''The Shining Ones''

About the Book

The Introduction of the book indicates the necessity to start with the archaeology of the early settlements of the West Bank of the Nile , a territory to be considered  as the mother or matrix of all Egyptian civilization. It establishes the pioneer nature of this Etymological Essay in the English language, as most of the studies in keeping with its findings are to be found in the scholarly literature of Europe and North Africa.

1. Archaic Terminology: The chapter  traces the origins of early settlements of the northwestern region of Egypt, the desert oases, the Fayum, the region of the Lakes, and the western portion of the delta of the Nile, by Saharan and Libyan archaic people, with specific emphasis on archaic topography which can be directly related to Modern Amazigh spoken today in North Africa (Tamazirt.)

2,The Pillar People: The review of a number of terms from the mythology and ceremonial procedures of dynastic Egypt shows the influence of those early settlers named The People of the Pillars (Intui) on the beliefs and practices perpetuated through centuries in Egypt, and the presence of an all pervasive worship of these early origins: (cult of ancestors.)

3.The Holy rulers of First Princes of Egypt: An intensive comparative review of ancient Egyptian  and Modern Amazigh terms reveals that the first noble rulers of the area were of Amazigh origin. A series of families of terms link quite clearly a number of beliefs and practices to the North African cultural complex.

4.Tehuti, time  and the Wisdom of the stars is a chapter delving a little more deeply into the cosmogony and cosmology of the early Egyptians, and the roots of that knowledge in archaic practices, which have parallel indicators in North Africa.

5. The Innermost Shrine  from The Book of the Dead: The geography of the Land of the Beyond, Tu-at (Du-Ament), and a variety of important indices throughout the Book of the Dead indicate quite clearly that the final return of the defunct to the Blessed Land of the Ancestors  was also a step by step description of their claim of descent from these original beings. The rule of “Ma-aa-at,” the organizing principle of an entire civilization for centuries, or ‘NTR,” originated in the area of the Sacred lakes and the ancient settlements of the Fayum and oasis complex. Linguistic comparison with Modern Amazigh continues to indicate the kinship of those people with North African Imazighen (also known as Berbers.)

6. A Conclusion, Notes, and an Appendix, which is the reproduction of an article published in The Amazigh Voice, a publication of the Amazigh Cultural Association in America,  indicate the pioneer aspect of such a work and the direction in which further linguistic studies could bring increasing  light into areas of  Egyptian scholarship heretofore deemed as obscure and/or  of barbarous origin. .

About the Author

HELENE E. HAGAN immigrated to the United States in 1959. Born in Rabat, Morocco, Helene received her earlier education in Morocco and at Bordeaux University, France, where she received a Master’s Degree in British and American Studies. She also holds two graduate degrees from Stanford University. California, one in French and Education, and the other in Cultural and Psychological Anthropology. She married in 1960 and is the mother of Phillip Durk, Jennifer Jane and Marianne Elizabeth Hagan. She raised her family in Palo Alto, California, where she managed her own business, "La Ruche, French Imports" before returning to Stanford as a Ph D student in Anthropology. After conducting fieldwork (1982-1985) among the Oglala Lakota people of Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, and directing a photo identification project funded by the South Dakota Committee on the Humanities for the Oglala Lakota College, she worked as Associate Professor at the JFK University Graduate School of Psychology in Orinda, California, and owned an American Indian art gallery in Marin County, "Lakota Contemporary Designs" to support American Indian artists. She has served as President of the non-profit educational organization she founded, Tazzla Institute for Cultural Diversity, since 1993. In 1997, she traveled to the Canary Islands to participate to the first Amazigh International Congress that took place in Tafira. She moved to Los Angeles in 1998. In 2000, in collaboration with several NGOS at the United Nations, and through the activities of the Vice President of Tazzla Institute, Ms. Shirley Chesney, Helene has co-led a UNESCO Culture of Peace program , "Creating Peace Through the Arts and Media" with an annual UN presentation of films and speakers selected by Tazzla institute. Helene has written numerous newspaper and magazine articles on a variety of subjects during her career as an activist anthropologist, four anthropological books on Berber (Amazigh) culture and filmed, edited and produced over fifty community service television programs on a variety of topics related to American Indian and Amazigh (Berber and Tuareg) culture, arts, and human right issues, through Amazigh Video Productions. She has enormously enjoyed her work as a videographer, editor, and producer of these educational and cultural television programs. Helene Hagan is a lifetime Associate Curator of the Paul Radin Collection at Marquette University Special Archives. In 2007, Helene E. Hagan was a guest Professor for the First Berber Institute held at the University of Oregon, Corvallis. In 2008, she created the Los Angeles Amazigh Film Festival. Books published by XLibris: The Shining Ones: Etymological Essay on the Amazigh Roots of Ancient Egyptian Civilization (2000) Tuareg Jewelry: Traditional Patterns and Symbols (2006) Tazz’unt: Ecology, Ritual and Social Order in the Tessawt Valley of the High Atlas of Morocco (2011) Fifty Years in America, A Book of Essays (2013) Russell Means, The European Ancestry of a Militant Indian (2018)