Djed
Mast
Mástil
Mist
Mistery
Cybernetics
Gen.2:6
"But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground."
The sacred symbol of the Djed pillar
Hieroglyphics
play an important role in understanding ancient Egyptian culture. One
of the most commonly found and mysterious hieroglyphic symbols is known
as the djed symbol. With the appearance of a pillar and three or more
cross bars, there have been several theories as to the meaning of this
enigmatic symbol, and what it represented to the ancient Egyptians who
used it so frequently.
The djed symbol has the appearance of a vertical shaft or pillar. It
usually had four horizontal bars near the top, with a series of vertical
lines between each bar. It also had four bands around the neck of the
shaft, beneath the first of the horizontal bars. Sometimes it is topped
with a capital.
Many believe the djed is a symbol of the god Osiris, specifically, his
spine. According to Egyptian mythology, Osiris was the god of the
afterlife. While visiting Set, the god of disorder, desert, storms, and
violence, Osiris was tricked into climbing into a coffin that was built
exactly to his size. He was quickly suffocated, and the coffin was cast
into the Nile. Eventually, the coffin washed up on the shores of Byblos,
in Syria. A sacred tree grew rapidly around the coffin, encasing the
coffin within its trunk. The king of the land, unaware of the presence
of the coffin, was in awe of the tree’s quick growth, and he ordered it
cut down to become a pillar in his palace. All the while, Osiris’ wife
Isis had been searching for him. She came to learn that his body was
contained inside the pillar. She became close with the king and queen,
and when they granted her a boon, she requested the pillar. Upon being
granted the pillar, she removed Osiris’ body, and consecrated the
pillar. It has since been called the pillar of the djed.
he sun disk of the god Ra is raised into the sky
by an ankh-sign (signifying life) and a djed-pillar (signifying
stability and the god Osiris) while adored by Isis, Nephthys, and
baboons. The motif symbolizes rebirth and the sunrise. (Wikimedia)
According to others, the djed is a fertility pillar made from or
surrounded by reeds, trees, or sheaves. As Egypt was a treeless land,
this may represent the importance of the trees that were imported from
Syria. This also ties in with the story of Osiris, where his body was
encased within the trunk of a tree. Other accounts associate the djed
with the falcon god of the Memphite necropolis, Seker, then with the
Memphite patron god of craftsmen Ptah. Ptah is sometimes referred to as
“the noble djed.” The djed symbol is also sometimes viewed as a pillar
supporting the sky. In a palace, the pillars may surround a window, and
when viewed from the right angle, it appears that the pillars are
supporting the sky.
The djed symbol is also used in a ceremony called “raising the djed.”
This ceremony is meant to represent Osiris’ triumph over Set. During the
ceremony, the pharaoh uses ropes to raise a pillar, with the assistance
of priests. This coincided with the time of year when the agricultural
year began and fields were sown. This was just one part of a 17-day
holiday of festivals dedicated to Osiris. Overall, the raising the djed
ceremony represented both the resurrection of Osiris, and the strength
and stability of the monarch.
Raising the Djed pillar, Temple of Seti I, Abydos, Egypt (Wikimedia)
The djed has also been used as an amulet, placed near the spines of
mummified bodies, and the image painted on their coffin. The amulet was
intended to allow the deceased to live eternally, and to ensure their
resurrection. The Egyptian Book of the Dead contains a spell that would
be spoken as the amulet was placed on the mummy, in hopes that it would
allow the deceased to sit up and regain use of their spine. In addition,
it was often seen in hieroglyphic inscriptions and even as part of
architectural structures. Its ubiquitous appearance gives the impression
that this symbol was both important and sacred in ancient Egyptian
belief systems.
Cybernetics: Wilhelm and Kathy
Mastil
Chess: "Djed" "Mast" "Mástil" "Mist" "Mistery" "Cybernetics"
Norbert Wiener defined cybernetics in 1948 as "the scientific study of control and communication in the animal and the machine."
[2] The word
cybernetics comes from
Greek κυβερνητική (
kybernetike), meaning "governance", i.e., all that are pertinent to κυβερνάω (
kybernao), the latter meaning "to steer, navigate or govern", hence κυβέρνησις (
kybernesis), meaning "government", is the government while κυβερνήτης (
kybernetes)
is the governor or the captain. Contemporary cybernetics began as an
interdisciplinary study connecting the fields of control systems,
electrical network theory,
mechanical engineering,
logic modeling,
evolutionary biology,
neuroscience,
anthropology, and
psychology in the 1940s, often attributed to the
Macy Conferences.
During the second half of the 20th century cybernetics evolved in ways
that distinguish first-order cybernetics (about observed systems) from
second-order cybernetics (about observing systems).
[3] More recently there is talk about a third-order cybernetics (doing in ways that embraces first and second-order).
[4]
Fields of study which have influenced or been influenced by cybernetics include
game theory,
system theory (a mathematical counterpart to cybernetics),
perceptual control theory,
sociology, psychology (especially
neuropsychology,
behavioral psychology,
cognitive psychology),
philosophy,
architecture, and
organizational theory.
[5]
The term
cybernetics stems from
κυβερνήτης (
kybernētēs) "steersman, governor, pilot, or rudder". As with the ancient Greek pilot, independence of thought is important in cybernetics.
[8]
Cybernetics is a broad field of study, but the essential goal of
cybernetics is to understand and define the functions and processes of
systems that have goals and that participate in circular,
causal chains
that move from action to sensing to comparison with desired goal, and
again to action. Studies in cybernetics provide a means for examining
the design and function of any system, including social systems such as
business management and organizational learning, including for the
purpose of making them more
efficient and
effective.
French physicist and mathematician
André-Marie Ampère first coined the word "cybernetique" in his 1834 essay
Essai sur la philosophie des sciences to describe the science of civil government.
[9]
Cybernetics was borrowed by
Norbert Wiener, in his book
"Cybernetics", to define the study of control and communication in the animal and the machine.
[10] Stafford Beer called it the science of effective organization and
Gordon Pask
called it "the art of defensible metaphors" (emphasizing its
constructivist epistemology) though he later extended it to include
information flows "in all media" from stars to brains. It includes the
study of
feedback,
black boxes and derived concepts such as
communication and
control in
living organisms,
machines and
organizations including
self-organization.
Its focus is how anything (digital, mechanical or biological) processes
information, reacts to information, and changes or can be changed to
better accomplish the first two tasks.
[11] A more philosophical definition, suggested in 1956 by
Louis Couffignal, one of the pioneers of cybernetics, characterizes cybernetics as "the art of ensuring the efficacy of action."
[12] The most recent definition has been proposed by
Louis Kauffman, President of the
American Society for Cybernetics, "Cybernetics is the study of systems and processes that interact with themselves and produce themselves from themselves."
[13]
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