Sia, Su and Heka

In the creation myths three elements were viewed as being essential before creation could begin: Sia, Hu and Heka. These three were seen as Neteru and as spiritual attributes. The creator gods, the Kings and priesthood of Egypt were thought of as possessing these divine powers. The term Sia literally means “sign of recognition". It is the ability to perceive the true meaning behind things and events. Sia is innate knowledge, intuition, intelligence and the ability to identify things beyond oneself. It represents divine knowledge . Sia is the divine personification of the power of perception or understanding.

In all of the creation myths divinity becomes aware of itself and its condition through Sia. The Egyptians felt that the Pharaoh, and the priesthood acting in the place of the Pharaoh in ritual also had a measure of this perception. The awareness brought about through Sia formed an essential part of Ancient Egyptian magic and ritual.

Sia is frequently paired with Hu, the personification of authoritative speech. But Sia and Hu are not simply these powers in the abstract, but are in the first place the understanding and speech of Re as he gives form to the cosmos at the beginning of time and anew each and every day. In BD spell 17, it is said that Re cut his penis and Sia and Hu came into being from the drops of blood he shed. Sia and Hu are Re’s constant companions aboard the vessel in which he traverses the sky

Hu represents divine utterance. It is the ability to make manifest through the spoken word. As such Hu is thought or will made real through the voice. This term also carries with it the added meaning of "abundance" and "plenitude".

Hu was the creative will of the creator god, directed toward plenitude, that expressed itself in words. The use of the voice for creative and ritualistic purposes is a vital part of Ancient Egyptian religion and magic.

Hu also shows us that when one can verbalize a thought or idea expressing this through the use of symbols (as all language, written or spoken, is a set of symbols joined to express meaning) those thoughts now become real. By speaking (or writing) they are put into a form that can be communicated to others and thus worked upon. A special connection with vision is implied by the statement that images on the walls of Egyptian temples had been “beautifully executed in accordance with the glorious words of Sia,” which also indicates that the aesthetic canons of Egyptian art were understood to derive ultimately from Sia; sometimes the images themselves were characterized as “the words of Sia,”

In this way of thinking it is vital to verbalize thoughts and feelings in order to "get them out and make them real". Until this is done they have no form and, thus can not be worked with. This is the power of Hu, and it is for this reason that for the Egyptians Hu represented “authoritative utterance, i.e. command and creation by divine or royal decree” .

The third element essential to all of the creation myths is Heka. This is the term used for magic or divine energy. It is considered to be ‘life energy’ and the force of magic itself. In the Egyptian system the entire universe is believed to be filled with this energy, filled with the force that is vital to magic.

Heka is identified with the primordial speech of Atum when he was yet alone, at the very moment in which the differentiated cosmos begins to emerge, and as the ongoing protection of that which Atum has commanded. Heka is thus at once the means by which the cosmos comes forth as well as the means of its maintenance and preservation. Heka says, “I am ‘If-he-wishes-he-does’, the father of the Gods,” the effective will being essential to the nature of a God. Heka here identifies himself as “the son of Her who bore Atum,” thus placing himself prior even to the eldest among the Gods, “who was born without a mother.” This paradox, expresses that heka is essential to the nature of the Gods and is therefore in a sense prior to them,

The word heka contains as its principal component the word ka. The relationship between heka and ka is underscored in Heka’s styling himself “Greatest of the owners of ka‘s’, the heir of Atum,” Te word Ka which is frequently translated either as ‘spirit’ or as ‘double’, and the ka of an individual is sometimes depicted as their twin.

Ka is the force of vitality or of will in the individual, while heka is the instrumentalization of that force. Although ‘to go to one’s ka‘ means to die, one’s ka is what supports one all through life as well as beyond. Food-offerings for the dead were directed to their ka‘s, just as offerings to the Gods were directed to their ka‘s. Since the ka is the source of sustenance and vitality, heka is in some sense the primary activity, the mobilization of vital energy as a movement of will prior to all other modes of activity. One’s ka is both one’s innate nature, and also the best that one can be, and heka manifests the striving to actualize the potential of one’s ka. The ka can also be understood as one’s luck or fortune, and heka as the effort to affect this element of ‘destiny’ or to deploy it as an effective force in the moment, in the now.

The presence of this vital power in all of creation is reflected the consistent use of ritual magic in the temples, and as spellcraft on the part of the common people. So we that all three of these are vital to the creation of the universe in that the creator being becomes aware through Sia. The universe then comes into being through Hu - the will of the divine made manifest through the word. This spoken word then is filled with Heka, the divine life force.

We can see it in this way; the creator god has at his disposal three special powers that help him to plan and execute his work of creation: Sia, ‘percipience’ in planning the work; Hu, creative ‘utterance’; heka, the ‘magic’ that brings the world into being out of the creative word.