Figure 5 ~ Celestial Goddess of the Sky

We now come to the other half of the Egyptian universe. It is not portioned off as are the figures on the top half, but seen to be all of a piece.  Joseph did number them individually, so let's talk about them that way and then try to put it all together.

The central figure is the representation of a cow.  Joseph numbered this as figure 5.  Here is what I have studied about the goddess represented as a cow.  She was called Hathor meaning "mansion of Horus".  Her name in Greek was Aphrodite.  She was later worshipped by the Romans as Venus. 

In Egypt, she is the goddess who personified the principles of joy, feminine love, and motherhood. She was one of the most important and popular deities throughout the history of Ancient Egypt. Hathor was worshiped by royalty and common people alike in whose tombs she is depicted as "Mistress of the West" welcoming the dead into the next life. In other roles she was a goddess of music, dance, foreign lands and fertility and the one who helped women in childbirth.[1]

Hathor

According to Wikipedia, the Ancient Egyptians viewed reality as multi-layered in which deities who merge for various reasons, while retaining divergent attributes and myths, were not seen as contradictory but complementary. I have noted just such things as I have touched just the tip of the ice burg in Egyptian mythology.  Egypt was the most stable of the ancient kingdoms and as such, had a certain stability lacking in nearby Mesopotamia; that allowed their beliefs a metamorphose that altered circumstances while retaining the flavor of original belief.  Hathor is a perfect example.  She is sometimes credited as being the mother of Horus, although in most instances, Isis is named as Horus' mother.  The righteous who died, male and female, became Osiris.  By Roman times, righteous women who died became identified with Hathor, which points out her importance in the Egyptian pantheon of gods.  As you can see from the sun disk crown between two horns, Hathor was also associated with the sun and was the celestial goddess of the sky [2]

According to Egyptologist, Figure 5 contains a cow, representing Hathor, who was the goddess of the sky, home. Behind is a standing female figure with the wedjit eye (great knowledge and wisdom) depicted on her head and holding out a papyrus stem in her left hand. I wonder if this may have indicated writing or an important message.
 
Joseph Smith's interpretation becomes a little difficult to understand because of the planetary names that can twist the tongue.  If I eliminate those names (although I am sure they are important and I wish I understood them) the passage reads more clearly and doesn't appear to be so foreign: " . . .  this is one of the governing planets also, and is said by the Egyptians to be the Sun, and to borrow its light from Kolob through the medium of . . .the grand Key, or, in other words, the governing power, which governs fifteen other fixed planets or stars, as also . . . the Moon, the Earth and the Sun in their annual revolutions. This planet receives its power . . . [and] light from the revolutions of Kolob."

It doesn't sound so off-base now, does it?  Remember that the Hathor goddess is associated with the Sun.  The wedjit eye on the other figure's head is the right eye of Horus or Ra (who is the sun god) as the right eye, which means it represents the sun or that which is celestial.  Ra is known to ride the sky from horizon to horizon through the revolutions of the moon, earth, and sun.

The importance of marriage, family, and child-bearing in ancient Egypt brings to my mind words from The Family: A Proclamation to the World:

We, the First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, solemnly proclaim that marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and that the family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children.

All human beings—male and female—are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny. Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose.

In the premortal realm, spirit sons and daughters knew and worshipped God as their Eternal Father and accepted His plan by which His children could obtain a physical body and gain earthly experience to progress toward perfection and ultimately realize their divine destiny as heirs of eternal life. The divine plan of happiness enables family relationships to be perpetuated beyond the grave. Sacred ordinances and covenants available in holy temples make it possible for individuals to return to the presence of God and for families to be united eternally.

The first commandment that God gave to Adam and Eve pertained to their potential for parenthood as husband and wife. We declare that God’s commandment for His children to multiply and replenish the earth remains in force. We further declare that God has commanded that the sacred powers of procreation are to be employed only between man and woman, lawfully wedded as husband and wife.

We declare the means by which mortal life is created to be divinely appointed. We affirm the sanctity of life and of its importance in God’s eternal plan.[3]

We all began our lives in a premortal location, probably close to Kolob.  Our gender was part of our identity.  We are commanded to multiply and replenish the earth and we have solemn responsibility to the children we co-create with God through that means that was divinely created and upheld by God.  The Egyptians understood the importance of increase, not only among themselves, but also growth, reproduction, and fertility in their animals and crops as well.  By dissecting this aspect of God and giving it its own goddess, they pushed the idea from fertility of parenthood to fertility outside lawful bounds.  While God has appointed the method of human procreation, He has very strict guidelines as to when, how, and between whom, this act is sanctioned by him; i.e., between a man and a woman legally and lawfully married.  Period.  To do it any other way is a mockery.  The Children of Israel learned this lesson painfully when they created a golden calf (probably representing Hathor) in the wilderness and began to perform immoral sexual acts before it.

We receive our power and light from our Heavenly Father, God of the Universe.  Our goal is to live our lives in such a righteous way that we can return to him in a celestial kingdom where we can, ultimately, become as God.  Just as the heavens are organized and controlled by God's power, so should we bring our lives in harmony with God's will.  The Egyptians got the basic idea, but got lost in the details and the desires of the flesh.  But Joseph isn't wrong when he associates this figure with celestial power that keeps all nature in its orbit.

[1] Wikipedia/Hathor
[2] Wikipedia/Joseph Smith Hypocephalus
[3]The Family: A Proclamation to the World. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints