When A.R.E. calls their tour to Egypt "Awakening the Initiate Within," that's putting it mildly. I just returned from their 2012 Egypt tour led by John Van Auken and Peter Woodbury with just such an experience. Their knowledge and access to these amazing spiritual and metaphysical sites will stir the seeker in all of us. With the guidance of John, Peter, the Guardian Travel group, and the sharing of everyone on the trip, we all became teachers and students for each other. From meditations in the Great Pyramid and Abydos to guided regressions on the Nile, a tapestry of Egypt long forgotten was woven together.

This loom of people, places, and purposes culminated for me (if such experiences truly ever culminate), as we sailed up the Nile. The weaving of my personal meditations and the group meditations came together during a guided reverie and regression. I saw in my mind's eye the Great Pyramid in its completed form and majesty.

Let me start with the journey there first. I would say it started with our opportunity to lie in the coffer located in the King's Chamber of the Great Pyramid, after our group meditation there. It was only a brief time, but as I lay there I felt the urge to sound the Aum (or Om) chant. As I did this, I reached a note and it seemed like the entire inside of the coffer was vibrating to it. Then my body was vibrating with it, and as I held the note I felt as if I was the Aum vibration myself. As I expanded into this experience, part of me thought of the other people present. I stopped the chant and wondered how long this had gone on while others were waiting. Apparently not long, and I asked, somewhat disoriented, if anyone had felt it. Some, who had their hands on the coffer said they had felt it vibrating and one person who had leaned over to look in said she felt as if a sonic wave had gone through her

This experience stayed quietly with me as we continued through the sites and mysteries of Egypt. It was like a whispering shuttle weaving its thread back and forth in my mind, little by little showing me the pattern, drawing its color and design from the ancient sites we traveled through. When we visited Abydos, the spiritual Mecca of ancient Egypt, the picture being formed began to become clearer. We had the opportunity for a group meditation in a temple chapel in Abydos, during this I had my first impression of a finished Great Pyramid, gleaming white from the Tura limestone and a tip sparkling with the golden white capstone of electrum (a mix of gold and silver), like a star that had come to Earth. There appeared to be a staircase on the north side with two people at the base. As we left the Great Pyramid my mind began to weave into a pattern the experience I just had, much like the whispers of the threading shuttles on a loom bring that forth the design of a tapestry, thread upon thread, and line upon line."

Near the end of the trip, cruising on the Nile, we were guided in a regression and reverie. It was during this time that I received a more complete vision. Again, I saw the Great Pyramid brilliant in the sunlight. I saw the north side of the pyramid where the original entrance is located. There was the staircase made of the same polished limestone. The staircase started wide at the base and narrowed down as it reached the capstone. The staircase went on both sides of the entrance-way, a stone door hinged to swing inward, which was also covered with stairs to blend in with the staircase when closed. Looking at it from the north side, I was given an impression of a narrow triangle inside another triangle. This is similar to the hieroglyph of conical offertory bread and is translated as "to give."

This made sense to me in many ways as I was seeing the Great Pyramid as a place of initiation—a place to offer oneself, to give oneself, to the Creative Forces and for the Creative Forces to give in return a mutual embrace of Grace.. This offertory bread symbol pointed to such a communion. Further, it struck me that a staircase would be needed to reach the original entrance.

As the vision continued, I saw the initiation ritual consisted of seven people—two initiates, four priests, and one high priest. Each of the two initiates would be escorted and guided by two priests, one initiate to the king's chamber and one to the queen's chamber. Once the initiates were prepared, the four priests would exit the pyramid and close the entrance. Then the high priest would continue up the staircase to the capstone. Once there, the high priest would strike the capstone, sending the resonating sound spiraling down through the Great Pyramid and back up, again and again echoing back and forth from the strike. The initiation was now in progress.

As I continued to mull this over and again looked through my pictures taken in Egypt, my attention was caught by the dream stelae in front of the sphinx. A little epihany seem to come to me as I stared at it again. The two human figures in it and the pyramidal "kilts" they were wearing jumped out at me. 

Their kilts were not only made to mirror a pyramid, they had a staircase in the middle of them with two Cobra serpent heads at the base! Had this stelae captured the image of the Great Pyramid in its finished form as I had envisioned? A staircase down the north side, wide at the base and narrowing to the top. It resonated with me as a stylized depiction of it, and it brought back memories of another pyramid. The Kukulcan pyramid at Chitzen Itza of the Mayans.

The Kukulcan Pyramid has a famous north staircase that has two serpent heads at its base, which create an undulating serpent descending down the pyramid caused by lights and shadows that occur only on the two equinoxes during the year. The Edgar Cayce readings state that civilizations worldwide visited and were visited by the ancient Egyptian civilization. The readings further state that the Atlanteans had emigrated both to the Yucatan and Egypt.

Is this further evidence of such sharing? Did the Great Pyramid have on its north side a similar serpent staircase, only of Cobras? This would fit well with a wide staircase narrowing down as I have described. Then the wide section by the heads would represent the hood of the cobra, and the ancient Egyptians were known to depict cobras with more than one head. It is not widely known, but the Kukulcan pyramid has an entrance on the north side to its interior where there are two chambers above ground, showing more similarities to the Great Pyramid. Has the dream stelae left us clues to this? Definite food for thought.

I cannot prove that this vision is historically accurate. The limestone finishing blocks and any steps are lost, many to the construction of old Cairo.Yet it makes sense to have had a staircase to the original entrance, and even up to the capstone. There is also an elegant feeling that the north side of the pyramid would also symbolize the same meaning as the offertory hieroglyph. Even the Pharaoh's name given to the Great Pyramid gives us a clue. It was Khnum-Khufu, meaning "the god khnum protects me." Khnum, the ram god, was their god of Creative Forces. Kukulcan was the Mayan Vision Serpent and the messenger between their kings and gods, their symbol of communion and communication with the Divine, along the lines as I have described the purpose of the Great Pyramid.

All I can ask is that you go inside that still, quiet place in yourself and feel if this resonates for you, as I felt the resonance in the King's chamber coffer. Ultimately, each of our own initiations will always be within.