Grand Egyptian Temple.: purpose of a Temple

The Purpose of a Temple

In Ancient Times, the Gods appeared among the living – supernatural beings that when conversed with could influence the environment. People would worship them for helping answer requests (prayers), by making offerings in a selected building, or Temple-Palace. Talking to a God was the same as requesting an event. When Gods were incarnate, or in human or animal bodies (“alive”), they were people with supernatural abilities not just someone claiming divine birth with no ability. The Egyptian Pharaoh was a living God as well, so his Palace resembled a Temple – a columned building decorated in the finest artwork, with pools, gardens, libraries, colleges, and Temple Granaries (food storage, which acted as a grain bank – grain was their form of money). A Priesthood was maintained to tend to the living God, as well as educate the people and perform religious or magical ceremonies.

Offerings were of grain (money), processed food and drink in containers, flowers, gems, processed cloth or textiles, books/scrolls, or the best that the citizens had to offer. The food was so rich that it caused health issues among the priests, who ate the leftovers. In return the Gods would create events like attracting prosperity to the country, winning foreign battles, causing rain in place of a drought, causing the Sun to appear during a storm, appeasing ancestral spirits, or personal issues of the people. If the Gods were not satisfied for any reason, they would act in the world with their powers, in the form of Natural Disasters until the people made them happy again; monuments were another form of offering.

Temples were not places where Citizens went to converse with the Gods (Churches or Mosques), because they could pray at home to miniature statues of the Gods in a home shrine. The statues were similar to photographs, images that reminded the people of what the Gods looked like. They were not “worshiped” as idols, for the statues formed an element of the shrine. The people needed to know the image of the God in order to direct their prayers, as with Visualization.

Talking to a God / Divine incarnate is the same as praying or requesting. The entity can cause an event by email, blogging, telephone, speaking, writing, thinking, or dreaming. So for this reason silence is necessary to prevent “accidental requests.” As living Gods can be anyone or anywhere, the people can request something in public and be assured someone will answer it.