Mysterious Reincarnation of Omm Seti: British Woman Who Proved To Have Lived In Ancient Egypt
By Vicky Verma
Dorothy Louise Eady is well known to those who are fond of the history of Ancient Egypt. This 20th century Egyptologist claimed to be the reincarnation of a priestess in the cult of Isis and seemed to have intimate knowledge to back it up. She even knew the details that had never been published. Ancient astronaut theorists say reincarnation is all about moving the human species forward. Or, perhaps, moving gods forward. The general belief is that countless reincarnations form a shared purpose. Ultimately, all the reincarnations lead to a cosmic consciousness that should propel the universe forward.
Dorothy Eady, better known as “Omm Sety” or “Om Seti” was born to Irish parents on January 16, 1904, in England. She was an ordinary child, until an accident happened to her in 1907. One morning, three-year-old Dorothy ran upstairs and fell from the second floor. Instantly, she got unconscious. Her parents called a doctor, but he could not help and only ascertained the death of the child.
Dorothy Eady
Dorothy Eady at an Egyptian Archaeological Site. Image available in Public Domain
However, miraculously, when he returned to the house an hour later and entered Dorothy’s room, he found the girl alive and well. After that, Dorothy began to have amazing dreams about a mysterious building with snow-white columns, surrounded by a beautiful garden in the depths of which a rectangular lake with lotuses was hidden. And the girl herself was tormented by a deep longing for her home, but she could not explain where this home was.
At 4, Dorothy visited the British Museum with her parents. Once in the Egyptian Hall, she revived her memories from the past life. She was convinced that she could remember her past life and that she was born in a different life, across the sea in the land of the Pharaohs: Egypt. Not only did Dorothy remember who she was, but she recounted incredible details from a time when she was an Egyptian priestess.
According to her accounts, she was Bentreshyt, 14, an apprentice virgin priestess and daughter of a vegetable seller and a common soldier in the holy city of Abydos, Egypt.
She lived and served at the court of Pharaoh Seti.
Seti I
Seti I making an offering to Osiris. Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
At the age of five, she quickly mastered reading and writing and began to read everything that was somehow connected with the history of Ancient Egypt. With the same zeal, Dorothy copied ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. By the age of ten, Dorothy met the famous English Egyptologist, archaeologist, orientalist Sir Ernest Alfred Thompson Wallis Budge, who worked at the British Museum and by that time had published a large number of works about Ancient Egypt. He began to teach her the ancient language, although he was very surprised at the abilities of his new student in mastering this difficult and forgotten language. Dorothy said that she knew this language.
In 1932, Dorothy left for Egypt to live with her husband Eman Abdel Meguid, an Egyptian student she had met in England. Upon her arrival in Egypt, she got off the ship, bent down, and kissed the ground, saying she came there to stay. The couple got married, but their marriage lasted only 2 years, although during this time they had a son, whom Dorothy called Sety. That is why Dorothy Eady was called Omm Sety, which translation means mother of Seti.
For years, Dorothy tried very hard to remember her past life, putting together a puzzle that was thousands of years old: The reincarnation of Bentreshyt. She discovered that in her past life, she was a young woman named Bentreshyt, who was raised at the Temple of Seti in Abydos from the age of three. She reported having numerous visitations of a spirit called Hor-Ra, who helped her decipher the secrets of her past life.
mummy of Seti I
Head of the mummy of Seti I. Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
She was left at the temple by her father, a soldier who could not take care of the child after her mother, a modest fruit seller, died. During her life at the temple of Abydos where she became a priestess and ‘consecrated virgin’ eventually, she met the living God-Pharaoh Seti I, and the two eventually fell in love. As the Pharaoh’s lover, young Bentreshyt ended up pregnant but unfortunately, the fate of such a relationship did not have a happy ending.
Over the year, Dorothy helped archaeologists with their research, proving that somehow, her fascinating story was real. Dorothy moved to Abydos in 1956, where she was known as Omm Sety, and it was there where she faced numerous challenges that tested her stories and knowledge.
To verify the facts that Dorothy did live thousands of years ago in Egypt, the chief inspector from the Antiquities Department, Temple of Seti decided to test her ability and knowledge.
She was asked to stand near a particular wall painting in nearly complete darkness. There, the chief of the antiquities department told her to identify them according to the memories of her past life. The answers were fascinating.
Interestingly, the paintings and markings Dorothy identified had never been seen by anyone in the world. They have not been published anywhere in Egypt, so no one could have seen them. But not only did she know all of the answers, she told the chief of the Antiquities Department of things that they had not even discovered yet.
Her story became more famous, and she helped with excavations and research in ancient Egypt. She translated extremely difficult pieces of art that even the greatest archaeologists could not. Her knowledge of the ancient Egyptian language helped archaeologists who were excavating at Abydos.
At one point, she reportedly said she knew where the tomb of Nefertiti was located based on a conversation in another life with a pharaoh, according to a biography titled “Omm Sety’s Egypt.”
“I did once ask His Majesty where it was, and he told me. He said, `Why do you want to know’? I said I would like to have it excavated, and he said, `No, you must not. We don’t want anything more of this family known`. But he did tell me where it was, and I can tell you this much. It’s in the Valley of the Kings, and it’s quite near to the Tutankhamun tomb. But it’s in a place where nobody would ever think of looking for it,” she laughed. “And apparently it is still intact,” Dorothy said.
On one occasion, Dorothy said that in her past life, when she was Bentreshyt, the Temple of Seti was surrounded by trees and had a beautiful garden. At that time, gardens were nowhere to be seen. But then, one day, archaeologists excavated something unprecedented, a garden. But this wasn’t an ordinary garden somewhere in Abydos. The garden was placed in the same location, right there where Dorothy said the garden would be.
Yet her contributions to Egyptology were undeniable. She had a seemingly preternatural understanding of hieroglyphics and was highly knowledgeable about the local ruins. In 1981, the year she died, she was even featured in a National Geographic documentary entitled Egypt: Quest for Eternity — a fitting name for someone claiming reincarnation. Her remains laid to rest near a Coptic cemetery in Abydos. Locals remembered her as a passionate lady with a never-before-seen knowledge of Abydos, ancient Egypt, and the ancient Egyptian language. Whether skeptics believed in her or not is another story, the locals surely did.
References:
Mysterious Reincarnation of Omm Seti: British Woman Who Proved To Have L…
Vicky Verma
Dorothy Louise Eady is well known to those who are fond of the history of Ancient Egypt. This 20th century Egypt…