Omm Sety, Memories of Past Life and Love

Omm Sety's personal life story and incredible knowledge of ancient Abydos has intrigued many throughout the world. We can learn so much from her life and her vast knowledge of things long forgotten, lost, or often secreted away...

Dorothy Louise Eady who later came to be known as Omm Sety ('mother of Sety') was born Jan. 16, 1904, in London. At the age of three Dorothy fell down a flight of stairs, her frantic mother sent for a Doctor and after an examination she was pronounced dead and her body was taken to her room and laid on her bed. The Doctor left to summon a nurse to lie out and wash the body and to prepare a death certificate. An hour later the Doctor returned and found Dorothy sitting up and playing on her bed. At which time he tore up the death certificate and swore that she had been dead.

Not long after this, she began having reoccurring dreams of an ancient building with huge columns and a garden filled with fruit, flowers and tall trees. Her parents often found her crying and when they inquired as to why she was crying, she would reply "I want to go home".

When she was four years old her parents took her with them on a visit to the British Museum, she showed no enthusiasm for the museum until they arrived at the Egyptian Galleries. All of a sudden, she pulled away from her parents and went running wildly through the exhibits kissing the feet of all the statues. She felt very comfortable and at "home" among the collection. She finally sat down next to a glass mummy case and refused to leave. When they tried to get her to leave she hung onto the case and screamed, "Leave me, these are my people". She had to be removed kicking and screaming.

When Dorothy was seven her father brought home a magazine with photos of the Sety I Temple at Abydos. She then realized that this was the building from her reoccurring dreams. She told her father that the Temple was her home and that she had lived there; she said to her father "why is it all broken and where is the garden". When she discovered a photo of the very lifelike mummy of Sety I, she showed it to her father and swore that she really knew this man....

When she was ten she began cutting school and going to the Egyptian Galleries at the British Museum. One day the Keeper of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities, Sir E. A. Wallis Budge, noticed her there and asked why she was not in school. She replied that school did not teach her what she wanted to learn. "And what might that be?" he asked. "Hieroglyphs!" she replied. This was the beginning of many years of friendship and tutorage. Budge was amazed at how rapidly and easily Dorothy learned and translated hundreds of Hieroglyphs. Years later Budge asked her why she had wanted to learn to read hieroglyphs and she replied, "oh, I didn't want to learn to read them, I needed to remember them".

When she was fourteen years old she had her first visit from Sety I. She was just going to bed and suddenly felt a weight on her chest and saw a face bending over her, it was the face from the magazine from so many years earlier. She was so shocked she cried out, not from fear of him, but the realization that he was actually there in her room. Her feeling was of being overjoyed. Also at this time she began having more detailed dreams of her past life in Ancient Egypt....

When she was twenty-seven years old, she met the man who two years later would become her husband, Imam Abdel Megid. Imam was in London studying to be a teacher, he returned to Egypt and she followed shortly after. Dorothy had a son from her marriage, whom she named Sety, much to the dismay of her husband and in- laws. This is how she came to be known as Omm Sety (Mother of Sety) it was an Egyptian custom to not refer to a woman by their first name, but by the name of their eldest child. Her marriage ended in divorce within a few years.

While living in Cairo, she became the first woman to work for the Egyptian Antiquities Department. Years later, in 1956 she finally returned 'home' to Abydos, where she remained till her death in 1981....

The temple at Abydos was commissioned by Sety I in the 19th Dynasty. Omm Sety was deeply devoted to the temple. She would remove her shoes before entering and kept to the ancient ways of worship. She placed the offerings and performed the necessary rituals and ceremonies. She also celebrated the ancient holidays and festivals.

From Omm Sety's diaries, and hours of recordings of conversations with her dear friend Hanny El Zeini. We learn that Omm Sety's past life was as temple priestess named Bentreshyt (Harp of joy) her duty was to play a role in 'The Mystery Plays'. The play was the story of the life, death and resurrection of the Egyptian god Osiris, held at Abydos. She also confided that Sety I had fallen in love with her after a chance meeting in the Temple gardens when she was a young priestess there. She told of her love affair with Sety in this lifetime as well....

Omm Sety had a profound knowledge of all things Egyptian, she became an extremely popular and respected figure at Abydos, giving tours of the temple, writing papers, piecing together and cataloging thousands of fragments of text from the temple, and even curing the local villagers who came to her knowing she knew the secrets of ancient Egyptian magic and healing.

The most amazing part of Omm Sety's abilities was the archaeological discoveries at Abydos which were from her memories of her time there, more than three thousand years earlier....

Omm Sety was able to show where the garden had once existed at the temple. She pointed out the exact spot in which to dig, This is the same garden she had met Sety in, during her past life. She also knew precisely where to dig to find the tree roots of the trees that once stood in the garden....

From a conversation between the Pharaoh Sety I. and Omm Sety that took place in this lifetime she revealed things he shared with her. He told her that the Osirion, a below ground structure directly behind the temple, which Egyptologists believe is the remains of the Cenotaph of Sety I, was not built by him but dates to a far earlier time. Sety gave her information regarding the Great Sphinx at Giza, concerning its true age and who it was a likeness of.

Omm Sety's detailed knowledge of Egyptology and ancient Egyptian magical and spiritual practices was admired by all who met her, including some of the greatest Egyptologists in the field, who knew and worked with her for many years in Cairo and at Abydos.

Most researchers agree it would have been impossible for her to obtain such a profound knowledge and understanding of ancient Egypt through the normal academic channels of learning.

More so, they were dumbfounded by her ability to locate the ruins of villages, temples, tombs, boat pits, secret tunnels and many other things that had it not been for her they would still be buried under the sands of time....

.. ..In ancient times the Egyptians placed great importance on a person's name or "ren". It was thought of as a living part of each individual, much like the ka and other aspects of the body. Great care was taken to ensure one's name would not be forgotten, and as long as it was remembered, the deceased was believed to be immortal. It is our desire to ensure that Omm Sety's name and legacy will always be remembered.

© Copyright 2008 by Melissa Goldberg

 

Resources:

My Dear friend, Dr. Hanny El Zeini

'Omm Sety's Egypt' By Hanny El Zeini and Catherine Dees, 2006....

'The Search for Omm Sety' by Jonathan Cott and Hanny El Zeini, 1987....

'Abydos, Holy City of Ancient Egypt' by Omm Sety and Hanny El Zeini, 1981....

'Omm Sety's Abydos' By Dorothy Louise Eady (Omm Sety) Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities Publications 1983.....