Serpent in the Sky: The High Wisdom of Ancient Egypt

by John Anthony West

Book Overview

John Anthony West's revolutionary reinterpretation of the civilization of Egypt challenges all that has been accepted as dogma concerning Ancient Egypt. In this pioneering study West documents that: Hieroglyphs carry hermetic messages that convey the subtler realities of the Sacred Science of the Pharaohs. Egyptian science, medicine, mathematics, and astronomy were more sophisticated than most modern Egyptologists acknowledge. Egyptian knowledge of...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0835606910
• ISBN13: 9780835606912
• Release Date: May 1993
• Publisher: Quest Books (IL)
• Length: 286 Pages
• Weight: 1.46 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 7.6" x 10.0"

Customer Reviews

A brilliant book

I recently bought another copy of Serpent in the Sky - a book I read when it was first published in 1979. I assume that whoever borrowed my first copy found it as compelling as I did, because I never saw it again. Anyway, as an artist and lover of philosophical geometry and number, I refer to it again and again - not only to satisfy my interest in Egyptian antiquity, but also to ponder the evidence of a vast knowledge of the laws of man and the universe. Be warned, this amazing book is an intellectual challenge, but it is also creative stimulation on every page. As West's insights elevate your consciousness to the immensity of human potential, new veins of creativity and invention open up for your own work. As to how this happens remains as mystifying to me as the great architectural achievements of the ancient Egyptians. It is a necessary book.

Truly Enlightening

I bought this book because of fringe interests and have been overwhelmed by the information. If you are not scholarly . . . it's a hard read . . . but well worth the investment of your time.

A Massive Study

How old is the Sphinx?This question can be answered in two ways. The standard answer is: it is just as old as I got to know when I went to school when I studied a two volume book published by J.A. Hammerton and translated into Finnish by Ilmari Jäämaa and Mika Waltari (later known as the author of 'Sinuhe, The Egyptian'). This book said that the age of the Sphinx is unknown, but usually it is thought to be from the time of Khefren (Greek version of the name), who lived 2558-2532 B.C. and was the son of Kheops.John Anthony West starts with the fact that we don't know how old the Sphinx is and has made a study of its age arriving at the colclusion that it is not appr. 4500 years old, but much older. Time will show if he is right or wrong with his theory. Meanwhile he has written a truly amazing book, which has so much more than the above theory: a deep study of Symbolism just to name one thing.An example of this is the discovery that the Egypt as we know it was born at once, without any prior development; it was a legacy from a preceeding culture that we do not know anything about. What was that culture? Where did it disappear? Perhaps it is time "to try to re-examine Egypt as a whole" in the light of Schwaller de Lubicz's discoveries, which are not few. This is exactly what John Anthony West has done for the past 30 years.A book that is certainly worth reading and an inspiration for further studies!

this is fun, but Schwaller and West are nuts

Schwaller de Lubicz was a genius, but a creative genius, not a scientific one. I don't dispute that there was an advanced civilization millenia before Egypt. The case for that is all circumstantial, but it is an overwhelming circumstantial case, and if historians ever get a clue the existence of so-called "Atlantis" will be taken for granted. Nor do I dispute the basic truth of Schwaller's esoteric worldview. What I dispute is the idea that the temple at Luxor has anything to do with what Schwaller says it does. The miracle of Egypt is that it is basically a blank slate. It can be interpreted any way one likes. The interpretations tell us much about the interpreter, but none of us will ever really understand Egypt.

An Interpretation of Ancient Egypt that Finally makes Sense

John Anthony West has done the world an enormous service with this bold, brilliance, beautifully written and thoroughly engaging book. He extends the work of Alsation philospher and mathematician, R.A, Schwaller de Lubicz, making it not only comprehensible to the lay reader, but the only plausible explanation for the grandeur and magnificance of ancient Egyptian culture. West is anything but a New Age flake, and he takes some fairly tough-minded positions on the absurdities of modern scholarship. Yet he has the advantage over most orthodox Egyptologists in that he can (a) write -- and write superbly -- and (b) he has a sense of humor, which makes even his most vitriolic attacks on those who persist in ascribing the monuments of Egypt to a race of egomaniacal barbarians the work of a rational giant in a world of Lilliputians. His grasp of the entire sweep of Egyptian history is extraordinary, and his ability to render even the most complex accounts of Pythagorean geometry or symbolism in the hieroglyphs is something every would be academic should take notes on. Besides all this, the book is magnificently illustrated on every page. Without any question, this is one of the best books I have ever read