H.R Giger's Egyptian Mysteries

leading from 

Afterworlds

and

development of gigers art 
and 
paintings that inspired design of the alien

 H.R Giger's Black Room, Egyptian Burial chamber,
on the third floor of his parents' house at Storchengrasse 17, Chur, 1958
(source,  WWW.HRGIGER.COM (book) p9)

a) H. R. Giger in his artwork has often used ancient Egyptian themes and ideas, and some of these he brought into the concept work for Alien, many of which can be found as illustrations in the Egyptian Book of the Dead. His keen interest in such Egyptian imagery can be seen on the decorations of the wall of his black room (above) where he used to hold parties and play with his band as a teenager. In the centre of the photo is an image of the God Ra holding a was-sceptre

b) Giger found inspiration in Ancient Egyptian art from an early age. When he was about six years, every Sunday he went to the civic museum in Chur and in the basement with the amputated hands and feet they kept a beautiful mummified body of what he believed was an Egyptian princess and her sarcophagus. Perhaps this was actually the mummy of Ta-di-Isis, a woman who was found to have died approximately middle aged, dated back to the 26th Dynasty ( around 650 BC) and came from Thebes-West and her mummified body that is known to reside in the Rätisches Museum of Chur today. Giger noted that she had an old smell and it fascinated him and those memories became an inspiration for him when he start to draw and use the airbrush. Later when he held a show in the museum of Chur, he was to present the mummy as something that inspired him. In ancient Egyptian ancient, death was an important part of the culture and they would present it in the form of mummies etcetera. The way he did his portraits was typically Egyptian as well, in the way they presented a view from from the side and the front. So the Egyptian style was something that he considered part of his way of expressing through art.

i)The Sokar Funerary Barge

In the final design for the Space Jockey, Giger was able to incorporate elements of the Seker./Sokar funerary barge.
  

ii) The Goddess Nut
In his work for the Alien Life Cycle Hieroglyphic tableau, he incorporated the image of the Goddess Nut.  

iii) The opening of the mouth ritual

 In his early design for the Facehugger, he incorporated the idea a pair of pliers in the creatures mouth to open it's victim's mouth up inspired by the idea of tools used for opening the jaws of the mummy up to allow the soul into the body for the reanimation rite

 


iv) The Embalming Ritual

Giger's painting Necronom IV which became starting point for the final adult alien creature, but where did the idea for the thing spring from. While it's composed of ideas that he developed over time, one can see that it incorporates elements from depictions of the ancient Egyptian embalming ritual images.





v) The Necronom's Leonine shoulder

The strange rounded shoulder of the Necronom IV displays a likeness to those in the Ancient Egyptian's depictions of lions







vi) Vestigial remains of the Eye of Horus

Giger's Necronom IV backpipes when the painting is flipped over become the upper eyeline and eyebrow of the eye of Horus

vi) Was-Sceptre, the head of the alien?
The general form of the head of the Necronom IV looks inspired by the general form of the stylised head of a was-sceptre

source quotes

1. HR Giger: An existence better never begun. Many of my works reflect this state of hopeless enslavement which leaves no room for religious beliefs. My childhood memories of the civic museum in Chur also belong within this context. There Egyptian mummies were exhibited along with amputated hands and feet. (Giger ARh+)
2. Vincent Castiglia- - Co uważasz za źródło największej inspiracji?
   HR Giger- Starożytnych Egipcjan. Gdy miałem ok. 6 lat, co niedzielę chodziłem do muzeum w Chur. W piwnicy trzymali tam piękną mumię. Miała stary zapach i to mnie fascynowało. Później, gdy zacząłem rysować i używać airbrush, tamto wspomnienie było dla mnie dużą inspiracją. Potem postarałem się, aby na mojej wystawie w muzeum w Chur była mumia egipskiej księżniczki i jej sarkofag. W ten sposób chciałem ludziom pokazać, co mnie inspiruje. W sztuce egipskiej jest dużo śmierci – w mumiach, czaszkach etc. W mojej twórczości też. Poza tym sposób, w jaki robię portrety jest typowo egipski – przedstawiam widok od przodu i z boku (Tatuaz #28, May 2008)
   Google Translation-
   Vincent Castiglia--What do you think is the biggest source of inspiration?
   HR Giger-- Ancient Egyptians. When I was about six years, every Sunday I went to the museum in Chur. In the basement there kept beautiful mummy. She had an old smell, and it fascinated me. Later, when I started to draw and use the airbrush, those memories for me was a big inspiration. Then I tried to make on my show in museum in Chur was the mummy of an Egyptian princess and her sarcophagus. In this way, I wanted to show people what inspires me. In Egyptian art is a lot of death - in mummies, skulls etc.. In my work, too. Besides, the way I'm doing portraits is typically Egyptian - present the view from the front and side (Tatuaz #28, May 2008) 
3. Vincent Castiglia--Co byś poradził artystom szukającym własnych środków wyrazu? HR Giger-- W dzisiejszych czasach jest o wiele trudniej znaleźć swój własny styl jako artysta. Wydaje się, że każdy styl, każden punkt widzenia w sztuce został już przez kogoś zutylizowany. Gdy byłem młodszy, nie było telewizji ani internetu. Dzisiaj media propagują i rozpowszechniają wszystko. Już nie ma co odkrywać. Ja sam np. zaadoptowałem styl egipski i nie wiem, co innym pozostało?! Wszystko już było. W komputerze i w sieci są pewnie możliwości odkrycia czegoś nowego i znalezienia innych stylów. Ja nie mam pojęcia o komputerach, więc może ktoś inny coś tam nowego wypatrzy. (Tatuaz #28, May 2008) Google Translation-
   Vincent Castiglia- - - What would be your advice to artists looking for their own means of expression?
   -HR Giger- Nowadays, it is much harder to find your own style as an artist. It seems that every style, every point of view in art has already been disposed of by someone. When I was younger, there was no television or Internet. Today, the media promote and disseminate all. Already there is nothing to discover. I myself, for example, I adopted Egyptian style and do not know what else is left? Everything has been done. The computer and the network is probably the ability to discover something new and find other styles. I do not have a clue about computers, so maybe someone else will spot something new. (Tatuaz #28, May 2008)

Evolution of Space Jockey from the Egyptian Book of the Dead

Part of:
Unlocking the design of the Space Jockey
&
H.R Giger's Egyptian Mysteries

sokar funerary barge from Papyrus of Ani.



Giger's space jockey painting

drawing of the Ramesses II funerary bark

1. Giger appears to have taken the design of the Space Jockey in another direction far beyond Ridley's initial concept, for a good couple of decades I wondered what exactly it could have been, to me it seemed as if there was some completely unimaginable source of inspiration that took the the direction of the design into something incomprensibly different. If there was a mysterious sculpture or design to know about from the Ancient Egyptian traditions I didn't know about it. There was absolutely nothing about it in the book H.R.Giger's Alien. This matter about the Sokar funerary bark having not been mentioned at all in any of the known books or interviews with Giger but we know that he does draw ideas from Ancient Egyptian Culture from looking at his paintings, we have seen his obvious use of the sky goddess Nut in the Life Cycle hieroglyphics tableau, and we can see enough from the image from Ani's version of the Book of the Dead to how this is a key structure that served as a basis for the Space Jockey and its chair. Maybe Giger's painting Necronom IV featuring the creature that inspired the main structure of the final alien life form design in the movie was also loosely inspired by the same images of the funerary bark.  

   

   A diagram I have made to explore the way that the image of the Henu Barque was adapted by Giger

2. However I went to see "The Egyptian Book of the Dead" exhibition at the British Museum on January 14th 2011 and when I looked at the section displaying the the Papyrus of Ani, a very curious detail jumped out at me as it if were a strange creature with a rib cage extending behind it and a long legless trunk like body and an animal head at the top of  the body supported by a cradle with three pillars and I immediately thought that this could easily be the inspiration for Giger biomechanoid. This small image was in fact a depiction of a sacred bark/ barge dedicated to the funerary god Sokar.

   

   work 340c, Giger's Alien, p39

3. Despite all we have discovered about the evolution of the space jockey's seat from the Necronom V painting through  Ridley Scott's storyboard, we can take a step back and examine Giger's final Space Jockey design and note the strange bulbous structure projecting from it's back and the three pillars that make the support frame connected to the runners of a sledge, have become the support frame for  the space jockey's telescope, The presence of the horizontal structures such as the curving pipe as seen in the fourth image down on the right or if not, the sledge runners are likely to have inspired the horizontal pipes at the base of the Space Jockey's seat. Giger may have been familiar with more than one version of the sokar boat if the horizontal pipe at the bottom was based on the pipe shown in the second image of the funerary bark.  

   

   work 340c, Giger's Alien, p39 detail
   

4. Someone might have the view that if the boat images contained a telescope, it might seal the whole statement that this was the inspiration. However I can only turn it around and look at Giger's earlier sketch for a space jockey chair design (see work 340c, Giger's Alien, p39  and the sketch of the detail below) where there is a telescope that might be considered roughly like a giant stylised falcon head shape ending with a sharp beak tip where the Space Jockey's telescope eyepiece would be, and on the barge itself, this is where a small falcon head would be found.

   

   space jockey and visor
   become stylised falcon head

5. On the final painting (see right), the space jockey's visor in conjunction with the shape of his helmet provides a stylised falcon like representation
6. Other versions of the image of this type of Egyptian Sokar funeral barque/barge found around the internet show a much larger precise image of the barge but with four pillars, but the writer here would perhaps find it less easy to recognise it as something transformable into a space jockey along with its seat. See link to images at the bottom

   

   Sokar

7. This process of using a strange ritual image left behind from an ancient civilisation and re-imagining it as an alien in its pilot seat can be said to be cheekily labeled as "Von Dänikenisation" as if inspired by Erich Von Däniken's idea that the sarcophagus lid of the Tomb of Pakal Votan, depicted an astronaut in a rocket ship cockpit. (see Inspired by "Erich Von Däniken?")
8. Explanations behind the Sokar Funerary Bark
9. See the different depictions of the Sokar Funerary Barque
   
 

 

Egyptian Secrets of The Life Cycle Tableau

Leading from

H.R Giger's Egyptian Mysteries
 and
Alien Life Cycle Hieroglyphics 

Giger's Alien life cycle tableau

Giger has displayed throughout his works that he has shown an interest in ancient Egyptian art and
mythology. Starting with Ron Cobb's Alien Life Cycle Tableau inspired perhaps by ancient South American culture shown in the side of his Alien birth temple painting, Giger has brought the ancient Egyptian mythology into the Alien Life Cycle tableau. The figure stretching around the edge of the tableau is inspired by depictions of the Egyptian sky goddess Nut, who often has Geb the god of the earth and fertility lying below, sometimes with his male member erect which so happens to be placed where it looks almost as if it inspired Giger with his depiction of the chest bursting from the victim image. Geb was also a god who imprisoned the dead in his body. The goddess is also often depicted being supported by the god Shu who raised the goddess into the heavens, but is replaced in Giger's painting by support bars instead.

Cobb's Alien life cycle tableau with a radiating ovoid form at the top of the painting.

Stele of Ankh-ef-en-Khonsu, dating to the late Dynasty 25/early Dynasty 26.
This image is interesting in the way there's the winged sun disk placed
beneath the arching body of the sky goddess and also there is the circular
form in the centre of the biomechanoid goddess' body. This stele
has been a source of fascination for Aleister Crowley and became a
central point of his Thelema philosophy.  HR Giger took a great interest
 in Aleister Crowley's works although was not a practicer of his magic rituals.
(Source Wikipedia: Stele_of_Revealing)
(association between paintings was discovered at theallseeingcat.tumblr.com
so I first saw this image, 16th June 2014)

Tomb carving of Nut very close to Giger's hieroglyphics, (located by Granolaboy
in Taschen's the book of symbols reflections on archetypal images at shared at the
forum Prometheus-movie.com 7th Sept , 2012) This carving shows two figures
supporting the sky with their arms stretched out like horizontal scaffolding

Shu, Nut and Geb. The standing human figure has his arms raised
as if about to act as a supporting frame

Nut and Geb. Geb positioned below the goddess Nut has his male member in an
erect state and echoes the chest burster image in Giger's Hieroglyphics.

Necronom IV inspired by Embalming Ritual

Part of

The Development of Necronom IV

&

H.R Giger's Egyptian Mysteries

a). Necronom IV is the image which caught the eye Ridley Scott when he was handed a copy of Necronomicon and he knew which way to take the design of the Alien. We can see a general suggestion from his earlier work how this entity began to take form but this entity contained mysterious questions that needed answering. As I looked at Necronom IV and asked myself where the inspiration came from. It appeared to be part sea creature, part motorcycle and motorcyclist, part character from an ancient Egyptian mural and indeed the Dalinian phallus. After having discovered the various ideas and images from the Egyptian book of the dead in early 2011 that have inspired Giger's work for Alien so far, and also how Giger had turned Jean Delville's Treasures of Satan into an biomechanoid creature in Alien Monster IV.

(see Gigers Alien Monster IV)

Work 286

b) i. My assumptions about the symbolism of the Alien

One thing to know about the alien in the movie, it could be said to often debrain and mummify it's victims before they begin their metamorphosis, somehow the idea of the creature we see sprung from the mysteries of ancient Egyptian mummification. I wondered perhaps if it was a Giger-ised animal headed god from the Egyptian pantheon but I couldn't find something specific in any of the well known images from that era.

one version of a brain removal hook

b) ii . Giger writes that "It drains the blood out of its human prey and forms the dried husk into a cocoon which gradually develops back into an egg" ( see H.R. Giger's Film Design, p31) Perhaps this dried husk can be seen as a form of mummification and the cocooning of the human body is similar to wrapping it in bandages. Partial debraining is the first thing the creature does when it kills the characters Brett and Parker in the movie Alien. In Giger's sketches for Alien 3, the creature is found to go straight for the head area and then rip out the contents of the skull (see H.R. Giger's Film Design, p66-67, images 22 and 73). None of the actions of the aliens in other films in the series count in this case because Giger wasn't involved with the films although they continue to punch holes in the human's heads.

depiction of the Embalming Ritual

c) i. Discovering the embalming ritual image

During the late evening of April 5th 2012, I took a look at an image of a little known Giger painting known as Work 286 which I had known about for the last couple of years , it was an image that preceded Necronom IV that was Work 303. The main figure with kneeling humanoid legs has the upper spine that sticks out of the back of the Necronom creature protruding from its stomach instead as if there is some form of a gaping maw and this spine has become a tongue, and the curved indentation of the tip of this structure is about to recieve an egg like form protruding from an ovipositor and in Necronom IV , this indentation is shaped to support the phallic end of the Necronom's elongated head. The tool held out by the outstretched arm of the figure in Work 286 reminded me of an oversized brain hook used by an Egyptian embalmer and so this lead me to look up Ancient Egyptian Embalming Ritual on the internet.

c) ii. The Alien Appendage

Searching for images of the Ancient Egyptian Embalming Ritual resulted in the discovery of images of the Anubis god embalming a human and this peculiar curved tail ending with a strange bulbous structure that contained a foetal skeleton, Ridley Scott referred to the tail of the final alien as an umbilicas and perhaps this tail was somehow a muscular umbilical cord with the small womb at the tip, but Giger had taken a form which appeared to be a typical kind of bulbous topped tail on a lion embalming couch and "Gigerised" it.

This also begs me to ask the question about whether the Necronom's face is a humanised lion from the embalming couch and perhaps this Necronom is a biomechanised impression of the form of the couch the mummy being embalmed and indeed the Anubis figure bending over the body but the way that Giger's creativity seems to play around with reinterpreting the forms in the image could raise so many questions that would go unanswered.
 

The whole story from Issue No.8 of Weird Science that inspired the chestburster

15th July 2012. Issue No.8 of Weird Science inspires the chestburster

I tracked down the comic story from Weird Science that inspired Dan O'Bannon in the 1950s and you'll probably be delighted how obvious it is. Here is the whole thing.

Necronom IV's leonine shoulder

H.R Giger's Egyptian Mysteries

Necronom IV's bulbous shoulder

Another point to note about the Necronom creature is the bulbous shoulder is very reminiscent of the way the ancient Egyptian depicted the shoulders of large wild cat such as a lion .

f. i) The Lion God Aker: The hieroglyph for the horizon guarded by Aker or Ruti, the god in the form of two lions (yesterday and tomorrow) believed to guard the eastern and western horizons as the points where the sun touches the twin-peaked mountain top of the earth where it leaves and re-enters the underworld. (source Wikipedia) They have the similar bulbous shoulders to that of the Necronom.

Aker or Ruti, the god in the form of two lions

f. ii) The ferocious Ammit: Here on the right is an image of a demon like goddess Ammit, usually found in the Egyptian Book of the Dead, it usually has a crocodiles head, a hippos hind-quarter and a lion's forebody and forelegs with a shoulder as noticeably bulbous as the Necronom's.

Ammit with wild cat's shoulders

The ancient Egyptian goddess Ammit (also known as Ammut and Ahemait) was the personification of divine retribution. She sat beside the scales of Ma'at ready to devour the souls of those deemed unworthy. Those unfortunate enough to fail the test would suffer the feared second death, and have no chance of the blissfull life of the field of reeds instead roaming restlessly for eternity. Her name, is generally translated as "Devourer", but could also be the chilling "Bone Eater".

(source: http://www.ancientegyptonline.co.uk/ammit.html)

Vestigial remains of the Eye of Horus

leading from
H.R Giger's Egyptian Mysteries

Wadjet - Eye of Horus

a) Once I worked out the heavy inspiration from embalming ritual image form Necronom IV, I had on my computer page a selection of Googled Egyptian images which contained somewhere down the line Eye Of Horus and I had my Necronom IV image open and I noticed something similar about the latter's pipes to the structure of the Eye Of Horus, and it made more sense when I turned the Necronom IV painting upside down and remembered the fact that when I turned the Necronom painting around I found some clues to how it might have inspired part of the structure of the Space Jockey and its contraption at which it sits.   
(see part A of Evolution via Giger's Necronomicon part 2 of Unlocking the design of the Space Jockey)

wadjet from Papyrus of Ani

b) We're told about the Eye of Horus symbol: "The Wadjet (or Ujat, meaning "Whole One") is a powerful symbol of protection in ancient Egypt also known as the "Eye of Horus" and the "all seeing eye". The symbol was frequently used in jewellery made of gold, silver, lapis, wood, porcelain, and carnelian, to ensure the safety and health of the bearer and provide wisdom and prosperity. However, it was also known as the "Eye of Ra", a powerful destructive force linked with the fierce heat of the sun which was described as the "Daughter of Ra". The "eye" was personified as the goddess Wadjet and associated with a number of other gods and goddesses (notably Hathor, Bast, Sekhmet, Tefnut, Nekhbet and Mut). " (source: www.ancientegyptonline.co.uk/eye.html)

Wadjet - The Eye of Horus

c) If we further look at Egyptian symbolism, we can take the Necronom image, flipping upside down and back to front. The pipes begin to resemble the lines that make up the eyebrow and eye rim of the Eye of Horus. The coil at the end of the part that sprouts from below the Eye of Horus to the right can be compared to the phallic rear part of the creature's long cranium.

d) See more versions of The Eye of Horus /Wedjat

e) See Also Alien In The Brain

Inverted Necronom IV

Giger's Facehugger inspired by the opening of the mouth ritual

Part of:
H.R Giger's Egyptian Mysteries

Facehugger II

1. H.R.Giger "Since it had to pry open the victim's mouth, I gave it an instrument something like the old Egyptians used on their dead to force open the mouth and let the spirit out" (Cinefex 1, p36)

   

   Opening of the mouth ritual

2.  "At the entrance to the tomb, the mummy was raised to an upright position, the Sem-Priest would then speak the words of ritual while lesser-ranked priests would purify the coffin with water and incense. At this point a 'adze' was raised to the lips of the face of the coffin / mummy - the adze was raised in this way twice, then a forked instrument (a Pesesh-Kef) a knife or wand touched the mummy - this was very important! - Now the senses of the mummy were magically restored - an ox was then slaughtered and one its forelegs offered to the face of the mummy (with the possible reason of restoring the sexual powers of the deceased)." (Taken from www.ilikeegypt.com)

   

   a Pesesh-kef

3. 
   "The Peseshkef, a prehistoric flint knife in the shape of a fish tail, was used in Egypt to cut the umbilical cord at birth, circa 5000 BC. This was the first special-purpose surgical instrument.
   
   Because of the importance of rebirth in the Egyptian religion, a stylized knife with magical properties became part of the equipment for the "opening of the mouth" ceremony to permit a mummy to partake of nourishment in the afterlife. It also became the emblem of the birth goddess, Meskhenet." (source http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8190422)

The Was-Sceptre, the head of the alien?

seated humans and deities bearing was-staffs from the Papyrus of Ani

Leading from :

H.R Giger's Egyptian Mysteries

&

The Development of Necronom IV

 H.R Giger's Black Room, Egyptian Burial chamber,
on the third floor of his parents' house at Storchengrasse 17, Chur, 1958
(source,  WWW.HRGIGER.COM (book) p9)

H.R.Giger in his Black Room,  
Egyptian Burial chamber,  1957
 (source: Giger's Necronomicon p12)

On the walls in various tombs, depictions of various deities and pharoahs carrying the Was-Sceptre

wall carving of Horus
holding was-sceptre
from the Dendera 
temple complex

Horus carrying a
was-sceptre from the
 tomb of Nefertar

have been found bearing the stylised head of a beast known as a set-animal. Used as symbols of power and then a symbol of control over chaos. The stylised representation of the head found in wall  paintings looks curiously like the alien in the most generalised way.

Whether it is or not, we can find Giger's painting on the wall of his Black Room of Ra carrying a was-sceptre so we know he was familiar with the idea of this object. What is more, intended for the film premier he created design for a staff that bore the head of the alien on the tip similar to the head of a was-sceptre, based on an idea from Mia Bonzanigo.

My attention to the question about the alien head being inspired by the form of a Was-sceptre came from a post by "Batchpool" at Prometheus-movie.com who on September 7th 2012 presented the a photo of a sculpture of Ptah holding a was-sceptre which I managed to see 3 days later. (This statue of Ptah has been thought to be the inspiration for the Oscar awards statue)

statue of Ptah holding a was-sceptre

detail of head from Necronom IV

1. The was (wahz) ("power, dominion") sceptre is a symbol that appeared often in relics, art, and hieroglyphics associated with the ancient Egyptian religion. It appears as a a stylized animal head at the top of a long, straight staff with a forked end.
   Was sceptres were used as symbols of power or dominion, and were

   

   detail of was-sceptre head

   associated with the gods (such as Set or Anubis)^[1] as well as with the pharaoh. Was sceptres also represent the Typhonic beast or Set-animal (the mascot of the Egyptian god Set). In later use, it was a symbol of control over the force of chaos that Set represented.
   In a funerary context the was sceptre was responsible for the well-being of the deceased, and was thus sometimes included in the tomb equipment or in the decoration of the tomb or coffin. The sceptre is also considered an amulet. The Egyptians perceived the sky as being supported on four pillars, which could have the shape of was sceptres. The was sceptre is also the symbol of the fourth Upper Egyptian nome, the nome of Thebes (called Waset in Egyptian).^[2]
   Was sceptres were depicted as being carried by gods, pharaohs, and priests. They commonly occur in paintings, drawings, and carvings of gods, and often parallel with emblems such as the ankh and the djed-pillar. Remnants of real was sceptres have been found, constructed of faience or wood, where the head and forked tail of the Set-animal are visible, with the earliest examples dating back to the times of the first dynasty.
   
   The was is also the Egyptian hieroglyphic character that stands for a word meaning power. (Source: wikipedia.org/wiki/Was) 

Giger's design for silver Alien walking stick walking stick,
 for Premier in Hollywood (work 405, Giger's Alien)

A was sceptre from Kmt.
(source :egyptsearchreloaded)

was-sceptre(source: ancientegyptonline)