Thinking about the Beatles and the Stones with part of my mind, and about ancient Egypt with another part of my mind, I bissociated. Upper and Lower, the Southern and the Northern.
The foundation myth of Egypt was that of how the Two Lands became a United Kingdom, the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt, mythologized as the pacification of the two powers of Set and Horus.
In Britain in the Sixties the Pharaohs from the North were the Beatles; those of the South were the Rolling Stones. How to unify the two, making the United Kingdom?
Ok, well the Beetle of Egyptian mythology is the Scarab which pushes the Sun. Here comes the Sun, the Sun King. In myth the Sun was seen as a sphere pushed by the Scarab Beatle, Khepr. The Rolling Stones take their name from the proverb about rolling stones and moss. To unify the Two Lands, the Two Powers, is therefore easy: the Scarab Beatle rolls the Rolling Stone of Fire across the sky. Call it the foundation myth of Jangleland.
In this peace from Tutankhamun’s treasures we see the Beatle and the Rolling Stone, and even the Monkees! They are together in the Sun Boat at dawn (when baboons warm their paws in the Sun’s first rays), riding on the water hieroglyph (the Sea of Green? - actually the Egyptians called a region the Great Green and a portion of Egyptologists believe this was region was the Aegean Sea), and two Was scepters act as the Northern and Southern pillars holding up the Sky hieroglyph containing stars which shine before them like a million Suns. Now we’re rocking. And who’s this raggle taggle fellow comes dancing along from across the Water? Well if it isn’t Mr Sistrum Man! Hey, Mr Sistrum Man, play a song for us!
Left: Beatle, Rolling Stone and Monkees. Above: The Sun-Marine on the Pepperland Pyramid
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