The Creation Story

In the beginning there were the Primal Waters of Nuhn. No one knows for how long it existed before the universe began. From out of the Waters came a small mound of land. Upon the Land was a lotus blossom. Within the blossom lay Ptah, the first Divine Child, Creator of All. And each day the lotus would open, and the God would be revealed. And it was during this time that Ptah created all things in the universe, while the lotus was open. And each day, the lotus would close, and vanish back into the waters. And during this time the Creator slept. And the Creator dreamed, and knew His solitude. He came to long for other beings, for company in the vastness of the universe. He thought, and His thoughts gave the chaos form. And as these forms took shape, Ptah gave Them names.

So were the first Gods born, from the thoughts of Ptah. Tehuti, the God of Wisdom, and Ma'at, The Goddess of Truth, were His companions. Together, Tehuti and Ma'at brought balance to the universe. Ptah, through the powers of His thought, created all the heavenly bodies. And Ptah gave the sun the name Ra, and so was the first Ruler of Heaven created. It was Ra who created all of the living things of the earth, fish and fowl, human and hare. Ra had two children, Shu, God of the Wind and Air, and Tefnut, Goddess of Moisture and Rain. They had two children, Geb, the God of the Earth, and Nut, the Goddess of the Sky. And Ra decreed that no more Gods would be born on any day of the year, a law which stood until Nut and Tehuti tricked Ra and created the Intercalary Days. Each day, Ra, in the Barque of Millions of Years, surveys the earth from above, as He crosses the sky. And all living things rejoice, and praise Him, creator of all living things.

Taken from the Temple of Tamera Website

Osiris, Set, and Horus

Osiris and Set being bitter rivals, were locked in a struggle. Their combat was to symbolize the struggle of good and evil. Set won, overpowering Osiris. Isis, the wife of Osiris, protected their son, Horus, from the evil one's onslaught. When Horus was older, he in turn killed Set to avenge his fathers name, hence Horus' nickname of "the avenger".

After Osiris' death, Isis went and gathered up the pieces of his body. Anubis the son of Nephythys and Osiris (or maybe Set) is credited with having embalmed Osiris, and helping him return to life. Thereafter, Osiris became god and judge of the dead. The egyptians would pray to Osiris for everlasting life and heavenly rewards.

Isis and Ra

Long, long ago the Egyptian sun god, Ra, created virtually everything that existed in the world. Simply by speaking the name of something, Ra created it. As he named birds, animals, and things, they appeared. Because Ra made all things, he also controlled them. More powerful than anyone, he ruled both heaven and earth. Isis, a clever god gifted in the arts of magic, envied Ra's power. She desired to know Ra's secret Great Name, because it was the key to his magic and would give her greater power. Isis spent a lot of time wondering how she could obtain Ra's secret. As Ra grew older and weaker, she devised a plot. Whenever Ra drooled, the wily Isis gathered up his spit. Kneading the spit with soil, she created a serpent. Although the serpent came forth from Ra, he had not created it, so it was outside of his control. Isis molded the serpent into the form of a dart and placed it on Ra's daily walking path across the sky. When Ra passed by, the serpent reared up and stung him. Soon, Ra began to burn with the serpent's venom. He was baffled by the creature's behavior and dismayed to discover that he had no power over it. He could not cure his body of the terrible pain. Ra called to his children for help, but they could not end his suffering. Then Isis came forth and offered to work her magic to end Ra's pain. However, she insisted she could cure Ra only if he revealed his secret Great Name. Ra offered a variety of nicknames, but clever Isis was not fooled. Fearing for his life, Ra finally gave in and transmitted the Great Name from his heart to Isis's. That is how Isis successfully learned the secret of Ra's all-powerful magic.

Taken from the Minneapolis Institute of Arts Egyptian Myth Web Page

The Golden Lotus (Contributed by Sekhmet)

Seneferu, father of the Pharaoh Khufu who built the Great Pyramid of Giza, reigned long over a contented and peaceful Egypt. He had no foreign wars and few troubles at home, and with so little business of state he often found time hanging heavy on his hands.

One day he wandered wearily through his palace at Memphis, seeking for pleasures and finding none that would lighten his heart.

Then he bethought him of his Chief Magician, Zazamankh, and he said, 'If any man is able to entertain me and show me new marvels, surely it is the wise scribe of the rolls. Bring Zazamankh before me.'

Straightway his servants went to the House of Wisdom and brought Zazamankh to the presence of Pharaoh. And Seneferu said to him, 'I have sought throughout all my palace for some delight, and found none. Now of your wisdom devise something that will fill my heart with pleasure.' Then said Zazamankh to him, 'O Pharaoh life, health, strength be to you! - my counsel is that you go sailing upon the Nile, and upon the lake below Memphis. This will be no common voyage, if you will follow my advice in all things.'

'Believing that you will show me marvels, I will order out the Royal Boat,' said Seneferu. 'Yet I am weary of sailing upon the Nile and upon the lake.'

'This will be no common voyage,' Zazamankh assured him. 'For your rowers will be different from any you have seen at the oars before. They must be fair maidens from the Royal House of the King's Women: and as you watch them rowing, and see the birds upon the lake, the sweet fields and the green grass upon the banks, your heart will grow glad.'

'Indeed, this will be something new,' agreed Pharaoh, showing some interest at last. 'Therefore I give you charge of this expedition. Speak with my power, and command all that is necessary.'

Then said Zazamankh to the officers and attendants of Pharaoh Seneferu, 'Bring me twenty oars of ebony inlaid with gold, with blades of light wood inlaid with electrum. And choose for rowers the twenty fairest maidens in Pharaoh's household: twenty virgins slim and lovely, fair in their limbs, beautiful, and with flowing hair. And bring me twenty nets of golden thread, and give these nets to the fair maidens to be garments for them. And let them wear ornaments of gold and electrum and malachite.'

All was done according to the words of Zazamankh, and presently Pharaoh was seated in the Royal Boat while the maidens rowed him up and down the stream and upon the shining waters of the lake. And the heart of Seneferu was glad at the sight of the beautiful rowers at their unaccustomed task, and he seemed to be on a voyage in the golden days that were to be when Osiris returns to rule the earth.

But presently a mischance befell that gay and happy party upon the lake. In the raised stern of the Royal Boat two of the maidens were steering with great oars fastened to posts. Suddenly the handle of one of the oars brushed against the head of the girl who was using it and swept the golden lotus she wore on the fillet that held back her hair into the water, where it sank out of sight.

With a little cry she leant over and gazed after it. And as she ceased from her song, so did all the rowers on that side who were taking their time from her.

'Why have you ceased to row?' asked Pharaoh.

And they replied, 'Our little steerer has stopped, and leads us no longer.'

'And why have you ceased to steer and lead the rowers with your song?' asked Seneferu.

'Forgive me, Pharaoh - life, health, strength be to you!' she sobbed. 'But the oar struck my hair and brushed from it the beautiful golden lotus set with malachite which your majesty gave to me, and it has fallen into the water and is lost forever.'

'Row on as before, and I will give you another,' said Seneferu.

But the girl continued to weep, saying, 'I want my golden lotus back, and no other!'

Then said Pharaoh, 'There is only one who can find the golden lotus that has sunk to the bottom of the lake. Bring to me Zazamankh my magician, he who thought of this voyage. Bring him here on to the Royal Boat before me.'

So Zazamankh was brought to where Seneferu sat in his silken pavilion on the Royal Boat. And as he knelt, Pharaoh said to him: 'Zazamankh, my friend and brother, I have done as you advised. My royal heart is refreshed and my eyes are delighted at the sight of these lovely rowers bending to their task. As we pass up and down on the waters of the lake, and they sing to me, while on the shore I see the trees and the flowers and the birds, I seem to be sailing into the golden days either those of old when Re ruled on earth, or those to come when the good god Osiris shall return from the Duat. But now a golden lotus has fallen from the hair of one of these maidens fallen to the bottom of the lake. And she has ceased to sing and the rowers on her side cannot keep time with their oars. And she is not to be comforted with promises of other gifts, but weeps for her golden lotus. Zazamankh, I wish to give back the golden lotus to the little one here, and see the joy return to her eyes.'

'Pharaoh, my lord - life, health, strength be to you!' answered Zazamankh the magician, 'I will do what you ask - for to one with my knowledge it is not a great thing. Yet maybe it is an enchantment you have never seen, and it will fill you with wonder, even as I promised, and make your heart rejoice yet further in new things.'

Then Zazamankh stood at the stern of the Royal Boat and began to chant great spells and words of power. And presently he held out his wand over the water, and the lake parted as if a piece had been cut out of it with a great sword. The lake here was twenty feet deep, and the piece of water that the magician moved rose up and set itself upon the surface of the lake so that there was a cliff of water on that side forty feet high.

Now the Royal Boat slid gently down into the great cleft in the lake until it rested on the bottom. On the side towards the forty-foot cliff of water there was a great open space where the bottom of the lake lay uncovered, as firm and dry as the land itself.

And there, just below the stern of the Royal Boat, lay the golden lotus.

With a cry of joy the maiden who had lost it sprang over the side on to the firm ground, picked it up and set it once more in her hair. Then she climbed swiftly back into the Royal Boat and took the steering oar into her hands once more.

Zazamankh slowly lowered his rod, and the Royal Boat slid up the side of the water until it was level with the surface once more. Then at another word of power, and as if drawn by the magician's rod, the great piece of water slid back into place, and the evening breeze rippled the still surface of the lake as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. But the heart of Pharaoh Seneferu rejoiced and was filled with wonder, and he cried: 'Zazamankh, my brother, you are the greatest and wisest of magicians! You have shown me wonders and delights this day, and your reward shall be all that you desire, and a place next to my own in Egypt.' Then the Royal Boat sailed gently on over the lake in the glow of the evening, while the twenty lovely maidens in their garments of golden net, and the jeweled lotus flowers in their hair dipped their ebony and silver oars in the shimmering waters and sang sweetly a love song of old Egypt:

'She stands upon the further side, Between us flows the Nile; And in those waters deep and wide There lurks a crocodile.

'Yet is my love so true and sweet, A word of power, a charm - The stream is land beneath my feet And bears me without harm.

'For I shall come to where she stands, No more be held apart; And I shall take my darling's hands And draw her to my heart.'

Cleopatra's Asp (Contributed by Chantal)

The most famous of all reptiles is, without doubt, the serpent from the Garden of Eden. Another famous one is Cleopatra's asp, with which the lovely queen of Egypt decided to kill herself , in 30 BC, when Cleopatra and Antony had been defeated in their war against Rome, and she realised
the escape was impossible. The situation was hopeless, and Cleopatra could not bear the thought of being led in chains in the victory procession of their enemy, Octavian. The poisonous snake was brought to her, hidden in a basket of figs, by her handmaiden.