Welcome to Magi's Homland: The Gods: Egypt

Ancient Egypt had a formative influence on the ancient world through its stability and links with the remote past, and Egypt's reputation for secret wisdom was due to the peculiar geographical and climate features of the country. The Nile River Valley and the Nile Delta comprised approximately 12,000 square miles of fertile land, the villages and towns of which were situated along its length. The Mediterranean Sea lay to the north, vast deserts to the east and west and dense jungle to the south, making unsuspected invasion near impossible, and its virtual isolation allowed Egyptian civilization to develop unthreatened by its neighbours. Because of this, the ancient Egyptian culture was very static, and it existed virtually unchanged for millennia, its origins going back beyond 3000 BCE.

Much of the knowledge concerning ancient Egypt is based on complex rituals related to death and the afterlife. Since Egyptian civilization was a product in many ways of the natural forces that surrounded it, the people looked to Nature to explain the unexplainable. The three main elements of the Egyptian religion were:

The Egyptian word for God is NTR or Neter which is illustrated by the hieroglyph of an axe-head supported by a wooden handle, a strong and formidable weapon in skilled hands. The use of this sign as an emblem of God is probably very ancient and based on prehistoric man's belief that God was a mighty and formidable warrior, which conception they carried through even in their most sophisticated philosophies. While it is quite possible that the word means "strength" and "power, " other attributes are "renewal" or "renovation," as if the fundamental idea of God was one who had the power to perpetually renew itself and was self-creating. Above all else, the ancient Egyptians believed in one God, who was self-existent, immortal, eternal, and invisible--the Creator of heaven and earth. Their principal religious theology was based upon this belief and no matter how far back we trace its history, there is no time when this belief was not predominant. If examined closely, the gods are found to be nothing more than forms, manifestations, phases or attributes of the god Ra who was, in turn, the outward manifestation or symbol of the One God of whom it was not their custom to address

Nu
Ra
Toth
Maat
Kephera
Ptah
Temu
Shu

Tefnut
Seb
Nut
Osiris
Isis
Set/Typhon
Nephthys
Horus
Anubis

Nu was the "father of the gods" and originator of the "great company of gods". He was the primeval watery mass out of which all things came. The creation myth of the ancient Egyptians began with a vast waste of water called Nu, similar to the creation story in Genesis where the Spirit of God "hovered over the waters." According to the writings of the Egyptians, there was a time when neither heaven nor earth existed, and there was only the boundless primordial water which was shrouded in thick darkness. The primeval water remained in this condition for a considerable length of time; however, within it was the origin of all things that later came into existence. At length, Spirit felt the desire for creative activity and uttering the Word of Creation, the world sprang forth in the form depicted in the Mind of Spirit before the Word was ever spoken. This was the primary act of Creation.

The next act of Creation was the formation of the egg from which Ra sprang, within whose shining form was the almighty power of Divine Spirit. Ra thus became the visible symbol of God, the Creator of the world. Time began when Ra appeared above the horizon in the form of the Sun, and the life of humanity was compared to his daily course at a very early date. As far back as the IVth dynasty, about 2700 BCE, he was regarded as the great god of heaven, King of all the gods, divine beings and resurrected dead. As Ra was "Father of the Gods," it was natural that every god should represent some phase of him and that he should represent every god. This is illustrated by the inscription on the tomb of Seti I, about 1370 BCE: Praise be unto thee, O Ra …behold thy body is Temu…Praise be unto thee, O Ra…thy body is Khephera…Praise be unto thee, O Ra…thy body is Shu…Praise be unto thee, O Ra…thy body is Tefnut…The attempt being made at the time this hymn was written was to emphasize that every god, whether foreign or native, was an aspect or form of Ra, the visible emblem of God.

Ra was probably the oldest god worshipped in Egypt, and his name belongs to such a remote period that its meaning is unknown. He is given credit for creating heaven and the earth and all its creatures. The station of the resurrected in heaven was decided by Ra and of all the other gods, only Osiris had the power to claim protection for his followers. At one time, the Egyptian's greatest hope was not only to become "God, the son of God," by adoption, but that Ra would actually become his father. These ideas remained the same from the earliest of times, and Ra maintained his position as the great head of the companies of the gods.

Thoth

Thoth was the master of law, both in its physical and moral conceptions, and he had the knowledge of "divine speech." He was also seen as the inventor of the arts and sciences, and he was called "Lord of Books" or "Scribe of the Gods" or "mighty in speech" i.e., his words manifested. In the Book of the Dead, Thoth held both the tongue and heart of Ra or that is to say that he was the reason and mental powers of the god and was the means by which Ra's will was translated into speech. In every legend where Thoth takes a prominent part, it is he who spoke the word that resulted in the wishes of Ra being carried into effect. He spoke the words which caused the creation of the heavens and the earth, and he taught Isis the words which enabled her to restore life to the body of Osiris in such a way that they could conceive a child. He also gave her the formula which brought her son, Horus, back to life after he had been stung to death by a scorpion.

The hymns to Ra, which are found in the Book of the Dead, state that the deities Thoth and Maat stand on each side of the great god in his boat. They were believed to take some important part in directing its course and as they were with Ra when he sprang from the abyss of Nu, their existence was coexistent with his own. His knowledge of the powers of calculation measured out the heavens and planned the earth, and his will kept the forces of heaven and earth in equilibrium. In the later dynastic period, he was called "Lord of Khemennu" who was self-created and to whom none had given birth, i.e., the heart of Ra came forth in the form of Thoth. He was therefore seen as self-begotten and self-produced.

The character of Thoth is a lofty and beautiful conception and is the highest idea of deity ever fashioned by the Egyptian mind. He was the personification of the mind of God as the all-pervading, governing and directing power of heaven and earth and formed the Egyptian belief in the resurrection of the dead in a spiritual body and the doctrine of everlasting life.

Maat

As the goddess of Judgment, Maat was closely associated with Thoth and Ptah in the work of creation. She was so closely connected with Thoth that she was often regarded as the feminine counterpart of the god. Maat stood with Thoth in the boat of Ra when the Sun god rose above the waters of the abyss of Nu for the first time. In connection with Ra, she indicated the regularity with which he rose and set in the sky and the course which he followed daily from east to west. In her capacity of regulator of the path of the Sun, Maat is said to be the "daughter of Ra and the "eye of Ra."

The word Maat means "straight rod" which was originally an instrument used to keep things straight, a guide used by masons, but the word evolved to mean a rule, law or canon by which the actions of humanity were kept straight and governed. The Egyptians used the word in a physical and moral sense and it came to mean "right, truth, genuine, upright, just, etc. The exact equivalent in English is "God will judge the right" making this goddess the embodiment of physical and moral law, order and truth. As a moral power, Maat was a great goddesses and in her dual form as goddess of the South (Thaum-Aesch-Niaeth) and the North (Auramoouth), she was the lady of the Judgment Hall and the personification of justice.

Kephera
Khephera was a primordial god and can best be described as the type of matter which contains within itself the germ of life which is about to spring into a new existence. He also represented the dead body from which the spiritual body was about to rise.

Ptah

Ptah was one of the most active of the three great gods who carried out the commands of Thoth and gave expression in words to the Will of the Creative Power. He was self created and was a form of the Sun god Ra as the "Opener of the Day."

Temu
Temu or Atmu, was the "Closer of the Day," just as Ptah was its Opener. In the story of Creation, he declares that he evolved himself under the form of Khephera. In hymns, he is said to be the "maker of the gods" or the "creator of men."

Shu
According to one legend, Shu sprang directly from Temu and according to another, the goddess Hathor was his mother. Shu made his way between the gods Seb and Nut and raised up the latter to form the sky. As a power of nature, he typified the "light" and standing on the top of a staircase at Hermopolis Magna, he raised up the sky and held it there during each day. To assist him in this work, he placed a pillar at each of the cardinal points making the "Pillars of Shu" the props of the sky.

Tefnut
As a power of nature, Tefnut typified moisture or some aspect of the sun's heat. Her brother, Shu, was the right eye of Temu and she was the left, i.e. Shu represented an aspect of the Sun, and Tefnut the Moon. The gods Temu, Shu and Tefnut formed a trinity and in the story of the creation, after describing how Shu and Tefnut proceeded from himself, Temu says, "Thus from being one god I became three."

Seb
Seb was called Erpa, the "Hereditary chief" of the gods, and the "father of the gods." He was originally the god of the earth, but later he became a god of the dead as representing the earth wherein the deceased was laid. One legend attributes him with the forming of the primordial egg from which the world came into being.

Nut
Originally, Nut was the personification of the sky and represented the feminine principle which was active at the creation of the universe. Seb and Nut existed in the watery abyss side by side with Shu and Tefnut and later, Seb became the earth and Nut the sky. These deities were supposed to unite every evening and remain embraced until the morning light when the god Shu separated them and set the goddess of the sky upon his four pillars until the evening. Nut was regarded as the mother of the gods and of all living things.

Osiris
Thoth created the Epact (or the five superadded days) which he added to the 360 days of which the year formerly consisted, and these five days were observed by the ancient Egyptians as the birthdays of the gods Osiris, Aroueris, Isis, Typhon (Set) and Nephthys. Osiris was born on the first day and upon his entrance into the world a voice said, "The lord of all the earth is born."(i) Although Divine in origin, Osiris was held to be a man who lived and reigned as a king on earth and applied himself toward the civilization of Egypt. He created both a body of laws to regulate conduct and instructions in the reverence and worship of the gods. He traveled the land and inspired people to utilize this discipline, and this was accomplished not by force but through the strength of reason.

Originally, the Egyptians considered him a man who had lived, suffered cruel mutilation and death, and then triumphed over death to attain everlasting life. He was treacherously murdered by his brother Set and after his death, Isis, by the use of magical formula, succeeded in raising him to life again. Because of this, Osiris became a symbol of resurrection and immortality. The ancient Egyptians believed that what Osiris did, they could also do and what the gods did for Osiris, they could also do for them. As the gods brought about his resurrection, so they might also bring about theirs and because of this, they made him the intercessor, judge, and hope of both the living and the dead. By the XVIIIth dynasty, he was raised to such an exalted position in heaven that he became the equal and in certain cases, the superior of Ra and was ascribed the attributes which belonged only to God. In this manner, Osiris became the source and origin of the gods and humanity, and the manhood of the god was forgotten.

Even though Osiris was identified with the Nile, Ra and with several other gods, it was in his aspect as the god of resurrection and everlasting life that he appealed to the people of Egypt. No matter how far back we trace religious ideas in Egypt, we never find a time when the belief in the resurrection of Osiris did not exist. Osiris maintained the highest place in the minds of the Egyptians as the god/man who was both divine and human and neither foreign invasion nor religious disturbance succeeded in altering this conception. As early as the XIIth dynasty (2500 BCE) the worship of this god became almost universal and a thousand years later, Osiris had become a national god. The attributes of the great cosmic gods were ascribed to him and he appeared as not only the god and judge of the dead, but also as the creator of the world. He who was the son of Ra became the equal of his father and took his place beside him in heaven.

Isis
As a nature goddess, Isis had a place in the boat of the Sun at the creation where she typified the dawn. Her wanderings in search of her husband's body, the sorrow which she endured in birthing and raising Horus in the papyrus swamps of the Delta, and the persecution she suffered at the hands of her husband's enemies form the subject of many texts in all periods. She had various aspects, but the one which appealed most to the Egyptians was that of "Divine Mother." In most stories dealing with Isis, she is depicted as both woman and goddess, just as the story of Osiris makes that deity both god and man. By reason of her success in reanimating the body of Osiris by the articulation of magical formula, Isis was called "Lady of Enchantments" and from a number of passages in texts of various periods, we learn that she possessed great skill in magic.

Isis is one of the goddesses most mentioned in the hieroglyphic texts. She was regarded as the female counterpart of Osiris in the dynastic period, and she was also associated with him in this capacity in the pre-dynastic period. She always held a position which was entirely different from that of other goddesses and although it is certain that Egyptian views concerning her varied from time to time, Isis was the greatest goddess of Egypt. She became so universal that she even began to be worshipped in different aspects of herself: Isis of Nature, Isis of the Heavens, Isis the Mother, Isis the Virgin, Isis the Bride, etc. She was the Divine Mother whose influence and love pervaded all of heaven and earth. She was the personification of the great feminine, creative power which conceived and brought forth every living being, from the gods in heaven to man on earth, and what she brought forth, she protected and cared for. She used her power graciously and successfully, not only in creating new beings but in restoring those who were dead. She was the highest type of the faithful, loving wife and mother, and it was in this capacity that the Egyptian honored and worshipped her.

Set/Typhon
At a very early period, Set was regarded as the brother and friend of "Horus the Elder", the Aroueris of the Greeks. He represented the night while Horus represented the day, and each of these gods performed many offices of a friendly nature for the dead. However, at a later period, the views of the Egyptians concerning Set changed and soon after the reign of the kings called "Seti"( whose names were based upon that of the god), he became the personification of evil and of all that is terrible in nature.

Set, as a power of nature, was always waging war with Horus the Elder, i.e. the night did battle with the day for supremacy. Both gods, however sprang from the same source. When Horus (the son of Isis and Osiris) grew up, he did battle with Set for Set had murdered his father. In many texts these two originally distinct fights and two distinctly different Horus gods are confused with each other. The conquest of Set by Horus in the first conflict illustrated the defeat of the night by the day, and the defeat of Set in the second conflict seems to have meant the conquest of life over death, good over evil.

Nephthys
In the earliest times, Nephthys was regarded as the female counterpart of Set and was regularly associated with him. Nevertheless, she always appears as the faithful sister and friend of Isis who helped the widow goddess collect the scattered limbs of Osiris and also assisted them in defeating the wickedness of her own husband. In the Pyramid Texts, she is a patron to the deceased, and she maintains that character throughout the Book of the Dead. In the Theban recension of the Book of the Dead, Nephthys stands behind Osiris when the hearts of the dead are weighed on the Great Scales. In funeral papyri, she always accompanied Isis in her ministrations to the dead and helped the deceased overcome the powers of death and the grave. As a nature goddess, she performed for the deceased what she did for the gods in primeval times when she fashioned the "body" of the "Company of Gods." From this she obtained the name Nebkhat or "Lady of the Body of the Gods."

Like Isis, she had a place in the boat of the Sun at creation, where she typified the twilight or very early night. Nephthys was the personification of darkness and of all that belongs to it, and her attributes were of a passive rather than an active nature. She was the opposite of Isis for Isis symbolized birth, growth, development and vigor while Nephthys was the symbol of death, decay, diminution and immobility. Isis represented the part of the world which was visible and Nephthys the invisible, and they represented respectively the things which are and the things which are yet to be--the beginning and the end, birth and death. Although a goddess of death, she was associated with the life which springs from death.

Horus
Horus, son of Isis and Osiris, like many other forms of the Horus gods, represented the rising sun which was born daily. There were many aspects of this god, for in him were all the various Horus gods including Heru, the god of the heights of heaven, and Aroueris or Horus the Elder. He was the offspring of the dead man/god Osiris and his lawful successor. He was a god whose aspects appealed to the Egyptians because he represented renewal--life as opposed to death, movement as opposed to inactivity. A great number of the attributes which belonged to the old Horus gods were transferred to the son of Isis and Osiris, especially when the worship of Osiris was dominant. Horus the Child became the symbol of new birth and new life--the first hours of the day, the first days of the month, the first months of the year--everything that was young and vigorous.

In a way, Osiris and Horus were complements to each other. The chief difference between them was that Osiris represented the past and Horus represented the present. The form in which Horus appealed most strongly to the Egyptians was that of the god of light who fought against Set, the god of darkness--the god of good against the god of evil. When Osiris had attained the position of Ra in the minds of the Egyptians, Horus represented a divine power who was about to avenge the cruel murder of his father, and the moral conceptions of right and wrong, good and evil, truth and falsehood, were applied to the conceptions of light and darkness--Horus and Set.

In the judgment scene of the Book of the Dead, he leads the deceased into the presence of Osiris and makes an appeal to his father that the deceased may be allowed to enjoy the benefits allotted to those who are true and righteous in judgment. He was believed to assist the dead, even as he had assisted Osiris, and men and women hoped that he would come to their aid after death and act as a mediator between the them and the judge of the Underworld. He not only succeeded to the rank and high esteem of his father but in his aspect of avenger, he gradually acquired the position of intermediary and intercessor on behalf of humanity.

Anubis
Anubis was the guard and attendant of Isis and the watcher and guard of the gods. It was Anubis who presided over the abode of the dead. The jackal was the symbol of the god, and this fact seems to prove that in primitive times, Anubis was the god of the dead because jackals were generally seen prowling around tombs. In the text of Unas, he is associated with the Eye of Horus, and his duty was to guide the dead through the Underworld on their way to Osiris. In the Judgment scene, Anubis appeared to act for Osiris with whom he was intimately connected. It was his duty to examine the beam of the Great Balance and to take care that it was exactly horizontal. Anubis not only produced the heart of the deceased for judgment, but also took care that the body which had been committed to his charge would not be handed over to the "Eater of the Dead." His worship was very ancient and might be older than the worship of Osiris.