The Children of Atum

In the Heliopolis tradition Shu and Tefnut mate, producing Geb and Nut. Geb represents physical reality, the earth and the material world. Nut is the sky-goddess whose body is seen as the starry heavens. Nut is the barrier that separates Nun from the manifest universe. She is depicted throughout Egyptian history as either a cow with gold stars on her belly or a beautiful naked woman stretched out over the night sky.

One of the symbolic images recurrent in Egyptian religion is that of the sun god being swallowed each evening by Nut, only to be rejuvenated and made young in her womb, in order that he may be born each morning.

The creation myth continues by explaining that Nut and Geb were deeply in love. So
much so that they remained locked in sexual embrace for ages. As a result there was no space for anything else to live or grow. Ra-Atum ordered Shu, the Neter of air and "void", to separate the two lovers. With Geb under his feet Shu lifted Nut’s arching body high into the sky

Nut was pregnant, Ra-Atum declared that Nut may not give birth on any of the 360 days in the (civil calendar) year. In the meantime Djehuty (Thoth in Greek), the Neter of wisdom and writing, had been observing the situation. He took pity on Nut. So by gambling with the moon he won five extra days in the year, which became the five independent days that occur annually between the previous year’s civil calendar and the newer civil calendar.

On each of these five days Nut gave birth to a different child. The brief involvement of Djehuty (Thoth) at this point in the myth may seem odd, however, in reality it is a significant clue to understanding the spiritual nature of the Neteru who were born to Nut. For it is important to understand that Djehuty is a Lunar God.

This part of the myth is clearly a reference to the difference between the civil calendar that is concerned more with mundane affairs and the lunar calendar that is set aside for the timing of religious festivals. Ra-Atum’s refusal to allow the birth of the gods during the civil calendar attests to their spiritual nature. For only with the lunar/religious calendar can they come into being. With this event Ausir (Osiris), Heru-Ur (Horus the Elder), Sutekh (Seth), Aset (Isis), and Nebet-Het (Nephthys) were born.

In this myth the forces that brought the universe into manifestation are represented by the Neteru embodied as the Nun, Ra-Atum, Iusaas-Nebet-Hetepet, Hathor Shu and Tefnut

From there a transition occurs in which Nut and Geb act as the channel through which the divine becomes manifest in the material world. Their children are the quintessence of the cycles of life, death and rebirth in the universe following the original act of Atum’s "becoming".

An other myth tell us also about Ra journey across Nut’s back. Ra is the Sun God, and his journey across Nut’s back is the path taken by the sun across the sky. The Sun represented light and dark, hot and cold, life and death, and defined the cardinal points of the compass – North, South, East, West. And when it came up in the morning, the deep dark was banished, and light was cast over the land of Egypt.

We should not be surprised that so many ancient peoples worshipped the Sun. Its appearance every morning represented the victory of day over night, life over death, good over evil. But why did the Ancient Egyptians believe that the Sun was swallowed by a giant woman who later gave birth to him? The story of Ra and Nut is not just a description of the daily journey of the Sun – it is also a clever way of representing the position of the Sun in the sky at different times of the year.

For the Egyptians, Nut represented the Milky Way. Strangely enough, this hazy spread of stars does appear to bear the shape of a woman arching her back over the horizon. Next, the Egyptian astronomers realised that at the spring equinox the Sun rode to a point corresponding to Nut’s mouth, and moved over the next nine months through her body to be born, nine months after the equinox, at a point corresponding to her birth canal (see picture, right). For the Egyptians, this period of nine months was self-evidently the period of gestation of a human being; added to that fact was their belief that a woman conceives through her mouth, and suddenly the myth of Ra and Nut makes a lot more sense.

The myth of Ra and Nut, then, helped the Egyptians mark two points in their year: the vernal equinox and the mid-winter solstice. But decoding the myth raises further questions: why did they want to mark these points of the year? And why did they worship the objects in the sky as Gods?

With the Ancient Egyptians we see for the first time the idea of a Heaven in the skies, and this heaven was populated by a bizarre collection of gods and goddesses that they associated with the stars and planets. When they looked at the planet Mercury, the Egyptians imagined the god Seth, the evil god of chaos and destruction. When they observed the planet Venus, they thought of Isis, the lovely goddess of fertility. And when they looked upon red Mars, they imagined they were charting the progress of angry Horus, the falcon-headed son of Isis.

This myths explain in highly symbolic terms the origins of the physical universe, it describes the energies that make up the essence of spiritual reality. The principal of polarity with the dynamic interplay that occurs in the creation of life whether on a physical or spiritual level are represented throughout. Deep wisdom can be found in this myth if considered carefully.

Tefnut, She of Moisture

Tefnut was the goddess of moisture, The name of Tefnut translates to,"She of the mist". The name "TF" is the root of the words for 'spit' and 'moist'. Her name translates to something like 'She of Moisture', and is written using the symbols for a loaf of bread ("T" sound) and horned viper "F" sound). The second syllable,"NT", contains a pot symbolizing water for the "N" and another loaf for the second.

It's hard to imagine how important the moister or rain must have been in ancient Egypt, but the fact that the rain goddess was one of the first three gives us some idea. Tefnut is always shown with a scepter, the symbol of power, and an ankh, the symbol of life. She wears the sun disk as a headdress and generally depicted either as a lioness-headed woman or in fully leonine form, reminding us of how powerful the rain can be. She also occasionally took the form of a cobra. the Egyptians knew that without her, Egypt would descend into chaos. It is no wonder that they equated her with the goddess Ma'at.

Tefnut looks like Sekhmet, however, Tefnut's ears are routinely pointed, whereas Sekhmet's are rounded Tefnut does indeed usually appear in company with her brother Shu. Their link was so close that in the Roman period they became the Twins in the zodiac. As early as the Pyramid Texts from the Old Kingdom, Shu and Tefnut are mentioned as a lion pair. In the latter case usually back-to-back with Shu in similarly leonine form; when depicted like this Shu and Tefnut are known as Ruty, "the Two Lions".

One of her Mesopotamian nicknames was Nin-ti, meaning “Lady Life”, or “The Lady (Who Makes) Live.” Ti is also the Sumerian word for “rib”, therefore Nin-ti could variously be interpreted as “the Lady of the Rib”. In the Bible, Eve is of course formed from the rib of Adam.

Tefnut was strongly associated with both the moon and the sun. She was known as both the left (moon) and the right (sun) "Eyes of Ra" and represented both moisture (as a lunar goddess) and dryness (or the absence of moisture, as a solar goddess). She was the lunar goddess of moisture, humidity and water who was also a solar goddess connected with the sun and dryness (more specifically, the absence of moisture).

Tefnut was one of the original deities - one of the Ennead. She was the daughter of the creator god, Of the Ennead deities, she is the first one to be attached to a female nature. She was the first mother. She is the mother of the twin sky and the earth deities. Together the four members of this cosmic family, made up the quartet of major elements of the universe: earth, air, sky and waterwater

Tefnut was originally considered to be the lunar "Eye of Ra" linking her to the night sky as well as to dew, rain and mist. However, she also took on the aspect of the sun as the solar "Eye of Ra", the protector of the sun god (also known as the "Lady of the Flame" and the "Uraeus on the Head of all the Gods"). She shared this role with a number of other goddesses including Sekhmet, Hathor, Mut, Bast, Isis, Wadjet andNekhbet.

Her family background is fairly complex. She was also associated with a god called Tefen. The Pyramid Texts inscribed in the tomb of Unas suggest that Tefnut and Tefen were closely involved in the weighing of the heart of the deceased by Ma´at. The text states; "Tefen and Tefnut have weighed Unas and Ma´at has listened, and Shu has born witness". Tefnut became connected to Ma'at, and as such this goddess is sometimes seen assisting Shu in his task of holding Nut above Geb. More often he is alone in the task

According to myth, Shu and Tefnut went out into the waters of Nun (chaos). Their father, Ra, thought that he had lost them and sent his eye to find them. When they returned Ra was so happy that he wept, and his tears formed the first human beings.

Another myth states that Tefnut fell out with her father, Atum, while he lived on earth as the Pharaoh of Egypt. She left Egypt for Nubia taking all of the water and moisture with her. The fertile land soon dried up and the people suffered. Meanwhile, Tefnut was rampaging through Nubia in her leonine form. Atum eventually sent Thoth and Shu to get her back. When she returned (bringing the inundation with her) she visited each town in Egypt and there was much celebration and rejoicing throughout the land.

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.

Atum, Great He/She

Central to an understanding of the Egyptian creation myth is the very nature of Atum. His appearances portrayed as a man with the double crown of Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt and wearing the royal head-cloth. Sometimes he is also shown as a primeval serpent, lion, bull, lizard or scarab.

Atum was the first God to exist on the earth from waters of Chaos and he created all the Gods and the universe. Atum also spelled as Tem, Temu, Tum, and Atem whose name means “Complete” or “Perfection”. Atum” also means the “Great He/She”. Atum was even called the father to the king. In the old Kingdom, the Egyptian believed that Atum who lifted the dead king to the starry heavens and protecting him in the Underworld. The title “Son of Atum” was included in the many titles of the king.

Atum is one of totality. As the sun god he is the Monad, the supreme being and quintessence of all the other forces and elements of nature. He contains within himself the life force of every other deity yet to come into being.

Atum is “the one who came into being by himself”, and everything else came
into being from him. The cosmos ‘emanated’ from Atum, Atum “turned
himself” into the cosmos. Atum was not the creator, but rather the origin:
everything ‘came into being’ from him”

Atum is the god who “in the beginning was everything”, complete in the
sense of being an undifferentiated unity and at the same time nonexistent,
because existence is impossible before his work of creation. He is the god of pre-existence. His name means both “to be nothing”, and
"to be everything": he is the All in it condition of not-yet.

Thus Atum can be seen as being essentially both male and female in one form. He/she represents totality. This dualism inherent in the Monad allows for the future birth of a constructive goddess such as Isis, as well as a god of chaos and confusion such as Seth.

The nontemporal existence, of Atum, is a state outside of our understanding of the material, temporal universe. So, in essence, this myth explains that from the vast sea of the unmanifest; the sea of non-temporal existence, the divine became aware. And through this awareness, it emerged from the sea of Nu, Nun

This emergence in turn gave raise to all temporal existence. At this point, the legend describe how Atum create Shu and Tefnut with his semen or from his spittle.

because Atum was the first created he has within him the essence of both male and female the motif of Ra masturbating is an act of creation using both the male and female elements of the divine while retaining the idea of one force.

Ben-Ben the first Manifestation

the state of non-being is the state before creation started, creation first begins as a stirring or an awakening. The creator-god becomes aware of itself (Sia) and speaks (Hu) to the waters around it. Thus the creator-god becomes the active principal that had formerly been laying dormant in the passive. When the waters answer the two forces divide because of their awareness of the other, and creation can begin. The breathing of Ma’at represents the act of order coming with life out of chaos.

From the ancient sea, Ra, also referred to as Tem or Atum, emerged on the first mound of earth that rose from the ocean’s depths. This mound was called the Ben-Ben, “the dwelling place of the Sun God”. This moment of emergence is of extreme importance in Egyptian Religion because this was Tep Zepi, “the first time”. it is a mythological era of the first creation, the era of the adventures of the gods. The events that created a pattern of and a stand for later times. Tep Zepi is the frozen time, not situated in the domain of linear time, but in a nontemporal domain, like the "once upon a time" in our own myths an fairy tales.

The Egyptian creation myths envisioned the first place in the world as a mound of earth emerging from the waters of a universal ocean. temples sometimes incorporated a mound of earth as a symbol of the original site of all life. The earliest such mounds may have been a small hill of earth or sand, but the icon eventually took the form of a small pyramid carved from a single block of stone, known as a bnbn (benben). This name comes from the root, bn, which means to "sell up" or "swell forth". The benben also, because of the sun's part in creation, came to be an icon of both the primeval mound as well as the sun which rose from it.

The Egyptian word for the rising sun is wbn, which comes from the same root as benben. the benben was more than just an image. Like the primeval mound itself, the Egyptians thought that it somehow incorporated the very power of life itself and even the force that made it possible for new life to emerge after a period of dormancy.

This was the first sunrise, with the Ben-Ben being the first manifestation out of the sea of chaos, Ma’at - order - was established. From here all of creation, all that is manifest in the universe, began.

Act of Creation

In the beginning was space and darkness and stillness, older than time and
forgotten by the gods. Movement arose in space: that was the beginning.
This sea of infinite space was the source of all being; life arose therein as a
tide in the soundless sea.

Because of the inertia of space ere movement arose as a tide, She is called
by the Wise the "Passive Principal in Nature" and thought of as water, or
space that flows. But there is no flowing in space till the power stirs; and this
power is the Active Principle of creation.

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.