The Heliopolitan Theology

     In the Heliopolitan theology, Atum was the god of gods and everything else, the creator god (also identified as one of the aspects of the sun god, Re) whose dynamic self-manifestation radiated through lesser divinities and human progeny. For most historians, this dynamic self-manifestation indicated a belief in several gods, or more specifically, an Ennead or group of nine major divinities produced through five generations of gods and followed in subsequent generations by a multitude of lesser gods. According to Professor Luckert, this reading of Egyptian religion as polytheistic, as an incoherent collage of idols, had to be defamed in opposition to what Western scholars saw as the superior Hebrew monotheism and Greek rationalism (42).

     Some historians maintain that the Heliopolitan theology does not express nine distinct deities, but instead nine divine natures fused into a single Ennead, one god of many forms. Professor Luckert views the blending of divine natures and functions in this Ennead as no more polytheistic than the Christian Trinity which blends three divine natures in a single god. 

     The five generations of gods in Heliopolitan theology can be seen as an ongoing generation that in all its forms is the expression of one eternal God, or divine essence, the spark of life the Egyptians called ka. Ka is the invisible life force or soul which manifests itself from within. As this essence emanates outward in creation it appears in human awareness as “ba,” its phenomenal manifestations. Ka is the divine essence while the gods and humans appear in garb of ba. In creation, there is a flow of creative vitality emanating out from the godhead, thinning out as if flows, and becoming the fragmented light and shade (ba) of the material world. 

     Beyond this unity there is a realm of non-being, a watery chaos, called “Nun.” The life force emanates outward until it reaches and is stunned by non-being, the kiss of death, and returns to God. That is, the ba soul is purified and turned around, or resurrected. This idea is carried further, in the case of the god-king when, on his death, the ka returns from the estranged human condition.

     This divine generation and emanation from the invisible godhead and the return of the estranged ka soul to its source, appears as a process by which the single divine source is continually exhaling and reinhaling its own life essences. Think of it as a series of creations from nothingness, perhaps more violently expressed in the modern Big Bang theory.

     In the original creation Atum arose from Nun, non-existence, conceived of as a formless, dark void. Atum emerges as a hill or mound from the watery chaos of Nun. Some believe the imagery suggests the banks and islands that re-emerge after the Nile’s flooding. The first manifestation or hypostasis is a ka mode, specifically the sun, Re (or Ra), rising above the hill. Together they comprise Atum-Ra, the godhead of Heliopolitan theology. This primeval mound became formalized as the benben, a pyramidal elevation supporting the sun god.

     Professor Luckert suggests that Atum’s first manifestation as light rising from the darkness finds its echo in Genesis 1: 2-3: “And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.” John, First Epistle, 1:5 “...God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” Atum represents the concept of totality, the All, the Complete One, and indeed this god was complete, containing within himself both male and female principles. His creative emanation was visualized as a phallic primeval hill. The rising hill of Atum was a rising phallus. To give birth to his progeny, Atum griped his male phallus with his feminine hand (symbolic of the vagina). 

     This act of masturbation creates the second manifestation. The Pyramid Texts state, “Atum, taking his phallus in his grip and ejaculating through it gave birth to the twins Shu and Tefnut.” Professor Luckert softens the translation as; “Atum is he who gave pleasure to himself in on. He took his phallus in his grasp... and so were born the twins Shu and Tefnut.” In them male and female natures are created, as in Genesis 1:27, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”

     Later the Heliopolitan priests begin playing on words and have Atum describe the scene of creation thus: “All manifestations came into being after I developed... no sky existed no earth existed... I created on my own every being... my fist became my spouse... I copulated with my hand... I sneezed out Shu... I spat out Tefnut....”

     The words mean something.  Shu is the mucus of Atum, his name is fairly similar to the Egyptian word for sneeze, and he encompasses the concept of air permeated by the rays of the sun. Tefnut’s name is associated with the dew or moisture in the air.

     Atum’s original “spitting” produced Shu (Mahet), the male manifestation of Atum representing life, and Tefnut (ma’at) as the female manifestation representing order. This is still an invisible realm, but is visualized in Shu the life force emerging from Atum as the breath of life arched with a feminine order or firmament in Tefnut. Professor Luckert compares this to the Hebrew creation story separating the waters above from those below. Genesis 1:6-7 states, “And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.”

     In the Coffin Texts Shu is sometimes mentioned as the breath of life and the generative role of Atum became associated with him. Spell 75 states, “I [the deceased] am the soul of Shu the self-created god.... I am merged in the god, I have become he.” 
This mystic identification in the Coffin Texts of dead soul with their savior and the identification of gods with one another are also found in the Gospel of John. Jesus says, “Before Abraham was, I am,” (John 8:58) and “I and the father are one.” (John 10:30).

     Shu followed by his sister Tefnut are the first gods spat from the mouth of Atum. The Heliopolitan priests later refined this metaphor to mean that Atum exhaled forth the essence of Shu (the breath of life), and that in so doing emitted an audible cry. (Compare Genesis 2:7, god giving Adam the breath of life through his nostrils.). Atum continues his emanations by way of the perpetual sexual union between his Shu and Tefnut aspects. We might say they are fruitful and multiply, as in Genesis 1:28.

     The first ba modes occur at the 3rd manifestation when Shu and Tefnut together procreate Geb and Nut. The two offspring together constitute the more visible father earth and mother sky, and in this manner Atum displays his otherwise hidden nature. Atum’s essence is diluted as it is made visible in the ba modes of Geb and Nut.

     The Egyptian’s solar calendar and primacy of the sun god are reflected here, for in other ancient religions, including among Indo-European peoples like the Greeks, sky figures are male (Zeus) and earth figures are generally female. The anomaly is caused by the Egyptians’ desire to identify with male figures: Atum, the life giving sun and rising hill (obelisk) from earth. Earth is the visible realm of life and order ruled by Horus/pharaoh, the heritage of Geb.

     The sky goddess Nut is generally represented as a female figure stretched across Geb. After they procreate, they are separated by their father Shu (the air god) and Nut’s body is arched above Geb, the earth. Their union produces the fourth manifestation in two brother and sister pairs of twins, Osiris and Isis and Seth and Nephthys. At this point in the genealogy the Ennead is completed in offspring that represent the perpetual cycle of life and death in the universe that follows Atum’s original act of creation.

     Osiris is the phallus bearer of this generation. He procreated all subsequent Horus-kings of Egypt. Isis is the divine mother who magically restored Osiris to life after he was slain by his brother. Together they represent redemption and resurrection.  Nephthys is the goddess of the home fire credited with having suckled the young Horus-kings. Seth, god of the desert heat and enemy lands, whose color is red, is responsible for introducing death. Thereafter, it is he who brings death to the Horus-kings transforming them into Osiris natures.

     The 5th manifestation brings us to the turnaround realm with a number of lesser gods, many of whom played roles in Egyptian funerary proceedings. Chief among them was Horus, who avenged the death of his father Osiris and came to rule Egypt. He represents any duly installed Egyptian king, a divine falcon-king. Horus, as the son of Osiris and Isis, became associated with the great Ennead and seems to have functioned at times as its tenth member. Every king is reborn of Isis on the throne of Egypt and at death is transformed into an Osiris who’s liberated Ka returns to the godhead.

Section 15

Section 17