Legend: Beetles/ Scarabs

Please see the Introduction To Rabbit Hole Legend A-Z post for information about sources and purpose.

Beetle (Scarab): This reference is fairly logical to the Beatles, sharing a homonym'd name. Also there is strong association with the scarab beetle, specifically with Beatle Paul taking on a new band, Wings...a Beatle with Wings= Scarab. 

On the back cover of Paul McCartney's
 Ram album

 "The dung or scarab beetle symbolized new life and resurrection. It was called the dung beetle because of its practice of rolling a ball of dung in which it has laid its eggs. This was thought to symbolize the journey of the sun making its way through the sky. The beetles emerging from the mud were associated with life emerging from the primeval mound, and symbolized spontaneous creation." (CESS)

"The Egyptians made a distinction between the “old” scarab, who sinks into the ground, and the “young” scarab, who rises up to the sky with, or rather as, the sun. Osiris, king/god of the dead, was identified to the “old” scarab. His son Horus, the falcon god, was identified primarily with the midday sun, whereas Khepri remained associated with the morning sun. However, according to a Pyramid Text inscribed on the inside walls of the royal pyramids in the 5th and 6th dynasties (ca. 2465-2150 B.C.), the two animals were sometimes combined to produce the surprising hybrid of a scarab body, with falcon wings, legs, and tail:

I fly up as a bird and alight as a beetle on the empty throne which is on your bark, O Re!

From this time on, the scarab became the most powerful symbol of the victory life wins over death. The “Funeral Books” of the New Kingdom consecrates this role. An excerpt of the most important of them, the “Book of What is in the Underworld”, or Amduat, is painted on the wall of Tutankhamun’s tomb, behind the pharaoh’s head (above right). It shows the ark of the sun sailing on nocturnal waters. The sun is represented as a beetle, a promise of his next morning rebirth, as well as of the young pharaoh’s resurrection.[...]

[Also-] Ptah was a god of Memphis, the old capital where the pharaohs were crowned. He was originally a god of the earth: ta was the Egyptian word for “earth.” Ptah was also a divine craftsman. These two characters enabled him to be attributed with the modeling of man and woman from clay, as the scarab was a modeler of dung. The scarab hieroglyph, in addition to kheper and neter, could also be read ta “earth” or “Ptah.” In the Egyptian late period, Ptah was often represented as the older Khepri, wearing on his head the scarab who wrote his name. Hence, the scarab was another representation of Ptah, as was Ptah confused with Osiris- god of the dead during that epoch.


In the same late period, the capital was again settled at Memphis and Ptah regained his ancient preeminence over Amun from Thebes.The goddess of Sais (a city close to Memphis), named Neith, was a very old, half-forgotten deity, who also regained importance and was associated with Ptah. In earliest Egyptian period, her symbolic animal was a beetle, probably the Elaterid, Lanelater notodonta. Afterward, this particular beetle was forgotten and confused with the scarab, who was considered male. Therefore, the beetle was no longer an appropriate symbol for a goddess, and was replaced by the vulture, since, for obscure reasons, vultures were all reputed to be female.

[Also]- In Germany, where scarab worship, in the form of the stag beetle, has persisted longest, the equation scarab = Christ was widely accepted. The quintessential German artist, Albrecht Dürer, associated the stag beetle with Christ in various paintings, and produced a famous watercolor of the insect. "<Follow this link to the source and continue reading this really informative article>

"Initiates of the Egyptian Mysteries were sometimes called scarabs. The scarab was the emissary of the sun, symbolizing light, truth, and regeneration." <Another excellent source link to follow>

"Many people ask what are Beatles? Why Beatles? Ugh, Beatles, how did the name arrive? So we will tell you. It came in a vision--a man appeared in a flaming pie and said unto them "From this day on you are Beatles with an A." "Thank you, Mister Man," they said, thanking him."

-John Lennon