"The Praying Mantis God Of Ancient Egypt" Documentary Redux 2025

The Praying Mantis God Of Ancient Egypt in pharaonic headgear and beard

A 5 years old documentary resurfaces

I produced this documentary in 2020 amidst lockdowns and the devastation that surrounded it, including the end of a long career in the fitness industry[1].  (If you want to skip this post and get straight to the film, it is at the bottom of this post).

Very rare praying mantis hieroglyph found as part of a text (discussed in the documentary) in the tomb of King Seti I in the Valley Of The Kings

The film features bona fide historical data telling us of Abyt’s existence in antiquity with strange sequences that weave throughout that are influenced by the ritual theatre of Antonin Artaud[2], the Athletic Model Guild aesthetic of Bob Mizer and his Physique Pictorial Magazine, as well as old horror films that use mummy ideas and Ancient Egyptian imagery.

One of the sequences filmed for the documentary

Abyt appears in the ancient texts as a psychopomp, and I think His version of psychopompery takes a different turn from that of psychopomp par excellence Anpu (Anubis). As Dr. Siuda mentions in this recent post, apart from being mentioned minimally in the historic texts, images of Him are scarcer. Was it forbidden to represent or mention Him?

The mantis coffin and mantis mummy[3] that inspired my whole Abyt adventure suggests that He was not only regarded as a deity but that He was known - forbidden or not - to the general population of Ancient Egypt.

This sequence of images on a loop was made as part of the background imagery of the performance sequences in the film; it features an image of the mantid coffin and mummy as found by Egyptologist Bernard Bruyere

The gods may not behave as our human minds would prefer. Whilst I personally believe that Abyt’s principal theophany is the praying mantis, I have also experienced Him as a wingless fly (it’s in the doco), dragonflies, a strange antlion type of lacewing insect, and ducks.

This lacewing creature made home for a while on my drying Speedo in summer of February 2024, obviously attracted to bright colours as am I

It may be that Abyt appears only when the machine of evolution of our species dictates, and that could be when our planet is stressed, or when forces in our world bring us to the brink of the next stage of our humanity.

As I completed my last painting Study For The King’s House which features a Devil’s Flower Mantis[4], a report about ancient rock paintings in Iran was published about the discovery of depictions of mantis beings of this species in caves. I do not know why I chose that species of mantid for my painting but I knew it had to be in there.

It is no secret that mantis beings are cited as part of UFO lore, with witnesses stating that they have seen them in the context of UFO / UAP encounters. NYC artist David Huggins is well known for his depictions of mantid alien beings.

Film Festival Screenings and Awards

There was some interest for the film when it was released. All up, it was featured in 8 international film festivals. The first film festival to include it was the Anatolian Short Film Festival, followed by the After Hour Film Festival , the Madras Independent Film Festival where it received a special mention, and the Havelock International Film Festival where it won an award for Best Score.

It was also screened at the Golden Earth Film Award Festival (2020), The Cult Critic Movie Awards (2021), the Imaginary Mind Film Contest (2021) and the Flixze Film Festival (2022).

The selection laurels and award

I did an official screening of the film at the closing night of my 2023 exhibition Adventures In Zoomorphic Idolatry.

Closing night screening of the film at my 2023 exhibition Adventures In Zoomorphic Idolatry

Translation and transliteration of the Ancient Egyptian texts for the film were kindly provided by Ptahmassu Nofra-Uaa

http://www.iconsofkmt.com/

Music for the film Mantis Religiosa was created by GB Marian and won an award (see above)

http://desertofset.com/

Editing and mixing was by Spacetone

www.spacetone.com.au

Elwood Beach pier scene filmed by Kentoonist

https://www.instagram.com/kentoonist1/

Other links of interest

Meretseger Books – Egyptology and antique bookseller

Dr. Tamara Siuda Patreon

Infinity Land Press – Artaud books publishing

[1] I had reached some heights in my career as a fitness professional which also encompassed my bodybuilding and Mr. Fitness Australia period - a doco about this period of my life will be coming out soon.

[2] I am a trained actor and Artaud has been a fascination of mine ever since; I am delighted that Infinity Land Press have recently published new translations of Artaud works as well as previously unpublished ones that I intend adding to my collection

[3] See my painting 2020 Vision for a render of this artefact, an image of which was kindly supplied to me by the wonderful Francois Olivier from Meretseger Books in Dubai; it is well for us to keep in mind that despite the prevalence of iconography of the god Khepera, we only recently have discovered artefacts of mummified scarabs, and the same can be said for mummified lions

[4] Idolamantis Diabolica: this painting I feel is one of the best I have produced in some time; the three winged kau figures on the right are renders of my body taken from stills from the documentary we are discussing