Scarab beetle meaning
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22 Feb 2023 10:46:18 am.
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Scarab beetle meaning
The Dung Beetle Symbolism in Ancient China
The Egyptians weren’t the only ones that held Scarabs in high regard. In Ancient China scarabs were worshiped, considered sacred, and strongly associated with other religious symbols.
According to locals, dung beetles are part of a potent an ancient Chinese traditional medicine to help treat diseases like dysentery and diarrhea. The Chinese medicine men would roast dung beetles and give them to the sickly to drink to treat stomachs.
Dung beetles are still essential components of Chinese folk medicine in modern China, helping to fight a variety of ailments.
Scarabs And Egyptian Gods
The scarab symbol might be beautiful when it’s on top of a crown, but despite their dirty job, dung beetles are equally beautiful in nature.
1. Scarabs Association With Khepri
Ancient Egyptians found scarabs so intriguing, they used the scarab symbol when spelling the name of their gods. The way the beetles rolled from sun up to sun down was seen as a metaphor of the birth of Khepri, a sun god who was often seen represented with a human body and a scarab-shaped head.
According to the Egyptians, the god, Khepri, rose into the sky every morning from nothingness. He invented himself anew everyday.
2. Scarabs Association With Atum
Atum, the Lord of the universe and the source of all creation, was another cosmic deity linked to the scarab.
Dung beetles hatched their eggs and created life out of nothingness . A vibrant new creation of young scarab beetles emerged, embodying the idea of spontaneous creation, something that only the god Atum could do.
3. Scarabs Association With Re
Egyptologists suggest that thousands of years ago, sacred scarab beetles embodied the Egyptian sun god Ra, who was the national god and the ultimate manifestation of the sun god.
As the primary sun god, Re (or Ra) was responsible for the sun’s movement across the sky. According to the Egyptians, Ra “carried the sun†across the sky from east to west daily.
Ra pushing the sun across the sky was one of the reasons the locals associated the scarab with him. It appeared similar to observing a scarab beetle snowballing dung mounds on the ground until it reached the nest.
Ra was the beetle, and the rolling dung ball symbolized the sun.
4. The Egyptian Beetle God
The scarab beetle was sacred, divine, and special to ancient Egyptians. This critter was linked to the creation stories and had connections to the Egyptian gods, especially Khepri, the Egyptian “beetle†god.
It also connected with the god Atum and Ra, the most potent Egyptian god. Seemingly, the antennae on the scarab’s head were similar to the uraeus ( a solar disk surrounded by cobras)- a symbol only worn by powerful deities!
What Does The Scarab Symbolize?
Ancient Egyptians held scarabs in almost godlike status. They likened them to particular gods and worshipped them because the insects revealed so much about the universe and the spirit world to the Egyptians.
They believed that the deep symbolism scarabs carried with them gave clarity and revealed a way for people to navigate through life.
What else did scarabs symbolize?
Symbolic (and spiritual) Meanings of the Scarab Beetle
1. A Symbol Of Renewal And Rebirth
The scarab beetle was a manifestation of Ra, the sun god. Just like scarab bugs that sprang out of dead matter, the sun god Ra rolled the sun across the sky during the day, where it would set into the abyss and rise in the morning (rebirth) to shine again (renewal of life).
2. Representation Of Rising From Nothingness
A dung beetle lays eggs in mounds of waste where new beetles crawl out and still thrive. Through this observation, ancient Egyptians linked the beetles to Khepri, the self-creating god of the rising sun.
They believed that Khepri rose every morning as the sun out of ‘nowhere’ just like the beetles found new life after rising from filth.
3. The Never-Ending Life Cycle
Scarabs fed, laid their eggs, and hatched young ones within dung piles—their entire existence revolving around dirt.
These bugs repeated the cycle over and over, regenerating, continuing their species, and the old even dying in the dung. They embodied birth, life, and death, the never-ending life cycle.
4. It Means A New Beginning
Egyptians couldn’t help but notice that dung beetles were constantly transforming. They seemed productive, always discovering fresh poo, finding their way through pushing the heaviest and darkest matter to suitable locations without much struggle.
The scarabs appeared to portray their ability to survive, adapt, transform, surrender to change, and start over!
5. Life After Death
Similarly, scarabs epitomized the belief that there was life beyond the grave. The dung beetle’s nature of emerging from animal waste, which in this case equated to death, appears to have fueled this belief.
6. Immortality
Another reason ancient Egyptians venerated scarab beetles because they were symbols of immortality. The bugs laid eggs in what symbolized death, but new beetles still emerged. This pointed to a sign of new life, which was key to immortality.
7. Resurrection
The solar deity Khepri setting every evening and rising again at dawn was akin to the beetles burying dung balls in the ground from which live young beetles sprawled, symbolizing resurrection.
8. Protection
Jewelry and scarab-shaped accessories have been worn worldwide for ages, believed to harness Khepri’s protective powers. Egyptian locals thought these small magical objects warded off evil and ushered in good luck for the wearer in their current life and even the next.
Scarabs also protected the dead in ancient Egypt. Mummies were buried with protective scarab amulets to provide them with a safe transition into the afterlife.
9. Symbol Of Wealth
Egyptians saw the scarab beetle as an attractor of wealth and good fortune back in time. Their wit, industry, intelligence, and devotion to rolling dung linked them to success. Although slow in nature, they represented everything necessary for material gains.
Egyptians also viewed this insect as a lucky charm, and that’s why anyone who desired wealth and success wore the scarab amulet, including the Pharaohs.
10. Inner Strength
Scarabs mirrored strength for Egyptians. The locals mellowed at the insect’s indomitable spirit, admirable skills, and diligence they demonstrated while dragging dung balls almost 50 times its body weight. In fact, male scarabs can pull up to 1,141 times their body weight.
They acted as living reminders that anyone can cultivate dung beetle-like internal strength and handle anything life throws at you.
Tags: History
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