About the book
"My father gifted me my first camera. I have carried one ever since. It was not until Egypt that I truly understood the emotional portal I had in my hands."
In 2022, Rena Andrews traveled to Egypt as a student on a 22-day mystery school pilgrimage organized by her teacher Naha Armády — metaphysician, Hermetic Qabalist, and founder of 22 Teachings School of Hermetic Science and Magical Arts in Los Angeles. The journey was guided on the ground by master Egyptologist Mahmoud Khodeir, who has led groups through Egypt since 1990, alongside accomplished Egyptologist Mohamed A. Aziz and Isis Indriya of the Academy of Oracle Arts.
On a last-minute whim, she purchased a new 35mm prime lens and packed her Nikon DSLR — ready to photograph some monuments and people. But Egypt had so much more planned for this camera. Moving through the temples as one of 42 fellow travelers, she honored every sacred ritual by putting it away — and honored everything human by taking it back out. In Abydos, on the first day of the sacred journey, the magical light of Seti I temple prompted a photoshoot with fellow photographer Rebecca Swanner, whose hands danced in the light and appeared to pierce the proverbial veil. It was one of those photographs that became the cover of this book — and with that, the realization that capturing these moments was meant to be as much a part of her trip as the monuments themselves.
Every free moment of the trip, she found herself editing. By the time the journey ended, what she had was not a documentation of Egypt — it was a witnessing of what Egypt does to people. Not monuments captured, but moments experiencing them. This book is her dedication: to her father who gave her the first camera, to her mother whose grace never wavered, and to the 42 fellow travelers who allowed her to capture these moments.
