The ancient Egyptians had no word for death. “Westing” is the closest word to death they had. It relates to the setting of the Sun disk in the west. It invokes the cyclic imagery that appears so common in ancient cosmology.
This terminology reveals how powerful words can be. In modern cultures, the word death invokes a sense of fear as it carries a sense of an end to life. Westing reflects a sense that what is now setting will rise again later. I believe Tolkien had some very clear ideas about how language and its usage affects our “world view.”
I learned of this Egyptian term while watching an interesting series called “The Pyramid Code.” A basic premise of this series is that our own world views are stumbling blocks to our understanding of these ancient people, and how they constructed the pyramids. It is suggested that one of our greatest stumbling blocks is in thinking that we are the most advanced generation of humankind.
The Mayan calendar is discussed as an ancient work that supports this theory. It isn’t just that the calendar is technically sophisticated, but also that it indicates the golden age of humankind was actually thousands of years ago. We supposedly entered a dark age some time ago. The recently sensationalized “Mayan doomsday” of 21 December 2012 is actually supposed to be the bottom of the dark cycle.
There does appear to be merit to this theory. We (humankind) have managed to dissect the physical world to gain the knowledge to make the most wonderful gadgets. There is little evidence that modern people have any insight into life or the nature of their existence, though. Coincidentally, a hallmark of the current age may be the destruction of ancient writings because it threatened particular ideologies.