Holy Roman Emperors depicted holding a Shen Sphere/Orb – Frederick Barbarossa

Sometime ago, I put up a picture of the original bronze statue of Charlemagne the Great (748 – 814 AD) when it used to lay in the Coronation Hall of the Aachen Town Hall in Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia (northwest Germany).

The sculpture depicts Charlemagne, protector of the Roman Catholic Church, as holding up in his left hand a Globus cruciger (‘Cross-bearing Orb’), a symbol of authority as it is interpreted, which is essentially a Christian adaptation of the ancient Egyptian Shen Sphere/Orb (not Ring as erroneously regarded).

A few days ago, I stumbled on an illustration of further Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa (1122 – 1190 AD), also a protector of the Church, as a crusader that appears in the “Historia Hierosolymitana” (1188 AD) where he is also displayed holding the same symbol up in his left hand.

Shen Spheres/ Orbs were potent symbols of eternity as well as eternal protection that featured particularly with depictions of mighty falcon god Horus and vulture goddess Nekhbet, patron of Upper Egypt, in ancient Egypt.

On top of that, the cross that appears atop the Globus cruciger is clearly an adaptation of the Ankh which was a prominent hieroglyphic symbol of life, actually meaning literally ‘life’ itself, in ancient Egypt incidentally.

Khepri, god of the morning sun and renewal of life

Khepri (ḫprj in ancient Egyptian) is a very ancient solar god of the Egyptians, attested as early as the Predynastic era (pre 3100 BC), that represents the morning or rising sun as well as, by extension, creation and renewal of life (re-incarnation).

His name apparently derives on the ancient Egyptian verb ḫpr which means ‘develop,’ ‘arise,’ ‘come into being’ or ‘create’ and is further transliterated as Khepra, Chepri, Kheper or Khepera at that.

Interestingly, he is often depicted as a scarab-headed man carrying a was-sceptre (signifying power, dominion) and an ankh (key of life) in his hands or as a (Scarabaeus sacer) scarab holding aloft the morning sun and often in a solar barque (picture) held by Nun (or Nu), the personification of the primordial watery abyss in the creation of the world.

The ancient Egyptians observed that young dung beetles emerge fully formed out of their eggs in a dung ball as if out of nothingness and since they held that the sun is reborn out of nothing every day they connected the two into Khepri, who moved the newly-born sun across the sky just as a beetle pushes large balls of dung along the ground.

Linked also with the creation of the world, there was no cult committed to Khepri as a deity secondary to and also often seen as aspect, just as Atum, of great sun god Ra. In order of rank, Khepri would come out as the morning sun, Ra would take over on the crown of the day with Atum wrapping up affairs in the evening.

At the same time, Khepri was also protector and god of resurrection which accounts for the many scarab amulets (and even mummified beetles) placed in Egyptian tombs and graves, even in Predynastic times, as well as being worn as jewelry and used in the form of administrative or personal impression seals widely.

Nekhbet, the guardian goddess of Upper Egypt

Nekhbet, or alternatively Nekhebet, was an early predynastic goddess depicted as a griffon vulture who was initially the patron deity of the city of Nekheb (El Kab), hence her name meaning ‘She of Nekheb,’ on the east bank of the Nile and eventually became the guardian of the entire Upper Egypt.

Just like Horus, she was also often shown to grasp the Shen (Spheres), standing for eternal protection, in her claws hovering with her wings spread, many times over a royal image, while later she would often appear together with her counterpart Wadjet of Lower Egypt as the Two Ladies (Nebty), the two guardians of Egypt once unified.

Thereby, the two guardian goddesses appeared in a combined, double uraeus as a vulture (Nekhbet) and a cobra (Wadjet) respectively on top of the crown or headdress of the Pharaoh representing union while they oversaw the keeping of the laws, protected both the rulers and the land as well as promoting peace thereover.

Nekhbet was often called as ‘Hedget,’ namely the White Crown of Upper Egypt, and would also take the shape of a woman, or a woman with the head of a vulture, wearing the White Crown further holding a lotus flower (rebirth), wreathed with a cobra, along with an ankh (symbol/key of life). As a vulture, she could also be seen bearing Ma’at’s Feather, representing truth.

The shrine of Nekhbet at Nekheb was among the earliest known temples across the entire Egypt as the city was a companion to Nekhen, standing on the west bank of the Nile, which shaped the political and religious capital of Upper Egypt towards the end of the Predynastic Era (pre c. 3150 BC) and likely into the Early Dynastic Period (c. 3150 – 2686 BC).

Nekheb actually carried the exonym Eileithyiapolis, spelling ‘the city of goddess Eileithyia,’ among the Helenes (or Hellenes) et al which means that they identified Eileithyia, associated particularly with the island of Crete, with Nekhbet as the latter was also held as a (originally royal) mother goddess, occasionally depicted as a wet-nurse suckling the Pharaoh himself, as well as protector of (initially royal) pregnant women, childbirth and children.

Sometimes, Nekhbet appeared as consort to god Hapi, since a patron of Upper Egypt himself, but was also associated with Horus, whose cult centre was Nekhen for that matter, alongside whom she fought in the shape of a winged cobra against Seth. But she was also linked with Mut, a mother goddess in her own right, as well as bovine goddess Hathor, divine mother of both Horus and Ra.

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The above pictured pendant in the shape of Nekhbet is part of Tutankhamun’s treasure which was found in the tomb of the famous Egyptian Pharaoh (ruled between roughly 1332 and 1323 BC), suspended from his very neck, in the Valley of the Kings by Howard Carter in 1922.

The Shen Rings (or rather Shen Spheres/Orbs?)

As I have mentioned before, the Shen Rings were a potent symbol that represented eternity as well as eternal protection and featured particularly with depictions of falcon god Horus, here seen more precisely as Ra-Horakhty (image 1), and vulture goddess Nekhbet (image 2) in ancient Egypt.

Yet, judging by the way the Shen are grasped between the talons of either deity and that vibrant scarlet colour within, I am adamant that the Shen are erroneously taken for rings and are most certainly spheres/orbs instead that contained some sort of force/energy inside that shaped the source of that protection.

The name ‘Shen’ seems to derive on the Egyptian verb ‘sheni’ (šnj) which spells ‘encircle’ but can also expand into ‘enclose’ or ‘be/come round’ towards the above maintained effect of spheres/orbs whilst that scarlet ‘filling’ clearly indicates there was something ‘encircled’ or ‘enclosed’ rather than a gap within.

Furthermore, there should be noted that the Shen carried by Horus usually have each an ankh (symbol/key of life) attached on top of them, unlike Upper Egypt patron Nekhbet, which potentially signified a connection as well as the orb and its content/energy shaping the source of life.

Very likely, they represented a celestial body and more precisely the sun in the east and west respectively as further noticeable comes that both avian deities, Horus and Nekhbet, hold out the Shen evenly underneath their outstretched wings that signal dominion over the two horizons.

It is also interesting that there is a similar Hebrew word ‘shani’ that means (among others) ‘scarlet’ or ‘crimson,’ matching the colour of the inside of the Shen, while a Hindu god of the same name (Shani) is associated with Saturn, a planet encircled by a ring.

In an elongated form, the Shen, which appeared as early as the Third Dynasty of the Old Kingdom (c. 2686 – 2613 BC), expanded as ‘shenu’ into the cartouche that enclosed and protected the name of a royal person in ancient Egypt.

Having talked about the Shen Spheres, have a look at what Charlemagne is often depicted holding in his left hand as a protector of the Roman Catholic Church – Christianity has borrowed an awful lot from ancient Egypt!

Glossary (ancient Egyptian)

Sheni (verb) – encircle, enclose, come/be round

Shenu (noun) – cartouche