Aroueris

The name Aroueris is a Greek transliteration of the Egyptian Harsiesi, meaning "Horus the Elder." Harsiesi is a specific manifestation of the falcon-headed god Horus, a central figure in Egyptian mythology, whose worship dates back to the Predynastic period.

The god Harsiesi, who was the elder Horns. Hi had a temjile at Ambos. If we bear in mind the definition of the chief Egyptian gods by Plutarch, these myths will become more comprehensible; as he well says: "Osiris represents the beginning and jirinciple; Isis, that which receives; and Horus, the compound of both. Horus engendered between them, is not eternal nor incorruptible, but, being always in generation, he endeavours by vicissitudes of imitations, and In periodical passion (yearly re-awakening to life) to continue always young, as if he should never die." Thus, since Horns is the personified physical world, Aroueris, or the "elder Horus", is the ideal Universe: and this accounts for the .saying tliat "he was begotten by Osiris and Isis when these were still in the bosom of their mother" — Space. There is indeed, a good deal of mystery about this god, but the meaning of the .symbol becomes clear once one has the key to it. Artephius. A great Hermetic philosojiher. whose true name was never known and who.se works are without dates, though it is known that he wrote his Secret Book in the Xllth century. Legend has it that he was one thousand years old at that time. There is a book on dreams by him in the possession of an Alchemist, now in Bagdad, in which he gives out the secret of .seeing the i)ast, tlie present and the future, in sleep, and of remembering the things seen. There are but two copies of this manuscript extant. The book on Dnama by the Jew Solomon Almulus, published in Hebrew at Amsterdam in 1642. has a few reminiscences from the former work of Artephius.

Blavatsky's definition of Aroueris, drawing from Plutarch's interpretation of Egyptian deities, presents a compelling vision of the divine as both principle and manifestation. Aroueris, the "elder Horus," born before the cosmic parents Osiris and Isis were themselves fully formed, embodies a pre-existent ideal, a universe conceived before it was physically enacted. This concept resonates deeply with the perennial philosophical quest to understand the relationship between the formless and the formed, the potential and the actual.

Mircea Eliade, in his seminal works on comparative religion, explored how ancient cultures often posited a sacred, primordial time, a mythical era when the cosmos was established by divine beings. Aroueris can be seen as a figure from such a time, representing the archetypal blueprint of existence. The idea that he "endeavours by vicissitudes of imitations, and in periodical passion (yearly re-awakening to life) to continue always young, as if he should never die" speaks to the cyclical nature of existence, a concept familiar across many traditions, from the Hindu Yugas to the seasonal rebirths celebrated in ancient pagan rites.

The notion of Horus as the personified physical world, and Aroueris as its ideal counterpart, suggests a layered reality. This is not dissimilar to Plato's theory of Forms, where the material world is a shadow or imperfect copy of eternal, perfect archetypes. In the realm of Sufism, thinkers like Henry Corbin explored the concept of the imaginal world, an intermediary realm between the material and the purely spiritual, a sort of "ideal universe" that shapes our perception of reality. Aroueris, in this context, might be understood as an aspect of this imaginal realm, a divine conception that informs the very fabric of the physical universe.

For the modern seeker, grappling with the seemingly chaotic and often disillusioning nature of the manifest world, the concept of Aroueris offers a counterpoint. It suggests that beneath the flux and decay lies an eternal, incorruptible ideal, a divine intention that underpins all. This perspective encourages a shift from solely focusing on the ephemeral to recognizing the enduring, archetypal patterns that give meaning and order to existence. It invites contemplation on the generative power of ideas, the spiritual genesis of the material, and the possibility of aligning oneself with that primordial, perfect conception. The mystery of Aroueris, as Blavatsky notes, becomes clear when one grasps the key—that the universe is not merely a product of random forces, but a continuous unfolding of a divine, ideal form.