Shu, He who Rises Up

Shu and Tefnut were the first born from Ra-Atum. Shu is the Neter of air, more specifically his name means "void" and can be associated with expansion. Shu was depicted as a man wearing a headdress composed of ostrich feathers carrying a Was sceptre (representing power) and an Ankh (representing the breath of life). Alternatively, he wore a headdress of a single ostrich feather (like that of Ma´at) which represented the breath of life. Occasionally, he wore a sun disk on his head due to his connection with the sun god. His skin was often painted black, possibly to represent his connection with Nubia or to emphasise his role in the rebirth of the sun god.

Shu is commonly shown standing on the body of Geb with his arms raised to support Nut. When he is linked with his wife Tefnut, he often appears as a lion and the two were known as the "twin lion gods". Less often he is given the hind parts of a lion and the body and head of a man.

His name is also thought to be derived from the word for dryness "shu", the root of words such as "dry", "parched", "withered", "sunlight" and "empty". However, it is also proposed that his name means "He who Rises Up".

The Neter Shu is “nothing other then the breath of the creator god”. The breath is life itself. Shu was one of the Ennead of Heliopolis, and the first to be created by the self created god Atum who created him from his own spittle. To spit and to breath are signs of life. Shu was seen as a god of life "opening the portails of the womb" at birth, and as a creator of life "He who brings to life he who is in the egg".

Shu was the husband and brother of Tefnut(moisture), and father of the Nut (sky) and Geb (earth). It was thought that his children were infatuated with each other, and remained locked in a perpetual embrace. Shu intervened and held Nut (the sky) above him separating her from his son Geb (the earth). Thus Shu created the atmosphere which allowed life to flourish. Four pillars located at the cardinal points of the world helped Shu maintain the separation of earth and sky, and were known as the "Pillars of Shu".

We see Shu as the life force of the creator. Shu is both light and air, and as the offspring of God Atum he is manifest life. As light he separates the earth from the sky and as air he upholds the sky vault.

As the god of light Shu represented illuminated the primordial darkness and marked the separation between day and night and between the world of the living and the world of the dead. As the god of air, he represented the space between the earth and the heavens, and gave the breath of life to all living creatures. As a god of the wind, sailors invoked him to provide the good wind to power their boats. The clouds were considered to be his bones, and he supported the ladder by which the deceased souls could reach the heavens.

Shu, who had originally been the air and the separator of earth and sky, became "the Eternal One" - Life itself and the mediator between the One, the High God, and the multiplicity of subsequent creatures. He attended the judgement of each dead soul in the Halls of Ma´at (order or justice) and lead the terrifying demons who punished the souls deemed to be corrupt. In the Underworld, Shu is dangerous, leading a band of torturers and executioners, whose slaughtering-block represents a great peril for the deceased. On the other hand, he is also a protection against the snake-god Apophis, and Shu’s spells can ward off the poisons of Apophis.

The origin of the created world in a process of diversification, of the separation of elements that were previously united, dominates Egyptian ideas of creation. Earth and sky, which were originally united, are separated by Shu; light comes forth from darkness; land emerges from the primeval water; the creator god "divided (wpj) the nature of the one from that of theother", thus endowing every being with its unmistakable individuality.