As a child, my attention was drawn to a commercial on Egyptian television in the form of a short animated film set to beautiful music and lyrics. It was modelled on a simple fairy tale of a young prince who fell in love with a beautiful young princess, and the only way for him to win her heart was to obtain a small treasure hidden in a cave in a remote part of the land, the road to which was lined with all sorts of risks. The treasure was in fact nothing but a ‘bottle of perfume’ called “kismet”, a word that in the Arabic language means “destiny”. At that time, I did not know anything about the Book of Thoth, the ancient book of learning which the Egyptians attributed to Thoth, the god of wisdom who brought the arts of civilisation to humankind. The book of Thoth, according to legend was in fact lost and never recovered.

I did not envisage too, that one day I would become a psychiatrist - one of those who claim to have some understanding of the human soul (Psyche in Greek).  ‘Psyche’ was driven by curiosity to know the nature of her lover ‘Eros’. In her pursuit of such knowledge, ‘light’ was necessary to see through the ‘darkness’ of the night that envelops ‘Eros’. The Greek myth shows that Psyche managed to gain the knowledge of the subject but at the expense of losing the subject itself.

This “loss” in the quest to “gain”, is an integral aspect of the ancient Egyptian philosophical thought. Loss was a pre-requisite to the act of creation. The sky (Nut) had to be separated from her consort/lover earth (Geb) for humanity to be born. The act of being for the Egyptians was therefore the beginning of the struggle to be and to become. It is the journey of the soul to know the sum of knowledge that is hidden inside (Sia in Egyptian). It is the inner vision or “insight”, indeed the guiding force which takes the solar bark out of darkness to the shores of safety.

The same journey took me to a part of the Egypt which is dear to my heart and where my father is buried and where wisdom was born. The city of wisdom or city of Thoth (Hermopolis) in  Egypt. It is the city where the “Word” resides, inspiring tomorrow with the knowledge of yesterday.  For the Egyptians, yesterday and tomorrow were represented as two lions, each looking in different direction, one towards death (West) and the other towards life (East). In between, the transient moment is depicted in the form of the sun disc. The sun moves from west to east along its nightly course to transform the old man into a child again. Within this framework ‘the child of the new Hermopolis’ was born ...