Using Astronomy as the template for these hierographs, the
30-square Senet format follows the classic 36-decan zodiac, such as depicted in extant ancient stone or wood artifacts and complementary overlays (e.g., Dendera, Mehen, Hesy-Re, Aztec, cosmetic palettes) of such astonishing accuracy they might've been "laboratory grown" or produced in some other interactive preternatural way. Thus the Senet squares step through the corresponding ensigns of life, death & rebirth:----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |+ D -|- F#/Gb +|+ A#/Bb -|- D#/Eb +|+ G -|- B +|+ E -|- G#/Ab +|+ C -|- F +| | GEM | Lib | Aqu | CAN | Sco | Pis | LEO | Sag | Ari | VIR | | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | | Ora | Cya | ViM | OrY | Blu | Mag | Yel | BlV | Red | Gre | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |+ C -|- G#/Ab +|+ D#/Eb -|- B +|+ G -|- D +|+ A#/Bb -|- F#/Gb +|+ C#/Db -|- A +| | Ari | SAG | Can | Pis | SCO | Gem | Aqu | LIB | Tau | Cap | | 20 | 19 | 18 | 17 | 16 | 15 | 14 | 13 | 12 | 11 | | Red | BlV | OrY | Mag | Blu | Ora | ViM | Cya | ReO | Vio | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |+ E -|- E +|+ E -|- A +|+ C#/Db -|- F +|+ A#/Bb -|+ F#/Gb -|+ D#/Eb -|+ C -| | Leo | Leo | Leo | CAP | Tau | Vir | AQU | Lib | Can | ARI | | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | | Yel | Yel | Yel | Vio | ReO | Gre | ViM | Cya | OrY | Red | -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The 10 playing pieces are as the 5 double-lettered planets in sidereal order, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, & Saturn, which in musical tones are B, C, E, F, and G, respectively. A 14-piece game would add A for the Moon and D for the Sun, but playing Senet is challenging enough with 5 pieces each.
These twain quintets are as evening-morning, night and day, descending and ascending, shrinking and growing, etc. Thus the objects are depicted as short and tall, dark and light, or even as similar pieces placed on the board leaning back as Titans and forward as Olympians--all casting shadows in the sunlight. Handy chessboard pawns are often substituted, as are automatic dice rollers to make games easier to play.
Gemini, Theta, are twins, thus Thoth has two Thetas in his mercurial appellation with Omikron, Capricorn, creation of the world, mirroring them as one. He is the first piece to get on the board, but only if playing by chess-style rules where the light-colored pieces get first move. If so, then players are not required to select colors before game play.
The board is divided as life and death on the Scorpio cusp, hence "passing" from one incarnation to the next being the general principle, helping others and trading places along the way, even as whole galaxies are self-balancing systems. The book of Genesis begins with six "evenings-mornings" of creation with heavenly lights, signs, seasons, days, years, up to the seventh day for the stillness of gravity in time.
Moving in turn by lot lands each player's pieces along the
10-degree arcs of the zodiac circle, from square 1 through square 21, where the third decan of Sagittarius Leo adds 2 additional Leo squares, 22 and 23, finding the first decan of Capricorn on square 24, cardinal earth, followed by its fixed and mutable components, Taurus and Virgo, on squares 25 and 26 respectively. Square 27, first decan of Aquarius, fixed air, aetheric midheaven, crown chakra, unconditional, defenseless, sting in the arc of the scorpion "water trap".Second decan Gemini connects with cardinal air Libra third decan square 28, Pisces second decan cardinal water Cancer square 29, until Aries first decan cardinal fire square 30, arid step for moving pieces off the board into the sunrise.
So the reddish-yellow "phoenix" was conceived to germinate into embryo then develop through fetus to birth in reddish- orange Taurus first decan and grow into a prodigious child, from womb to cradle, to crawl, then walk, talk, play games:
----------------------------------------------------------------- C -|- E +|+ G#/Ab -|- C#/Db +|+ F -|- A +|+ D ARI | Leo | Sag | TAU | Vir | Cap | GEM 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36(1) Red | Yel | BlV | ReO | Gre | Vio | Ora -----------------------------------------------------------------