Episode #005: Because Pyramids
Brothers of the Serpent
Brothers of the Serpent
4.8 • 668 Ratings
🗓️ 20 April 2017
⏱️ 144 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Keeping with the subject of ancient Egypt, we talk about the Book of the Dead and how the Egyptians seemed to have made a science out of investigating the afterlife, building a picture of the various trials and tests a human soul must face and pass after death in order to achieve ascension to the stars. Because of the 2-D nature of Egyptian illustration, Russ associates the depictions in the Book of the Dead with oldschool 2d "platform jumper" videogames, which totally ruins the whole "spiritual enlightenment" thing.
We also touch on the extraordinary nature of the so-called "air shafts" in the Great Pyramid, and specifically the "Queen's Chamber" shafts and the "door" discovered by Gantenbrink, which Zahi Hawass penetrated on live TV ten years later, and the strange, faint marks on the floor of the shaft beyond the door.
This show is almost entirely focused on ancient Egypt. Enjoy!
Book of the Dead. If this was a videogame strategy guide, this would be the creatures list. 
Translation: Show up in a boat. Bring people with sun hats. Use the sun hats to build a Sputnik. When the birds come to steal the sun, stand beneath it and pretend it's a hat to confuse them. Do not give high fives to anyone sitting on a table. 
The Weighing of the Heart, from the Book of the Dead. That Feather of Truth better have some heft to it. 
Boss Fight!! 
A side scrolling platform jumper game. See the resemblance? Look, there's even pyramids and mummies. 
Queen's chamber. Air shaft opening on left.
King's chamber. Air shaft opening on right. 
How the air shafts were formed
Structure of the shafts through the layers of the pyramid blocks. Note the locking blocks, labeled D, below...these keep the entire shaft structure from sliding down into the chambers.
The "door", as Gantenbrink found it
The door being penetrated ten years later
Some of the symbols found beyond the door
Manuscript 512. Note large, annoying worm-eaten area near top.
Some of the symbols from Manuscript 512
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Hello and welcome back to Brothers of the Serpent, |
| 0:28.5 | a podcast of limitless conversations between two limited individuals. |
| 0:33.4 | From inside our 10 by 10 by 10 cube, we endeavor to think outside the box. |
| 0:38.4 | Resisting our collective cry of, you are not my father, we attempt to accept the unacceptable, |
| 0:44.2 | to entertain for a moment the seemingly impossible. |
| 0:47.6 | For who are we amidst the infinite to demand the finite? |
| 0:51.2 | Alas, we are but snake bros! |
| 0:53.6 | Snake bros! |
| 0:54.8 | Prepare your ears to behold, episode five. |
| 0:57.9 | Episode five. |
| 0:59.7 | Doon, do, do, do, do, da, da, da, da. |
| 1:04.8 | See that bumper music? |
| 1:08.2 | It's awesome. Yeah. |
| 1:12.6 | All right, what's on the agenda for episode five? Let's see. |
| 1:13.6 | We've got... |
| 1:14.6 | I'm really glad that we're doing... |
| 1:16.6 | Earlier today, the work I was doing that machine. |
| 1:20.6 | Oh my God, I was basically driving a machine across a field and turning on a switch whenever I saw weeds in the grass. Re-e-e-er. |
| 1:30.0 | And man, like, my phone's broken. |
| 1:33.4 | I had no podcast, nothing to listen to, nothing to do, and it was put me asleep. |
| 1:38.1 | I had the, you look at my, did you see the tracks I was making in the field? |
| 1:42.8 | I get passing out. I wake up. |
... |
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