Health, religion, law, politics and philosophy are not separate and distinct in Kemetic thought.  Zenet play links and represents them.

In attempting to reconstruct the rich symbolism and life of the game, as well as to instruct the reader how to become a seer or “Prophet”, I shall look briefly at some passages from the recently translated, Ancient Egyptian Book of Thoth. Although this a later demotic text; nevertheless it is still in native Egyptian, and Senate was known to have been played then.

The 42 Souls of Rah  in whom we are interested are mentioned Bo1, 2/4-5:

“He has supplied the souls of Rah. Do they not serve the one who desires (to be) a prophet, so that he will not be able to become a craftsman?”

He indeed is Thoth, who has supplied the Great Ones with these sacred writings, and now offers them here for the “benefit of the aspiring priestly scholar.” The student (or disciple of Thoth) is asked elsewhere in the text, by Osiris, about his introduction to Thoth:

He-has-judged, namely, the one-who-is-upon-his-back, he says:

Has the father introduced (or taught) you before “He-who-understands-prophecy,” who is “He-who-understands-the Two-Lands.”

Triumphing against adversity, often fighting alongside the gods, is a repeated theme. In the game of Zenet,  (alt. Senate, or sn.t/Senet) we are presented with an activated summary of the New Kingdom Netjerworld philosophy. During play we strive for leadership of the Council of Thirty (against an opponent), thereby to become a god our self. Senate combines Kemetic principles of Law, Governance, Religion and the Calendar. One meaning of the name of this game from the hieroglyphic symbol mn (Gardiner Y5) is “enduring”.  Or perhaps the more accurate onomatopoeic translation is “remaining.”  The zenet board glyph is also found  in the name of A’mn.  The modern version of Zenet is the game  Ba(ck-g)Ammon which translates to mean the “Ba (or soul) of  A’mn”.

Chapter of Praising Amen (BD)

Lord of Light,

Creator of Multitudes,

God of the High Plumes,

President of the Gods,

The Great Hawk who maketh the populace happy,

All mankind adoreth thee,

For thou art their life.

The meta-religious notion of ABOVE, and especially when looking up is combined with LIGHT, arrives most strikingly in association with the Solar rulers, chiefly Rah from the Heliopolitan period, and seemingly originates with even earlier Hawk/ Horus from pre-Dynastic times even

before the written word, as depicted on King Harmer's ax.

A passage from the Daily Ritual worth repeating periodically:

O Amen,

Exalted one among the Company of the Gods,

Mighty one of awe among his mariners,

Great one of terror among the Gods,

Behold, thou art Rah in manifestation,

And Tem, among what hath been created.

Come to me,

O Amen-Rah,

In that embrace wherein thou camest forth on that day

Wherein thou didst rise as ruler,

Wherein thou didst rise in the Heavens.

Do thou thyself run to me

As thou didst run to thy Holy Uraeus

To make thyself free from Apep [evil serpent].

I have come unto you, O Amen-Rah.

I am Thoth,

Who journeyeth at the two seasons to seek for the Eye of its Lord.

I have come, I have found the Eye,

I have reckoned it up for its Lord.

Come to me, O Amen-Rah,

Guide thou me in the path whereon thou travellest.

Make me to enter in the form of a bA bird,

Make me to come forth in the form of a Lion,

Make me travel in the form of Ap-uati,

And let me not be repulsed or turned back on the roads,

On this day,

On this night,

In this month,

In this year.

Behold, come to me,

O Amen-Rah,

And open thou for me the two doors of the sky,

And unclose for me the two doors of the earth,

And throw open before me the precincts of the divine house.

I have looked upon the God,

I have come to him,

And his two Uraei hath enclosed me.

I have entered in with the statue of MAat

In order that Amen-Rah,

The Lord of the Throne of the Two Lands,

May make peace with his beautiful MAat of this day.

My thesis is that Kabalah arrives to us via Darius I and his acquisition of Amen-Rah’s Temples, and specifically the one at Hibis. I shall be supporting this argument over time, but one key text supporting my claim is the Hibis Invocation Hymn to the TEN SOULS of AMEN ….. an excerpt from Zenet Two.

Further evidence that relates and corroborates links between Zenet and later magical components such as the Four Winds or Directions, Ten-fold Paths and more is given in ZENET ONE and forth-coming 2013 ZENET TWO  to be entitled “The Court of Amen”