Perfume is the soul
The attars of Antiquity possessed astonishing properties. They were used to create an atmosphere, to locate certain manifestations of the creative currents — the Neteru — and to awaken ontological principles buried in the deep memory of humankind.
They were prepared in the greatest secrecy. Each substance and each tool was conceived as the manifestation of a cosmic principle, and therefore of an element. The vessels intended to hold the attars were often made of alabaster, associated with the goddess Neith, guardian of primordial light.
Basalt, limestone, and granite were used to inform the raw materials, which were often combined with stones, metals, shells, or animal products depending on the intended purpose.
The room where the preparations took place had, in ancient times, a floor composed of stones with piezoelectric capacity, such as granite, schist, or lepidolite. The presence of water appeared in the form of sacred basins, true divine lakes representing the Nun — the womb of the goddess Neith, the state before creation.
The first order: the horizon of man
The balance also had an essential function: it served to uphold the horizon of man, the first order of creation. This primordial order, in which everything was aligned, symbolized peace and harmony — a liminal space, a threshold between two states, between the visible and the invisible.
The ancients knew that the order of the planets was not a mere celestial backdrop. Each planet was seen as a principle, a state, a power. This moral order was called, in certain traditions, the Way of Justice or the Path of the Just.
The epopts, at the summit of initiation, embodied this cosmic order. They were called kings of justice, in the image of the primordial figure Melchizedek, guardian of divine alignment.
The celestial order and the Way of Justice
For the Egyptians, this celestial order corresponded to Ma’at: justice, truth, harmony, perfect alignment. They observed the movements of the planets attentively, for their arrangement reflected the first order — the one that existed before any creation.
When the planets aligned in the sky, especially as sunrise approached, it signified that the horizon (Akhet), the threshold between worlds, had regained its original purity. It was the sign of renewal, a return to balance, a restoration of cosmic peace.