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Nut, Goddess of the Sky ✨

It's been one year since I've drawn her artwork and considering I've improved a lot since, I decided to make her a new one!

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The world is a fascinating and beautiful place; all fractals reflecting in on each other. Such beauty lies in every thing. One just has to open their eyes… and then sunlight shining through water is more valuable than any gemstone.

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Nut in Her name of Mehet-Wret

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Atum & Nut

Birthed from my readings about the similarities of Their roles in the funerary sphere.

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The etymology of Nut in relation to origin and meaning:

"In the case of Nut, with Her well established status of a personification of the sky as early as the Pyramid Texts, this perspective is a promising point of departure. The information found therin does not, however, relate to the original position of Nut within a local cult or pre-Enneadic constellation, but to the conceptual basis for Her existence." (Nils Billing 2002:p.10)

+ Name contains elements pot, female determinative t, and determinative for the sky.

+ Later Pyramid Texts carried tendency to increase use of determinatives; Nut was first given anthropomorphic female determinative in pyramid of Ibi.

+ Additional/variant determinatives are the three water signs documented in the Coffin Texts, enhancing the watery aspects of the sky, and the cobra in the New Kingdom.

+ Barta has viewed the phonetic nwt as an indication of Her role as a feminine counterpart of Nwn.

+ Allen has considered the possibility of relating Her name to the root nw(i), 'waters', not as a feminine conterpart, but as a feminine nisbe of the masculine word rendering it nwjt, "She of the waters".

+ Variant determinative (N17) in Pyr. 1629a gives possible reading of the name as 'oval' (nwt), "in what seems to be the original character of Her name" an idea he (Allen) finds related to Her concrete role as sarcophagus. (Nils Billing 2002:p.11)

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Another depiction of the Mother Universe. Dua Nut!

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{🪷 Nu/Nun 𓏌𓏌𓏌𓇯𓈗𓀭 🪷}

| Personification of the primordial waters | 🌊 { Name: } Hieroglyphs:

| 𓏌𓏌𓏌𓅱 | 𓏌𓏌𓏌𓅱𓅆 | 𓏌𓏌𓏌𓇯𓈗𓀭  𓏌𓏌𓏌𓇯𓈗 | 𓏌𓏌𓏌𓇯𓀭 | 𓏌𓏌𓏌𓅱𓇯𓈗𓀭  |  𓏌𓏌𓏌 | 𓈖𓈖𓏌𓏌𓏌𓅱 | 𓈖𓏌𓏌𓏌 | 𓈖𓏌𓏌𓏌𓅱𓅆 | Transliteration: nw , nnw Reconstruction: na:nu (Old Egyptian), na:nə (New Egyptian), ​nun (Late Egyptian) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - { Epithets : } 🌊 ~ nb pt – The lord of the sky ~ rdi TAw – Who gives the Atum breath ~ aA nt – The one with great flood ~ ir tA – Who creates the earth ~ xnty wTst Hr – The head of Edfu ~ xnty tA rr – The head of Dendera ~ nb pr dwAt – The lord of the house of the underworld ~ xnty st wrt – The head of the great seat ~ nty Hr sATw – Who is on the ground ~ iwH Axt – Who floods the field ~ sp n.f Haw m Hapy – Who himself leaves his body as the flood ~ it nTrw – The father of the gods ~ it nTrw StAw – The father of the secret gods ~ it smsww – The father of the old ones ~ SAa xpr xnt – Who started becoming at the beginning ~ ir Xrt prr im.f – Who cares for the needs of the one who came out of him ~ sanx wnnt – Who keeps alive that which exists ~ it n ra – The father of Ra ~ bs Dsr n imn rn.f – The secret shape of the one with a hidden name ~ pr r nwnt – Who himself goes back to Naunet

{ Offerings : } 🌊 ~ Water, Milk, Beer, Wine, Bread, Flowers (UPG) ~ Lettuce, Fruits, Vegetables, Meat ~ Incense, Perfumes, Candles, Oils ~ ( Frankincense, lotus, sandalwood, lavender, chamomille, sea scents ) ~ Blue gems (UPG), pots/pottery/vases, Ankh Was Djed ~ Imagery of Bulls, Snakes, Frogs, or water ~ (Boats (UPG?), shells (UPG), sea animals (UPG)) Dua Nun 𓀀𓀀𓀀 { * Sources: } - Sesh kemet (https://seshkemet.weebly.com/nunun.html) - LAGG Nu Epithets (Lexikon der ägyptischen götter und götterbezeichnungen) - UPG (Labelled as so) + General information

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I’ve started taking notes on both Nils Billing’s 2002 book and Silvia Zago 2019 thesis in my private server, but I think I may start sharing some of my notes here. Mostly they are about Nut and cosmology.

Here is a beginning. From Nils Billing:

"This field of research (of the Goddess Nut and the original status of Gods) holds a certain fascination, as it is not grounded in contemporary evidence, but rather in the 'logic' of each individual scholar." p.7

"... cosmic Gods in ancient Egypt tend to lack sanctuaries of their own..." p.8

"Concerning the origins of Nut, Sainte Fare Garnot (1954:114) recognized Her as having an originally independent status with Her own cult and clergy. A survival from these times was found in the epithet bityt, "Queen of Lower Egypt", which Nut is given in the Pyramid Texts." p.8

"(Barta) saw Nut as a complement to Nun that, together with Their offspring, the Sun God, formed the original circle of Gods in Heliopolis (1973a:100-103)." p. 8

"In an Enneadic constellation that combined the original Heliopolitan Gods, with the outsiders Shu and Tefnut, a system had been created where, around "Nut als der Zentralfigur" (Nut as the central figure), eight Gods were ordered into four generations." p.9

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Devotional art piece for the goddess Nut

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Ra in His solar barque today

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old sketch of the sweetest scented!

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Maahes/Mihos

𓌳𓎛𓎿𓋴     𓌳𓁹𓎛𓊃𓅭𓃬      𓌳𓄿𓎛𓎿𓋴𓁻     𓃬𓎿𓁻   
𓅖𓃬𓁻𓀭      𓌳𓊃𓎛𓄂

Meaning of his name:

* Fierce Lion

* He who is true before her

* [One who can] See in front

Some Epithets:

* Manifester of Will

* Helper of the Wise Ones

* Avenger of Wrongs

* The Lord of Massacre

* Lord of Slaughter

* Weilder of the Knife

* The Scarlet Lord

* Lord of the Horizon

* Eye of Ra

Areas of Worship

* A temple was erected for Maahes dating to at least the 18th Century in Tamermu, or Leontopolis, which was his main area of worship.

* In Bubastis, a temple was erected for Maahes, dating to the 23rd Dynasty.

* He was worshipped in Aphroditopolis of Upper Egypt.

* He’s represented in temples across Dendera, Edfu, and Philae during the Greco-Roman period.

* He appears in temples erected at Dabod and Dendur in Nubia.

* He’s attested in the Bahariya Oasis and Siwa oasis.

Offerings:

* Lotus

* Flower bouquets

* Solar iconography

* Lion iconography

* Knives (or other weapons).

* Fire (candles)

* Crafts of his crown- the Double Crown of Upper and Lower Egypt, the Atef Crown, or the Solar disk with the ureas.

* Eye of Re imagery

* Meat (raw meat may be acceptable but ask)

* *Maat*

* Bread

* Beer

* Wine

* Water

* Working out

* A devotional act of standing up to injustice

Maahes is the son of Re or Ptah, with Sakhmet or Bast being the mother. He has a close connection to Nefertum, Shemsu, Anhur, and Shu.

Maahes was not an important figure in Egyptian mythology, yet he seems to have been important as a local deity, aiding in the fight against Apophis. He was the personification of the burning heat of the sun who repelled evil and punished those who violated the rules of maat. Due to this it’s believed he was associated with justice and order.

Next, Maahes is a guardian of sacred places. Due to his role of fighting evil, he was able to keep back evil forces from entering places like the room where the corpse of Asar was housed.

Maahes is also believed to have a role with perfumes, due to his connection with Nefertum, along with him being seen carrying the lotus bouquet as Nefertum does.

In Ancient Greece, he became associated with the Furies, and gave him the title of ‘the kindly one.’ To their culture, he was a god of storms and winds.

More notes and citations: https://akhretnotes.weebly.com/maahes-mihos.html#/

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a garland solar crown for Ma’at

lapis, turquoise, bronze, and carnelian

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Next necklace for my Deity

malachite, bronze, steel, lapis lazuli, glass, gold, and a little african turquoise.

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Another necklace for my Deity Nut, blessed is the Firmament!

The fish and starfish are for the watery nature of the sky. I found it very interesting to read the theory that the ancient Egyptians saw the starfish at the bottom of the sea and connected them to the travelling stars across the sky, giving the stars their iconic shape in Egyptian art.

Made with lapis lazuli, turquoise, and a little bronze, steel, copper, and gold.

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necklace for my Deity

african turquoise with some lapis lazuli and couple different types of quartz

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the fandomification of paganism

hello everyone! first of all, thank you for taking the time to read this post. I want to preface it by saying that it is based on my opinion and observations and it's coming from a genuine place of care for the community. I don't mean to attack anyone or deny anyone's experience, I simply want us to reflect on the path that online paganism has been taking in recent years. with that being said, I hope you can continue reading with an open mind and limit your critiques to those actually related to my points, framing or conclusions. thank you!

there is something that I've been noticing in online pagan spaces lately, a shift which has me worried and feeling disconnected from much of the community. it seems to affect the way we think and talk about our deities which then seeps into the rest of our practices and communities.

I think we have already witnessed many large ways in which it manifests. the most recent and widespread example that I can think of was the whole "the gods are mad" thing on the eve of the US presidential election. some people were adamant that the gods were emotionally affected by the affair as if they themselves had a personal stake in it. now, I don't mean to say that the gods don't care about human affairs but the general consensus after this whole debacle seems to be that the gods are generally quite distant from stuff like this as they have no stake in things like human politics beyond potentially how it affects their worshippers. I agree with this general idea and I think what is likely happening is people are projecting their own opinions and feelings onto the gods because it is important to them that the gods seemingly agree and can sympathise (i wrote a bit more about this situation here if you're interested in reading it).

so from this one example, but potentially many more that I or you reader have experienced, i think what we are seeing is a certain trend (and I don't mean this in a negative way) of the gods as much more human-like. this is not necessarily a bad thing, many pagans see the gods as much closer to humans than I do (I see them as much more non-human or superhuman and just completely out of our realm of understanding). but what i usually see this being accompanied by is a certain belief that the gods are always around and very invested in every tiny aspect of our lives. in some people's practices, they seem to serve a more companion role and their importance as gods is severely downplayed.

I think this want for spiritual companionship is completely understandable and normal, this is after all one of the reasons why people can decide to become pagan or religious in general. but I think at times I see this move into a territory that I find problematic. I call it the "fandomification" of paganism.

I've been struggling with how I want to describe it because as much as I want people to be able to worship and practice however they want, I genuinely think that some of these behaviours cause problems in our communities and I want to address that from a place of good faith. with the knowledge that this might ruffle some feathers I want to say the following: I think some people treat the gods too much as manifestations of their favourite blorbo from a tv show or book rather than the powerful spiritual beings that they are.

I think that the idea that anyone can immediately communicate with the gods through a candle flame or a pendulum has led people to believe that they always have the ear of the gods and that the gods care and have opinions about every little thing that we can think of. I think skits on tiktok have popularised the erroneous idea that the gods can have snippy little conversations among themselves and practitioners and that they have beef amongst themselves.

what I honestly think is that many people have lost the respect and awe of the gods and made them into their personal entertainment clowns and that really rubs me the wrong way. this is not the way I want to engage in my religion, and once again while I do not wish to compel people to adapt their religion to what I believe, I have definitely noticed a growing schism between pagans who think like me and pagans who do not. I think it may be time for us to reflect on this development and how we want to tackle it going forward in relation to the future of our pagan communities.