Behind the Mystery of Facsimile 2

Last week I posted about Facsimile 2 and said that I would follow up with this topic of the occult with a more in depth look at two very important factors of Facsimile 2. These factors are the centrality of God and His divine purposes. In my more comprehensive study I found that I had to sift through the not so in depth LDS.org library on this topic and the mountain of anti-Mormon material there is out there. After carefully avoiding all the anti-Mormon pollution, I found this interesting book called A Study Guide to the Facsimiles of the Book of Abraham written by Church scholar  Allen J. Fletcher.  I also found a link to the LDS Pearl of Great Price Study Manual. (Due to the lack of information and excess of anti-Mormon material, all of my information will come from those two sites unless otherwise noted...) Without any further ado: here are some key points and notes behind the mystery that is Facsimile 2 from the Book of Abraham from the Pearl of Great Price. 

I mentioned last week that Facsimile 2 is a hypocephalus. Michael D. Rhodes, an  Egyptologist and associate professor of ancient scripture at BYU, provides a more thorough explanation with  the following: 

“A hypocephalus is a small disk-shaped object made of papyrus, stuccoed linen, bronze, gold, wood, or clay, which the Egyptians placed under the head of their dead. They believed it would magically cause the head and body to be enveloped in flames or radiance, thus making the deceased divine. The hypocephalus itself symbolized the eye of Re or Horus, i.e., the sun, and the scenes portrayed on it relate to the Egyptian concept of the resurrection and life after death” (Michael D. Rhodes, The Joseph Smith Hypocephalus . . . Seventeen Years Later [F.A.R.M.S. paper, RHO-94], 1).

We see that, as a whole the facsimile is made to represent an eye. The eye, symbolically, peers into the soul or inner thoughts of the individual. In this case we peer into the inner thoughts and desires of the Lord, which in Moses 1:39 we learn that His desire is our immortality and eternal life. This means that the whole focus of Facsimile 2 is about mankind's eternal life.

Another important  factor of the facsimile is the centrality of God. The entire Facsimile is obviously a circle. At the very center of the Facsimile there appears to be an X. It is actually worn around the neck shown here on the Egyptian god Osiris. 

This symbolic representation of the centrality of God lends meaning to scriptures like:

 D&C 88:41 He ^acomprehendeth all things, and all things are before him, and all things are round about him; and he is above all things, and in all things, and is through all things, and is round about all things; and all things are by him, and of him, even God, forever and ever. 

and other scriptures like: Abraham 3:21, 3 Nephi 27:14, 3 Nephi 15:9, JS-Matthew 1:27, Moses 7:62-63, D&C 101:22, D&C 42:36, D&C 39:22

It also suggests the concept of God residing on a  center planet (Facsimile 2:1)

On that note and at the risk of going too deep into deep doctrine too deep for me to climb back out of I close this more in depth study of two important parts of Facsimile 2. If you wish to study more click here for the above mentioned book. There definitely is lots of information out there to debunk a little bit of the mystery of this example of the occult. 

More interesting reading on The Book of Abraham in general and other intriguing topics can be found here or here. 

Also you can check out Hugh Nibley's article about whether or not today is the day in which much of the previously kept hidden information would be revealed. On this subject I would like to close with saying, Joseph Smith translated/explained only the pictorial symbols and non of the text itself.... I don't know about you but that makes me super curious to find out the rest!