Today, we do not use our ancient cosmic orientation to relate to the natural world as we once did. It's no longer determined by where we are or what time it is by the Sun's daily motion across the sky. Our perception of the outside world has changed, and we have lost our sense of wholeness within a great system. Factors such as our work and play rhythms, clothing, diet, and travel are affected by climatic and seasonal factors. These factors affect our unconscious sense of timing and our ability to communicate with nature, which we often overlook.
Often we marvel at the apparent serenity and spiritual confidence of ancient people, forgetting that their tools were taught and used within an environment that encouraged them to recognize and embrace natural and divine forces. These tools enabled one to maintain a profound sense of cosmic orientation, keep it, and view one's role as actual spiritual work. In ancient Egypt, a man named Al was gifted with a sense of cosmic orientation.
As dams have been constructed in our era, the Nile no longer produces an annual flood, but understanding the rhythm of that event and others associated with it is essential to understanding Egyptian rituals and ceremonies. To restore cosmic orientation, we need to leave our temporal field of time and enter the visible universe of ancient Egypt, where cosmic rhythms sustained human life, nature, and even the gods.

For Egyptians, both secular and spiritual matters were governed by the concept of time. Even though the gods' realms (Neheh) were considered eternal, they were also continuous and manifested in cycles. According to cosmic life's ebbs and flows, gods appeared at different times but were lasting and constant. Through the medium of heavenly bodies, events take place in linear time (Djet) and according to the ebb and flow of cosmic life. The three dimensions of cosmic activity were thought to be formed by three distinct rhythms, the lunar, solar, and stellar.
The lunar rhythm is well known.
Esoteric traditions transmit the truth that all life is determined by nature's rhythms, seasons, and cycles. Two luminaries, the Moon and the Sun play a significant role in human life.
According to scholars, ancient Egypt's first invention for tracking time was a lunar calendar. Synodical periods are determined by the number of new moons in a month. The 29-day synodic period began with the first sliver of light from the crescent New Moon. There are two hemicycles in this period: 14 waxing days and 14 waning days of Lunar light. Each quarter has seven days. A lunar week and lunar month are based on these measures and have been used from ancient to modern times.
Lunar phenomena are deeply rooted in the symbolism of waxing and waning in the sky. In the exact location in the sky, the Sun and Moon are conjoined at the beginning of the Lunar cycle (the New Moon). In the numerous legends of the mating of gods, the ancients viewed it as the union of male (Solar) and female (Lunar) principles. This is memorialized in the Grand Festival held at the temples of Edfu and Dendera on the New Moon of the eleventh month of the Solar year, commemorating the union of Heru and Het-Her. The Solar disc (waxing and waning crescents) in the Moon's orb symbolizes this event in the goddess' Crown.