The central theme of the Book of the Dead is that of the death and dismemberment as with Osiris who must be reassembled before he can resurrect; he must be put together again so as to be able to rise from the underworld. Aker is the agent in re-collecting the bones and members of the god. This emphasizes the realms of the underworld in its reconnective and regenerative aspects. The way to light is often through darkness. "No creature", writes Ananda Coomaraswamy, "can attain a higher grade of nature without ceasing to exist", Indeed the physical body of the hero may be actually slain, dismembered, and scattered over land and sea as in the Egyptian saviour Osiris. In the words of the Sufis - nothing can be sole or whole that has not been rent. In medieval alchemy it is the dissolution of form that is essential before transformation can take place. Marie-Louise von Franz describes Aker as the whole underworld, the space in the underworld, the place and situation of death and resurrection. He is not only the door to the Beyond but the deepest point of the underworld itself- the enantiodromia when the sun begins to ascend. The nadir is the point in mythic cycle of the supreme ordeal. In the 'Book of what is in the Duat' the underworld is depicted as the 'Twelve Hours' -the nadir of the sun-god is represented as the 'Fifth Hour'. The 'Twelve Hours' can be considered as a symbolic tableau or rite of passage that describes the journey of the solar barque of the sun-god through the realm of the underworld. The deities and symbols are the images that regenerate, instruct: tests that confront the hero (sun-god) as he descends and returns -a spiritual process of awakening and resurrection. In reference to the earliest of the New Kingdom funerary texts 'The Book of what is in the Duat', John Anthony West comments, " These compositions could be better understood as manuals of spiritual instruction. They instruct the disembodied spirit, they detail in elaborate symbolic form the steps that must be taken to ensure life in eternity". The 'Fifth Hour'  illustrates the Aker figure as two bearded heads supporting the form of Sokar within an egg/ellipse. Sokar is 'Lord of the mysterious realms', the cry of Sokar translates as 'come to me quickly'. Sokar can be as an aspect that opens up and lays bare ready for new life and growth. This 'Hour' is the time of quickening when the solar principle bursts from it's egg with the potential of rejoining the solar source. " The will to die for the light takes in the man' s imagination the form of the Lord of Transformation. In Egyptian myth, the Lord of Transformation was one of the titles of the mummified falcon god Sokar , a god symbolically evoking death for resurrection." (4) In the ubiquitous nature of myth it seems we can access any point within the pattern to connect to our intrinsic experience to reveal the inner meaning and movement of our lives. In personal experience in the depths of our darkness and despair, as we journey through the dark nights when seemingly we are abandoned by spirit, the soul is ajar and the 'roar' tears through the fabric of existence - it is often he case when the inner light shines clearly. Paradoxically within the deepest darkness the spirit is able to penetrate and illumine us in a way that can effect true healing and transformation. Through inner turmoil and crisis there is a tendency to 'ascend too early', to react from rather than experience through. If we can 'wait upon the inner' with a readiness to receive we can open to the change deep within ourselves and our lives. The composite image of Aker encompasses the concepts of balance, symmetry, twinness and mirroring. As with physical twins it is difficult to discriminate which is which. The ability to discern and choose is temporarily suspended -we are in a moment when we have no conclusions about this or that -we are ambivalent. On the inner level it is a time when conflict abates, a moment of pre-conscious balance- a period just before dawn. (The Aker symbol can be seen as either dawn or sunset, a twilight zone between day and night -we don't know which?) It is interesting and useful to visualize ourselves as the sun journeying through the underworld and rising up between the great backs of Aker lions. In life experience it is the moment when the 'inner doors' open to allow the inner-self to emerge and carry us once more into life renewed and invigorated. To conclude; it is through the past and the future that we connect with eternity -the present moment, it is with the lineage of spirit we work -the work of evolution.