Ancient Egyptian Gods: Eternal Protectors
Шрифт:
At the beginning, Amun was considered the god of the wind, but was later placed next to the god Ra, the sun god, thus reaching a very high level and merging with him to give rise to the god Amon-Ra, the king of the gods; the father of all the gods; the creator of men, animals, and life; the lord of truth.
Amon-Ra was known for his omnipresence. He was the centre of the gods since he could be everywhere. He also called himself the hidden god because nobody could see or feel him, and always attended to all the pleas of his people. He was considered the god of wind and sun.
At a magic level you can ask for and work for spirituality and to find yourself, to recover one’s memory.
Essence: Rosemary
Mineral: Diamond, Topaz, Sulphur
4 – Amonet
Amonet was the wife of Amun or Amon-Ra. She was a self-created goddess. She was known as “the mother who is a father: she did not need any man because she had the power of procreation without a male. The name Amonet meant “The Hidden One”, her shadow symbolised protection and together with her partner, they symbolised the enigmatic, the chaos and the darkness. She symbolised the underworld and the West, the Earth’s cardinal point.
Amonet also symbolised the wind, since she could be felt but not touched. She was depicted as a woman with the head of a snake and with a red crown. However, in Hermopolis, she was depicted as a woman with a head of a frog or with the appearance of a cow. She was also sometimes depicted as a hawk or a woman with a head of a hawk.
She was mentioned for the first time during the Middle Kingdom of Egypt. Her places of devotion were Thebes, Karnak, and Hermopolis. Over the years, she lost relevance in favour of Mut who finally became Amun's consort.
At a magic level you can ask for and work with her when you need to hide things, to help you forget the pain, to erase every trace of suffering. Learning to forget helps to live in the present, it expels the negative that has been recorded in the mind and ultimately you feel better about yourself.
Essence: Birch
Mineral: Turquoise, Opal, Pyrite
5 – Anat
Anat was a war goddess and many temples were dedicated to her. Even Ramesses named her daughter Bint-Anat (daughter of Anat in Arabic). Anat was a very widely worshipped goddess.
At a magic level you can ask for and work to overcome traumas caused by big emotional problems, accidents or mutilations. Anat will give you strength to recover, to leave your pain behind, and to overcome your fears and distress.
Essence: Cananga
Mineral: Pearl, Chalcopyrite, Amazonite
6 – Annubis – Inpu
He was believed to be the son of Set and Nephthys and was the protector of the dead. Nephthys, his mother, was the goddess of shadows and wet places.
His birth is not clear. One story says that his mother, Nephthys, took the appearance of Isis to approach Set and gave him some vintage wine to get him drunk, since Set wanted Osiris, his brother's wife and his sister. From their union a child was born but was immediately abandoned because he was the fruit of sin. Curiously, Isis rescued the child and named him Anubis.
Other stories suggest that Anubis was born when his mother Nephthys cheated Set with Osiris after an argument.
Anubis was depicted as a jackal-headed man. He was the god of mummification, embalming and death. His animal representation was an Egyptian dog. He was personified as the summer solstice.
Anubis was also the one who took the dead to their doomsday or Duat. In the beginning, Anubis was the god of the dead, but later he moved into the background giving Osiris the cult and the main role in the afterlife (i.e., guiding the dead into the afterlife and giving them light, opening the roads and presiding their graves).
Anubis was one of the oldest gods. He was in charge of embalming the gods and helped Isis to embalm Osiris. That is why he was the protective god of the embalming priests.
At a magic level you can ask for and work to send people to the light. He helps your loved ones to find the light, to reach their destination without getting lost or trapped in this world wandering aimlessly.
Essence: Orange Blossom
Mineral: Sapphire, Onyx, Obsidian
7 – Anuket – Anukis
Anuket was the Egyptian representation of water. She was the goddess of water, a personification of the Nile, the waterfalls of Aswan, the waters of Nubia (floods and rivers overflowing were believed to be Anuket’s hug). She was also called the hugger and brought fertility to the earth. Water was life in Egypt, without water the land that provided food for livestock and people could not be fertile.
For the Greeks, Anuket was the deity Poseidon; for others, she was the deity of the narrow gorges of the Nile. She was depicted as a gazelle for her delicacy and tenderness, a very slender woman, with a very big feathered headdress as a crown, and a tight and richly ornamented dress.
Her festival was celebrated on the 7th of the month of Thoth. The ritual consisted of throwing jewels and objects of great value to the Nile thanking Anuket for the water, the fertility, and the life she brought. On this day people could eat fish, it was otherwise forbidden on any other date.
She was part of the Elephantine triad with Khnum and Satis. She was the daughter of Khnum (god of the night) and Satis, her mother and sister at the same time. She shared her gifts with Satis. In the New Kingdom of Elephantine there was the temple where she was worshipped as the "Lady of Seheil" (Nebt Satet). There was another temple in her honour in the region of File but people thought it with Isis. As well as the temple of Elephantine, which is the most important, Anuket’s origins can also be found in the temple of Deir el-Medina where the workers of the granite quarries of Assuan worshipped her.