Heresy is a taboo that is almost always punished with the greatest severity. Pharoah Amenhotep IV was a worshiper of the sun disc, Aten. Although the historic record is limited, we know he was a cultist. The Pharoah renamed himself calling himself by the name of his god. Amenhotep became Akhenaten. The name means “effective for the Aten”. As Pharoah this was not about private belief. He sought to change Egypt to this new culture. Akhenaten was a heretic.
His punishment was delayed but it came nonethless. Akhenaten was almost obliterated from the historical record not because he believed in a new god but because he elevated one god above all others. He sought to remake Egyptian culture. He was disowned by his descendants and reviled by subsequent Pharoahs who were not of his line.
Although we don’t have a definitive record the founding of Akhenaten’s new capital, Amarna, can correspond to the Gregorian calendar on April 21, 1346 BC. Boundary stele K describes the ceremony of the founding. The Pharoah came to the site and presided over a major sacrifice with his wife and daughter. It also says the Aten shined upon him and rejuvenated his body. High noon was selected to time date the ceremony.
The Sun Disc
The Aries Sun is the main character of the horoscope. Akhenaten is the Sun. It is at 29° Aries and, at this moment, he hears the musica universalis. This is the moment Aries becomes aware of everything outside the self. It is a Piscean moment. Akhenaten is under the influence of the 29° Leo Neptune. There is a trine between the Sun and Neptune. Neptune is on the Sabian symbol “a mermaid emerging from the ocean waves ready for rebirth in human form.” This symbol is a picture of the beginning of incarnation associated with Aries. Sue Tompkins says trines are about motivations. Neptune is in the 2nd house. The mermaid finds herself on dry land. This would be a disorienting experience for a mermaid and the earth would be stable, and solid. The grounding doesn’t generate good feelings initially. After awhile the shock fades and reality becomes more comfortable. This sensory effect is a very real phase after a Neptunian experience. In my own cult awakening, there was a short period where I decided I would never worship anything unreal again. I said I had decided to worship the sun because it was real. Of course, this idea was without any seriousness. Akhenaten chose not to worship Ra, the sun god, but the sun disc itself.
Akhenaten may have been lost in his fantasy or he could have been awake and deliberately remaking the Egyptian culture. The fog of Neptunian delusion literally closes you in. Small glimpses of reality creep in but before you can grasp the meaning you lose the connection to reality. This cultic mindset could prompt the forceful effort to change Egypt’s culture. If Akhenaten was awake, a possibility since Neptune is retrograde, he may have decided to use belief and culture to remake Egypt away from the falsehood he saw around him. He managed to become a heretic not because he worshiped a new god, the Aten was not new, but because he wanted all of Egypt to worship one god, a sun disc they could see with their own eyes each day.