Chapter 3 SUPERNATURAL EXPERIENCE

Sara had gotten up very early that morning. She wanted to take a walk in the fresh air, enjoy her solitude in the company of nature. Breathing freedom and mental health.

Near the park where she was going, there was a large group of people of different ages and they all followed a path of little flags. The route marked the destination to a nearby beach place for a collective meditation-

Sara decided to follow the route that day. With joy and some uncertainty, she managed to put herself in a good place. A being dressed in a blue robe made his appearance to her. Sara noticed his face, it was Roger. The musico-mathematician from the magazine! He was very excited, he fixed her eyes on her and felt that everything was spinning...

He was accompanied by a group of young musicians who played while he whispered the magnetic words or mantras. The whole group was in resonance repeating the vocal sounds. He kept looking at her deeply...

Sara heard a strange ringing in her ears. She saw some brilliant colors in the reflections of the sun, very golden, and she felt different. She felt that she was floating and one with nature.

She opened her eyes and she was alone... Everyone was gone and hours had passed on her watch. A few steps from her was that man. He didn't utter a word. In her mind she captured a message of love. He was like someone from the past who had returned to her life again...

She came closer, took her face with both hands and kissed her. She only told him: - I do what you want

-You are the queen I was waiting for

"We are ONE," she replied.

She jerked and it had all been an illusion or something supernatural. There was no one in that place. She went back home and got ready for bed. Before she checked her messages on her cell phone and saw a conversation between her and that mysterious guy.

He was inviting her to dinner at an Indian vegetarian restaurant the next day. She had accepted! She blushed and looked at herself in the mirror... she wondered, what did she see me?

She suddenly heard some strange noises in her window, large grasshoppers trying to enter making a strange noise like when courting a female.

She shut everything down as best she could... A few had come in and they were harmless. That night she couldn't sleep at all. Maybe she was nervous or scared. She prepared herself for the evening with that stranger...

She arrived on time. He arrived a few minutes later. They spoke as if they had known each other for many years. They agreed on everything, they had similar tastes. They both knew math, music, geometry, and art in general.

He offered to take her in her car to her house-Before she stopped the vehicle and began to kiss her. He said to her, "Do you want to see my house?" "Yes," she replied with a shaky voice.

It was a huge house, with many Egyptian objects and candles. It had many rooms that had walls and ceilings decorated with very colorful paintings. It was walled and had bathrooms, gardens, and ponds with fish.

He began to explain to her --The pharaohs had dozens of wives and concubines. These lived together with other women of the royal family in the so-called Jeneret House, an exclusive institution of ancient Egypt that is far from the image that is usually associated with the so-called harems.

First of all, it should be said that not only the pharaoh's wives and concubines lived in the House of Jeneret, but also many of the women and girls who were related to the royal family: daughters, nieces and nephews, aunts, cousins, sisters, and even sometimes his own mother; as well as their male children, including the king's children regardless of whether they were from a Royal Wife or a concubine.

The Casa Jeneret could thus be defined as a true micro-palace for women and was undoubtedly the most important and powerful women's institution in the country. A big difference with the harem is that it was not a place of confinement, but of residence: its inhabitants could leave -although with an escort- and receive visits from abroad, and it was not forbidden to other people than the pharaoh; in fact, it could happen that the king's high dignitaries married women who lived in the Jeneret House, thus becoming related to him and reinforcing the ties of loyalty.

The operation of this institution was autonomous, with its own officials and productive and educational structures: it had land for cultivation, fishing and hunting, workshops for the manufacture of luxury goods and a school where the children of the elite were trained. For an Egyptian child, this was surely the perfect place to grow up, sheltered from the dangers of the outside and with the best opportunities for training, since the children of the pharaoh were educated there.

Although the Pharaoh's wives also lived in the Jeneret House, many did not even get to know him: marriage was a bureaucratic process that could be closed even without the presence of the spouses, so a link for political purposes did not imply that the spouses should meet much less intimate. The king's women could have two titles: Great Royal Wife or simply Royal Wife. Only the first exercised functions proper to a queen, they lived in the Pharaoh's palace and their children were the first in the line of succession; For this reason, they used to be only one -generally a sister or cousin of the pharaoh himself, since legitimacy was transmitted through the matrilineal line- or at most two at the same time.

In the Jeneret House lived the other Royal Wives -also called secondary- with their children. These could be the result of political alliances or concubines for which the pharaoh felt a special predilection to the point of elevating them to the dignity of wives. If they gave her offspring, her children could also aspire to the throne, which could give rise to conspiracies to place her offspring in the line of succession, since the most important position to which a woman could aspire who was not Great Royal Wife It was the Mother of the King.

It must be considered that a common way to seal alliances with foreign kings was to send one of the monarch's daughters to live in Egypt and contract a symbolic marriage with the pharaoh, which did not require a conjugal life. These women were often one of several Royal Wives, and Jeneret House provided a comfortable place to make the fate of being a chip on the diplomatic board less sad.

The reverse could also happen, that is, that the relatives of the pharaoh married a high dignitary or a foreign monarch as a way of guaranteeing their fidelity. The degree of kinship indicated the importance given to the alliance, which was not always perceived in the same way by all stakeholders, as reflected in some New Kingdom diplomatic letters. In them a foreign king asked Pharaoh to send him one of his daughters to marry, but he did not consider it important enough and responded with a refusal. Then the former, who was clearly more interested in this alliance than his Egyptian counterpart, wrote to him again asking him to send any woman from House Jeneret to him because, after all, he was the king and no one would have the audacity to tell him that this was not Pharaoh's daughter.

In addition to wives, there were also numerous women who had no formal link to the king. Among them, two groups stand out: on the one hand, the wet nurses, in charge of taking care of the sons and daughters; and on the other, the "beloved of the king", which are the ones that best fit the concept of concubines. However, they were not necessarily lovers, but could have other functions such as entertaining the pharaoh by playing instruments during banquets.

-But what was life like for the women in Jeneret House? -- she asked

-Many of them had an occupation in the workshops of the complex, generally dedicated to the production of royal linen -the most exclusive in the country, which could only be purchased by high priestesses or ladies of the nobility-, cosmetics or luxury items. . They also received specialized lessons, mainly music and dance for the rites (in fact the name Per Jeneret could be translated as "house of music") but also any subject for which they felt a preference, since they had a legion of specialized teachers. .

Since they could dispose of their own assets, many spent their time managing their land and businesses, such as producing wine, beer or barley, raising cattle or trading. There is also evidence of several Great Royal Wives who resided for some periods in the House of Jeneret and from there they became actively involved in the politics of the kingdom, especially in matters of foreign diplomacy; but secondary wives, on the contrary, had no political role. Since the complex had extensive grounds, they could engage in physical activity and swimming; the less active could entertain themselves with hobbies such as senet, a popular board game.

The boys and girls were surely the ones who most enjoyed life in that feminine micro-kingdom, although they were not idle either since they had to attend to their education. Pharaoh's sons also received military, religious or administrative instruction, since if they did not succeed their father they could end up holding positions in the army, clergy or court. Education in the House of Jeneret was of the highest level, which is why the princes of allied or subjugated countries were also educated there: this had the double function of having valuable hostages and cultivating loyalty and, if possible, appreciation for Egypt.

From a current perspective, the Jeneret House could be considered a golden cage, despite the relative freedom enjoyed by its inhabitants. However, in the context of ancient Egypt it was a privileged place: not only guaranteed