[Luminari]

This illustration above based on a drawing from the ceiling of the tomb of Senmut, companion and vizier to Queen Hatshepsut. In this picture Sahu/Orion is shown standing in a small boat with three prominent stars representing Orion’s belt) over his head. This figure carries in his left hand a staff of office, while in his right he holds an ankh—the Egyptian hieroglyph usually translated as “life.” Behind him, following in her own boat, is a goddess identifiable as representing the star Sothis or Sirius. Another diagram showed part of the ceiling painting from the mausoleum of Seti I, one of the greatest of the New Kingdom pharaohs and father of Ramses II. In this drawing Orion is again shown in his boat with the staff in one hand and an ankh in the other, above which is a five-pointed star. A third illustration of Orion came from the Cairo Museum, custodian of the pyramidion that once capped the pyramid of Amenemhet III at Dashur. Being from the Middle Kingdom, this pyramidion is older than the ceilings of the tombs of Senmut and Seti but it carries a very similar representation of Orion. Again he is shown as a walking man holding a staff in one hand, but this time he is cupping a star with the other.

"...The positioning of a star above the outstretched hand of Orion has another important meaning that would not have been lost on the Egyptians. The hieroglyph of a five-pointed star is transliterated as s’ba, literally meaning “star.” However, s’ba has a secondary meaning, which is “door.” It is used in this way in Wallis Budge’s monumental edition of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, where he translates a particular sentence as “I open the door in heaven.” The hieroglyphs for “door,” which he transliterates as s’ba, are a five-pointed star with an Egyptian vulture symbol next to it. Thus the star held out in the hand of the Sahu figure on the benben stone of Amenemhet III conveys in shorthand the exact meaning of ”stargate.” ... We can see from this that the placing of a star in the hand of Orion was entirely appropriate. It indicated that the point where the Milky Way intersected with the ecliptic above the hand of Orion was the location of one of the gates of heaven."