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A cosmology refers to the beliefs held by a culture about the nature of the universe. Cosmology concerns the structure of the universe, the relationship between heaven and earth, the place in the latter of men and of the animal and vegetable creation, the nature of man himself. As with most religious traditions there is a beginning to the ancient Egyptians idea of the cosmos. Before the beginning was a vast empty expanse of lifeless water which was limitless, endless and without direction. This vast expanse of water was personified as the god Nun, who although a universal concept was never worshipped as a major deity, he remained an intellectual concept (Plumley, 1975: pp. 25).
The Book of the Dead, dating to the Second Intermediate Period, describes how the world was created by Atum, the god of Heliopolis, the centre of the sun-god cult in Lower Egypt. In the beginning, the world appeared as an infinite expanse of dark and directionless waters, named Nun. The empty primeval waters was a fundamental belief of the ancient Egyptians, possibly based on their observation of the annual inundation of the Nile river and its subsequent recession leaving small islands which swarmed with life. These waters did not disappear with the creation of the known universe, they remained as the boundaries to the known universe which was conceived as a cavity or bubble totally surrounded by the water.
Nun was personified as four pairs of male and female deities. Each couple represented one of four principles that characterized Nun:
Atum created himself out of Nun by an effort of will or by uttering his own name. As the creator of the gods and humans, he was responsible for bringing order to the heavens and the earth. As Lord of the Heavens and Earth, he wears the Double Crown of Upper and Lower Egypt and carries the ankh, a symbol of life and a was sceptre, a symbol of royal authority.
According to the Pyramid Texts, written on the walls of pyramids,
the creator god emerged from the chaotic darkness of Nun as a mythical Bennu
bird (similar to a heron or phoenix). He flew to Heliopolis, an ancient city
near Cairo, where, at dawn, he alighted on the Benben, an obelisk representing
a ray of the sun. After
fashioning a nest of aromatic boughs and spices, he was consumed in a fire and
miraculously sprang back to life. The capstone placed at the top of an obelisk
or a pyramid is associated with the Bennu. Called a
pyramidion or the Bennu, it is a symbol
of rebirth and immortality.
At a time the Egyptians called Zep Tepi (the First Time), Atum created two offspring. His son, Shu, represented dry air, and his daughter, Tefnut, represented corrosive moist air.
As the god of air, Shu was essential to the ancient Egyptians' view of the world in which they lived. Shu's wife, the goddess Tefnut, was the personification of moisture. Together, these two deities were associated with the sun (Shu) and the moon (Tefnut). Shu and Tefnet gave birth to the sky goddess Nut and the earth god Geb. Shu was often shown as a man kneeling between an outstretched Nut and Geb, separating the sky from the earth and making a space for people to live. Shu is also called the son of Re and is sometimes shown with a lion head. Usually he is depicted as a man wearing a feather on his head.
The twins symbolize two universal principles of human existence: life and right (justice). Shu is a male god who is paired with his sister, Tefnut. Together they represent two fundamental principles of human existence. Shu symbolizes dry air and the force of preservation. Tefnut symbolizes moist or corrosive air that brings about change, creating the concept of time. Shu and Tefnut are the offspring of Re (or Atum, a form of the sun god), a primeval cosmic god, progenitor of the elements of the universe.
The twins separated the sky from the waters. They produced children named Geb, the dry land and Nut, the sky.
The goddess Nut was the daughter of the air god Shu and the sister of the earth god Geb. She was thought of as the roof of the sky and was shown as a woman stretching her body out with her hands and feet touching the eastern and western horizons respectively (see below). Geb is depicted as a man lying on the ground while she is shown stretched out over him. In between them, the god Shu sits holding up Nut (the sky) with his arms in the way that the air was thought to hold up the sky. Because of her (Nut-the sky) connection to the rebirth of the sun every morning, which was thought to travel through her body and be reborn, she (Nut) was also associated with the religion concept of the resurrection of the deceased and her image often decorated the inner lids of coffins out of which the deceased would be reborn.
The cosmology of Ancient
Egypt is represented visually by Geb (the earth god) recumbent on the ground
with his sister/wife Nut (the sky goddess) arched over him with only her feet
(toes) and fingers touching the ground. The god of air, Shu is shown standing
and
supporting Nut (or separating Geb and
Nut), this is symbolic of the earth and sky being separated by the
air (Brandon, 1963: pp. 28). Shu, the god of the air, upholds
Nut, the sky-goddess, while Geb, the earth-god, reclines under Nut.
This structure is similar
to Israelite cosmology found in the book of Genesis.
Shu, the god of air, separates the sky goddess, Nut, from the earth god,
Geb. Two ram-headed gods stand
beside Shu. If we take just a minute to reflect upon the Book of Genesis and
its depiction of the Creation we find the Hebrews relating the very same
concepts concerning how YHWH continually separated in creation.
When the primeval waters receded, a mound of earth (Geb) appeared, providing the first solid dry land for the sun god, Re, to rest.
Again we see the exact parallels with the later Biblical account of creation by the Hebrews.
The ancient Egyptians thought of Geb as the god of the earth. Together with the Goddess Nut (Sky) and the God Shu (Air), Geb formed the Egyptian idea of the constitution of their world. Geb is depicted as a man lying on the ground while Nut (the sky) is shown stretched out over him. In between them, the god Shu (the dry air) sits holding up Nut (the sky) with his arms in the way that the air was thought to hold up the sky. As a pair, Geb and Nut were thought to have given birth to the sun. Geb was sometimes called the father of the gods. Geb is sometimes shown wearing a goose on his head, but most often he wears the red crown of Lower Egypt.
It is this "dry land" of Gen. 1:9 which Egypt describes as the primordial hill. The Egyptians believed that during creation this hill rose out of the sea of chaos to create dry land. The idea of this hill rising had a profound effect on the egyptians, being used as every thing from temple layouts to the possible inspiration behind the pyramids. Let us not forget that Nun, the primordial ocean, was not flat; rather it was in the shape of a cosmic egg … and from this cosmic egg (primordial ocean) was born the primeval hill called Nu. Both the egg and the primeval hill are recorded on pictures of Isis in the tombs of the Ancient Egyptian Pharaohs; indicating that Isis was the personification of the Feminine Creation Principle (just in the same way that the Hebrews expressed their understanding of God with both masculine and femine names). Isis was the Holy Mother who was represented with her child Horus by the Constellation of Virgo. Isis was considered Virgin as she was seeded after the death and resurrection of Osiris … minus the phallus. Thus the origin for the immaculate conception and the virgin birth stories that have come down through history.
To understand the Myth of Creation, one must first understand that it is a complicated story. Four "cosmologies," or theories about creation are involved, each developing over different periods in ancient Egypt. There are some common elements to each theory. For example, each theory holds that in the beginning, only a primordial, stagnant ocean called Nu existed. In addition, the four theories agree that out of Nu, rose the primeval hill. Each cosmology believed it was their temple that stood on this hill. The first step-pyramids are no doubt symbolic of this mound. All cosmologies share the belief that creation was a slow process, not catastrophic. Finally, they also all agree that there was a "First Time," or a time period when the gods (Elohim of Genesis 2) actually lived on earth (these are the Elohim-Nephilim).
Gen 6:4 4 There were giants (descending ones) in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. (KJV)
We should not find strange the similarities between the Hebrew accounts of creation in the Bible as parallel with those of Egypt since our studies will later show explicitly how the Hebrews truly were the children of the Egyptians and it would be normal to understand that the Hebrews received their creation accounts from Egypt.
Nut is often portrayed as a naked female stretched across the sky. The
Sun (Ra) is shown entering her mouth, passing through her star speckled body
and emerging from her birth canal nine months later (from the Spring equinox to
the Winter solstice). Thus, Ra becomes a self-creating god, i.e. the Universe
is self-creating
and eternal.
Nut is sometimes represented in the form of a cow, however, both forms have stars on their bodies. Occasionally the sun god Re is depicted travelling across Nut in his boat. Sometimes the visual representation has four symbols representing the pillars which support the heavens, others show various other deities assisting Shu to support Nut. This visualisation accords with the idea of the known universe existing as a bubble surrounded by the primeval waters of Nun. This view of the structure of the cosmos was reasonably uniform throughout ancient Egypt.
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