Ahhh. Egypt, mysterious and wonderful. When we reached our hotel in the southern city of Abu Simbel early evening we discovered that the hotel had been double booked. All fifteen of us were stranded. At eight p.m. the lights went out and dinner was by candlelight. We drank tea and organic Egyptian wine as we sat in the lounge after dinner and waited. It was near midnight when rooms had finally been vacated! Who knows what happened, but we were happy they had happened and settled into our sparse but acceptable rooms for the night.

 The next morning we were off early to see the sun rise over the colossal imposing 67 foot stone carved figures of Ramses II. My foot slipped on the walk and I was in pain. Along with almighty Ramses were the gods Ptah, Amun Ra and Re-Horakte. They lined a sandstone cavern temple. This site was sacred to the goddess Hathor before Ramses decided to build temples. Ever popular and charismatic, on one side of the cavern the statues of Ramses II showed him wearing the White Crown of Upper Egypt and on the south side statues Ramses II wore the Double Crown of Lower Egypt.  The statues had been plucked from their original site by UNESCO and were now 200 feet higher on this taupe sandstone cliff.  

I noticed a row of prepared for flight noble hawks carved of sandstone atop the balustrade leading into the main temple as I sat and Reikiied my throbbing foot. A sacred cliff rose before me. Ramses II also built a smaller but lavish temple for Nefertari here in Abu Simbel. I could feel his love for her in the walls, they exuded kindness and thoughtfulness. Temples were places of residence mostly in times of yore.

 The Nile River basin here originally part of Nubia, is now an area that is flooded since the Aswan dam was completed in 1970. Some 57 million cubic yards of rock and earth were uplifted to build the new Aswan dam, and 12 gigantic Soviet-built turbines installed to pump water. Fertility of agricultural lands in the Nile district was a huge benefit, but there were detriments, one being many of the Nile fish were migratory and were now locked into the river. Nearby shallow Lake Nasser that was created by the dam had though been stocked with fish which many Egyptian farmers nowadays depended on for sustenance. The dam built during Egyptian leader Abdel Nassar to the tune of a billion dollars ended the Nile flood and drought cycle that had gone on since time eternal.

I completed the foot Reiki on the bus and as we approached inscrutable Aswan on our return journey I was perusing my guide book. When I read about the Isle of Philae and Isis Temple that was situated there, I got excited. I asked our tour guide about the island and whether or not we could visit. To my great pleasure he said we had three hours free time in Aswan. Yes! I needed to go to the island! A light bulb went on in my head and the cells in my body leapt with joy thinking about the Isle. There was a mystery there to unfold.

 My Husband was game and we hired a cab to the Niles edge from which we caught a colorful felucca—Egyptian sailboat, to the island. Something in me was greatly stirred. I felt like a queen returning to her long forgotten abode.The boulder-like stones on the water’s edge looked like the boulders in a lake near our cottage in Halliburton, Ontario.  I was afraid to swim off the boulders there as I felt dangers lurking in the water. Although when contemplating such a thought, it made no sense at all for there are no crocodiles in Ontario, Canada.  I imagined there were crocodiles in these waters though and I sensed how my Canadian deep water fear could be an old one that developed from living on the Nile River.

 I felt like I had come home yet again as I have so often felt on my travels to sacred sites around the world. I was beginning to know that I was attracting these places of power to learn about my past. As we disembarked on the island I read a sign at the water’s edge that said the Temple of Isis was located on another island at one time further south below the dam. It had been painstakingly removed and relocated here. I was not discouraged as I knew that stone held memory and I gingerly walked towards the temple with anticipation of something—what I did not know.

 The temple was beautiful although I felt nothing familiar inside. I allowed myself to follow my instincts and was soon out on the east side of the temple where the cells in my body began to sing! I had not felt anything quite like this before. Parts of the temple were not reconstructed yet when I was there and large pink granite stones lay about near the waters edge. I kept feeling that I was home, and the thought of leaving disturbed me. I was soon attracted to sit on a block of pink granite and before I could say barrack, I felt the huge block of stone was levitating. We were not on the dusty ground any longer!  I felt like I was moving, bending time and discovering myself and maintaining my balance in a different way. Time was collapsing and me with it and I was simply allowing. I kept myself in the moment, the ever-expanding now and I sensed beings of light around me. A sacredness filled my heart with love and especially devotion.  I sensed that the Egyptians had laid some kind of time framework that allows events to transpire in the future. They/we are not gone, we/it is alive here and we are simply playing out a part that still exists.

It felt to me like civilization was ongoing - - outside the constrictions of time as we know it. This Middle Eastern adventure was certainly pushing awareness buttons in me and I was learning a lot about myself! Sigh . . .

Tomorrow we will be on the morning train back to delicious, raucous Cairo.