gods” but also “grandmother of the subsequent gods”). The two of them—the self-created Atum and the unseen Iusaaset—conceived
breath and
moisture. Sadly, these two offspring became lost in the infinite chaos of dark nothingness; therefore Atum conceived of the conceiver of Light (Ra). The Light was born inside the dark chaos. Atum sent the Eye of Light that penetrates the darkness to find the lost primordial children. The Eye of Light was Ra. When Ra rose from the hidden depths of the primordial sea, he immediately gave life to Ma’at, “Truth.” Ancient Egyptians believed that the creation we know could not have come into existence until Truth (Ma’at) first established order, balance, and harmony. The Egyptians believed that if Truth (Ma’at) had not been conceived, then chaos would have reigned and the primordial sea would have reclaimed the manifested universe into her unseen depths. With order established, and upon finding the lost children, Atum, who was now united with Ra, was now called Atum Ra (see illustration 12), he then named Breath
life, and Moisture
order. Then, Atum Ra bound Life and Order together and with these two now united, he made
air (the Egyptian god
Shu) and
mist (
Tefnut). Then, by kissing his daughter Mist, Atum Ra created the first mound (firmament) in the primordial sea, which was the Ben-ben Mound. Like the Mayan legend of the celestial turtle rising from out of the infinite primordial sea, the Ben-ben Mound rose from out of the vast expanse of the motionless sea of the infinite depths. Then Atum Ra rested on the mound, while
lifeair (Shu) and
order-mist (Tefnut) mated to create
earth (the god
Geb) and
sky (the goddess
Nut, pronounced
noot, rhymes with
toot). Earth and Sky then conceived five more godlings:
Osiris, god of fertility, resurrection, and judge of the heart of every soul;
Isis, goddess of magic, motherhood, and “Mother of the Universe”;
Set, god of chaos, confusion, storms, wind, the desert, and foreign lands;
Nephthys, “Mistress of the House,” “Friend of the Dead,” and goddess of divine help and protection; and
Horus the Elder, god of light, whose left eye was the sun and right eye the moon. (See illustration 13.)
In this creation story we see the original chaos of “dark nothingness” and then the subsequent personification of chaos in the god “Set.” In the Egyptian Book of the Dead, there is “the day of the combat of the Two Fighters”; these were none other than Set and Horus with Set being the chaos and Horus being the light. During these times there was an upside-downness, evil reigned over goodness, symbolized by Set’s victory over Osiris, in which goodness was scattered to the four winds by Set’s dismembering of Osiris’ body; thus no one could see the full nature of the goodness and stability that perfect Osiris represented.
In this story we also learn how the Egyptians believed that everything had a balancing counterpart: the infinite darkness had the Eye of Light, chaos had truth
