptology and thanks to the abundant iconography collected on the spot. All this allowed AOR to traduce the symbolic message of TA MERI's Masters. Clément Robichon, the architect-Egyptologist, supported Lucie for exact measurements, her mother ISHA helped her to translate the hieroglyphs under the direction of Alexandre Varille, former member of the IFAO, scientific expert at the service of the Egyptian antiquities and AOR's disciple. ISHA provide the key to a comprehensive understanding of the hieroglyphs by using the "weight of words" and their place in a sentence. Charles Kuentz, director of the IFAO library, professor of Arabic at Cairo University and member of the Luxor group, has optimized this system with his skills in ancient Egyptian and Coptic.
In 1978, Lucie Lamy wrote to John Anthony West, future author of "Serpent in the Sky" (New York 1993), who was a true advocate of the symbolist theories developed by RA Schwaller de Lubicz in the "Temple of Man". Thanks to this letter, we live from day to day the enthusiasm of Luxor's group, despite the difficulties of research…
[...] ISHA and Alexandre Varille were working on the texts. All that could look at Amenophis III confirmed AOR's theories. Alexandre Varille, for example, controlled all the names of the officials who seemed to him predetermined. Thus, alongside ISHA, he studied the meaning of each hieroglyph. Then, with AOR, he examined his philosophical implications, either with regard to the text on Theogamy, or for other religious texts.
ISHA wrote "Her Bak" and showed AOR every day his developments, asking for a comment ... I drew, measured and made topographical surveys, with the help of Clément Robichon, when I needed a tacheometer. We measured all the parts of the covered temple, including the sidewalk, stone by stone… We noted the dimensions of each figure on special cardboard sheets : navel height, forehead, crown, etc… What were the canons of pharaohs representations?
Rare photo of Lucie at her drawing board.
On this subject, I remember an anecdote. At that time, I did not know how to decipher the hieroglyphs; it was only from 1949 that I began to study them. One morning, after having calculated all the aspects of an unusual scene in which the King appeared with a woman, a quick calculation showed me that the age of pharaoh, according to the position of his navel in proportion to the total height, was twelve years old. Surprised and at the same time troubled, I murmured : I know well that an Egyptian King is getting married young, but twelve years old ! It seemed so few, because I imagined that the woman could only be his wife. So I asked Alexandre Varille's help to identify the "woman" who was beside Amenophis III. Tremulous with impatience, I had to wait all night long, before I could return to the Temple to get the response. Waiting for the verdict, always more nervous, because if she was the wife, it would cast a shadow on the whole theory of the height of the navel in relation to the total height (of the King), a system used to define the age of a royal figure. The torch slowly illuminated the various names of the characters. Alexandre Varille kept me waiting ... "So who is she?… "She's his mother ! "
I could continue accumulating data on countless sheets of cardboard without fear of wasting time…
It was the same day that one of the measurements had insinuated in me doubts and suspicions. I called Clément Robichon, who brought me all his surveying meters : the 50-meter, the 30-meter, two of 10, and so on ... We were spreading them on the pavement, and the measure turned out to be accurate, so that coincided with the metric system. Then we tested my "sherit" and spread it alongside others; it was constitued of a fabric fiber and had stretched ... that's why we had to redo the previous work. We returned to the place where the first doubts caught me : a wall and a door; measured with a "meter" revealed a length of six arms and the door ten royal cubits, as we had anticipated ... Alexandre Varille had realized that the Texts of Pyramids classic version was shockingly wrong. Among other things, it was difficult to attribute the famous "cannibal text" to such a refined and sensitive people, at least since the first and subsequent dynasties. The deep meaning of the "images" had to be completely reinterpreted ... Between ISHA and AOR, many sessions had been held to discuss the question which in the end was conclusive. Alexandre Varille was convinced that Symbolist Egyptology could only be understood by the philosophical way.
In "My Journey to Egypt" (very critical) of her friend Bernard Bedel, bookseller in Caen, Lucie Lamy wrote in her notes (Bozawola 22 April 1981) : "If I told you that before 1952, Cairo was a clean city, even a coquette town, would you believe it? I saw impeccable paved sidewalks, lined with trees carefully maintained. I saw many gardens filled with trees and flowers in all seasons ! Since all that is so far now… Even this "Mousqui" was animated by real craftsmen working leather or brass. And it smelled good incense and spices that we saw crushing under our eyes with the same pestles and the same pace as under the time of the pharaohs!
In 1976 she returned to Egypt with her friend the Swedish Egyptologist Gertrude Englund and worked on hieroglyphs in the line of her parents, continuing her work as an illustrator. She had edited with her brother Dr. Jean Lamy at Dervy-Books THE TEMPLE OF KARNAK with many photographs, notes and comments.
In 1981 his manuscript was translated into English by Deborah Lawlor (Australia) and published in London and New York under the title "EGYPTIAN MYSTERIES". A French edition "MYSTERES EGYPTIENS" translated from English by Christine Monatte was published by Editions du Seuil in Paris in 1991. A Spanish edition "MISTERIOS EGIPCIOS" by Debate in 1989 and 1996.
Lucie Lamy left for "The Far Horizon", December 7, 1984.
Isha's book was fully illustrated by Lucie's drawings