The Meaning of HieroGraphics Online

This site is an effort to inform African Americans specifically and people in general of the cultural, political, social and educational issues affecting the African World Community. Therefore, a number of items relevant to the African American, African, Caribbean, Native American, Afro-European and Pacific Islander experience will be posted regularly. In addition, HieroGraphics Online intends to post reviews not only of domestic and international concerns, but also scholarly papers on research results or analyses of issues impacting the world community. HieroGraphics Online will also offer regular updates and among other things a comprehensive serialized chronology of African and African American history from 1600 BCE to 1980. 

"Amen-Ra, the Sun-God, says that he took upon himself the form of Kheperå, i.e., that he was the god who was most intimately connected with the creation of things of every kind. Kheperå was symbolized by a scarab, or dung beetle . . . which having laid its eggs in masses of dung rolled them about until they became circular in form. These balls, though made of dead, inert matter, contained the germs of life, which, under the influence of warmth and heat, grew, and in due course developed into living creatures which could move about and seek their food. . . . the Egyptians associated the sun's disk with the dung ball of the scarab, partly on account of its shape, and partly because it was the source of heat, and light, and life to man, even as the dung ball was to the young scarabs. 

"Having once got the idea that the disk of the sun was like a ball of the scarab, they went a step farther, and imagined that it must be pushed across the sky by a gigantic scarab just as the dung ball was rolled over the ground by a scarab on earth, and in pictures of the sunrise we actually see the disk being pushed up or forward into the sky by a scarab. Gradually the ideas of new life, resurrection, life in a new form, and the like, became attached to the scarab, and the god with the attributes of the scarab, among which in later days was included the idea of self production, became one of the most important of the forms of Ra, and the creator of heaven, and earth and the Tuat and all that is in them." 

From: E. A. Wallis Budge. The Gods of the Egyptians or Studies in Egyptian Mythology. Volume I. (New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1969), pp. 294-295, and The Egyptian Book of the Dead. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1967, p. cx. 

The cartouche that serves as the HieroGraphics Online logo symbolizes Kheperå, the god of creativity, who is self begotten and self produced, — and the young Pharaoh Nebkheperure, i.e., Tutankhamun, ruler of Upper and Lower Egypt. 

When a king of Egypt ascended the throne, he would have five names. The two most important were the praenomen and the nomen. The nomen was the king's own personal name. At the beginning of his reign, his nomen was Tutankhaten, "Living Image of the Aten." After the second year of his reign, he changed his nomen to Tutankhamen, "Living Image of Amen." The praenomen, or throne name, is that name used to refer to the king as Pharaoh. Tutankhamen's praenomen was Nebkheperure, "The lordly manifestation of Re." 

HieroGraphics Online considers itself similar to Queen Hatshepsut who declared in the XVIIIth dynasty that she came into being like Kheperå, "the creator of things" . . . 

The image below depicts Kheperå engaged in the Creation of Man: "Now after these things, I, Kheperå, united my members, and I wept over them, and men and women came into being from the tears which came forth from my eye." . . . "After creating human kind, Kheperå brought about the creation of plants, and herbs, and reptiles, and creeping things." 

HieroGraphics Online is a collection of professionals seeking electronically to create positive Africa-related information and images for the people. In the name HieroGraphics, as suggested by the prefix hiero- (from Greek hieros, holy), there is a spiritual association in our work. The suffix -graphics further associates the collection's emphasis with graphics and vital, on point educational presentations. The term graphics we broadly define as artistic designs, works of art, video clips, the sound of music, et cetera. It is hoped, therefore, that we will offer the Internet browsing public an exciting and enlightening African experience. Come on in, see what we are all about, and let us know what you think about our endeavors. 

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