Cult of Aton - part 2: The horned Moses

Previous part of this series: Akhenaton and the Hyksos kings.

Have you ever wondered why the Michelangelo's famous Moses statue is depicted with horns?

Moses by Michelangelo

Moses by Michelangelo

Michelangelo was not the only one to put horns on Moses' head:

The exoteric level for the horns is explained in Wikipedia like this:

The depiction of a horned Moses stems from the description of Moses' face as "cornuta" ("horned") in the Latin Vulgate translation of the passage found at Exodus chapter 34, specifically verses 29, 30 and 35, in which Moses returns to the people after receiving the commandments for the second time. The Douay-Rheims Bible translates the Vulgate as, "And when Moses came down from the mount Sinai, he held the two tables of the testimony, and he knew not that his face was horned from the conversation of the Lord." This was Jerome's effort to faithfully translate the difficult, original Hebrew Masoretic text, which uses the term, karan (based on the root, keren, which often means "horn"); the term is now interpreted to mean "shining" or "emitting rays" (somewhat like a horn).

Just a little error in translation, nothing to see here!

The esoteric level for the horns tells us another story.

First, you need to know that the true identity of Moses was pharaoh Akhenaton. Second, you need to understand what the horns represented in his home-country Egypt. Third, you need to understand where this "conversation with the Lord" that grew horns on his head took place.

The horns have been associated with deities in many cultures around the world. In Egypt, one of the most famous deity with horns was the goddess Isis. Being a goddess of the Moon, she wore horns, which represent the crescent moon.

Isis with horns

Interestingly, the scene of the "horned Moses" took place at Mount Sinai. The name Sinai refers to the ancient Moon god Sin.

Moon god Sin

So why all these references to the Moon?

The "translation mistake" mentioned in the Wikipedia article is not really a mistake. It's a typical play on words in esoteric symbolism. Both translations, "horns" and "emitting rays" are correct and refer to the same thing - the Moon.

The Moon doesn't shine its own light - it's just an illusion. The light we see is a reflection of the Sun. In esoteric traditions the Moon represents an illusion and hidden secrets.

Tarot card the Moon - card of illusions 

Illusion and secrets. You begin to see Michelangelo's joke? He was in the know. He knew that the biblical "Moses" was nothing but a cover-up story, a hidden in plain sight secret, to hide the true identity of the leader of the "Israelites". He knew, that "Moses" was just an illusion - a reflection of Akhenaton.

The Sun and the Moon - Akhenaton and Moses.

Moses (the Moon) and Akhenaton (the Sun)

"As we assert, the biblical Israelites were followers of renegade Akhenaton, the biblical Moses, and their powerful descendants have sought to keep this fact from the world." - Michael Tsarion (The Irish Origins of Civilization, vol. 2)

Rest of the series on the page Cult of Aton.