Egyptian goddesses and the Four Elements

[bluewind]

So far I have researched and discovered these three Goddesses and one God. Amaunet is the Goddess of air and wind. Naunet is the Goddess of water. Sekhmet is the Goddess of fire and Geb the God of earth.

Is this correct? And also what Egyptian Goddess of earth is there?

Thanks for the help!

[Corvus]

Well you specifically have a combonation of different deities from different sections of the pantheon. Amaunet and Naunet are members of the Ogdoad, the group of primordial gods and goddesses who were the first to emerge from nothingness, or Re , in at least one version of the Kemetic creation myth. In some varietations the Ogdoad assist Re in creating all that exists. The Ogdoad were eight deities who were sets. Four were male and personified a concept and four were female and each personified the same concept as the male counterpart. The female names are just the males ones with a feminine ending. The Ogdoad had worship throughout Egyptian history but it was rarer, their primary temple being in Hermopolis in the old kingdom. Little information is available about them but they're generally thought to be very powerful and spiritually vast. The Ogdoad are personifications of concepts which one would think the beginning of the world would be such as darkness, secrets, water and infinity, though their actual connections to the elements themselves are ambiguous at best. Together they represent the attributes that is the fundamental state of the begging. For example Nu is considered the god of water in the ogdoad but can most accurately be called a god of abyssal water; that is endlessly deep and dark water. The Ogdoad represent such vast concepts it's possible to consider that their being deities of the attributes they embody is just to give a word that we can understand with their actual representation being much more profound.

Geb is a son of Shu and Tefnut (who in turn are children of Re) who not only is the god of earth but literally is the earth. He is married to his sister Nut who's arching body makes up the sky. Originally Re took Nut as his wife but she loved Geb. When Re found them together he separated them and made Shu (god of air) hold Nut over Geb so they could not be together. This the reason why the sky and earth are separated by air. In many artworks Nut is depicted arching her body over Geb who is laying down, with or without Shu holding them apart. To my knowledge Kemet doesn't have an earth goddess in the sense that you're looking for as Geb is the only earth god. However important female deities like Aset (Isis) have the title Mother of the World and Queen of Heaven to indicate their power over the world and many consider them to be archetypal earth mothers.

Het-Heret (Hathor) is a goddess of motherhood, love, healing and protection and is identified as one of the Eyes of Re. Her worship goes back to the beginning of time continuing into the modern day as she is still a beloved and popular goddess.The story of Sekhmet coming into being starts with Het-Heret. Long before history began Re ruled Kemet in a corporeal form as Pharaoh but a group of wrong doing humans believed him to be an unfit ruler due to his elderly appearance and plotted to kill him (these were not smart people). Re having learned of the plot sends his daughter Het-Heret to deal with them. She takes on the form of Sekhmet, a powerful woman with a fierce lioness head. She kills the rebels and drinks their blood but is so consumed with blood lust and being so intent on her mission to destroy the enemies of Re she continues the slaughter of mankind. Re hears the anguished prayers of mankind, whom Sekhmet had nearly wiped out, and thinks of a plan to stop his daughter. He instructs the remaining people to dye an enormous number of barrels of beer red using pigment (usually 100 or 1,000 barrels) and to spill it in the field where the goddess would be wandering through the next day. When Sekhmet sees the pools of red beer she thinks it's blood and drinks it all. She then becomes exceedingly drunk and forgets her mission. Sekhment is one of the fiercest and most powerful protective goddesses in the Kemetic pantheon. She represents the wrath of Re against evil. Her role centers around the destruction and purification of evil, sickness, enemies and negativity. Also known as an Eye of Re she is a goddess of the sun, fire (though there are many deities associated with fire), purification, destruction (in a positive way), protection and healing. The concept of multiple truths, a common theme in Kemetic myths, plays in here as both Het-Heret and Sekhmet are possibly separate goddesses but are still the same being.

There's many goddesses and gods associated with each element and aside from personifications there isnt an element that directly corresponds to the western system of elements. I can think of no personification for fire, though Re being the sun god is probably closest, Shu is the God of Air (his daughter Nut is the goddess of sky, Heru (Horus) is also God of the sky and/or horizen), Tefnut is the goddess of moisture though how moisture is defined is rather ambiguous and there's countless water associated deities since Kemet was a desert culture, then Geb is the personification of earth. I hope I have helped you in some way. Tven if the information isn't exactly what you're looking for it is related.

[bluewind]

Corvus, thank you so very much. I don't know a lot about the Egyptian pantheon because Egyptian cosmology has never appealed to me...until 'the dream.' I had an astral travel experience and was in Egypt and met a Goddess who told me I was of the air element first and foremost. I think I was in Egypt but I could be wrong.mthe Goddess had long and dark, wavy hair and wore a purple gown and no jewelry. She wore sandals. We were walking down a dusty road and everything was the color of the dust. The buildings I mean.

I tried to ask her, her name but the dream was fading. I have been trying to figure out who she was. I have also had a lucid dream in which I met a mermaid who was either Celtic or Nordic. She was extremely beautiful, alluring and hypnotic. She looked straight at me and I could not look away. She had long wavy light brown hair that floated on the surface of the sea. I will never forget her face. Her skin was pale, whereas the previous Goddess had a tan or was darker.

I am confused as to which pantheon they come from. Do they sound more Roman?
Anyway, I appreciate your sharing of the Egyptian gods and goddesses. You know so much and I am duly impressed and I feel like I have a good start.
I will do more research. I have this strong feeling that these two are not Egyptian. Maybe I have been looking at the wrong place.

Again, thank you.

[Corvus]

I am happy to help and to spread information regarding the Kemetic deities, especially Het-Heret and Sekhmet. If your goddess is of Kemetic origin expect her to be very blunt since my experience Egyptian deities are very *ahem* obvious when they want something. Once I was talking to someone about Aset and was typing out that I believed she was incorrect in something she was saying regarding the goddess and the door to a glass shelving unit in the corner of the room shattered. There was no obvious reason for it to break either so I took it as the person I was talking to probably was closer to Aset than I thought.

Mermaid figures that appear in myth are usually beautiful women. Sirens in particular are alluring with their voices. Atargatis is a mermaid goddess from Syria who is called the lady of the sea. Her powers include those over love and fertility. However being a Syrian divinity it's unlikely she would appear as pale skinned (though deties can appear however they want in many cases). She is likely the oldest example of a "mermaid" in recorded history being an ancient goddess who's worship was strong as early as 1000 B.C. and so prevelent it spread to Greece and later Rome. The Greeks called her Derceto.

Melusine are European mermaids. They appear as beautiful women from the waist up and serpents of fish underneath. They are one of the oldest surviving myths of mermaid like creatures in European folklore. In several legends they move about on land by hiding their tails in dresses and clothing. Some consider them to be a variety of faerie and faerie are considered to be being highly tied to nature. It's likely that the mermaid is not a specific goddess but possibly a servant of one or an entirely unassociated being entirely.

I can only guess to the origin or nature of the beings that you have encountered since the appearance and circumstances you described are ambiguous and unspecific at best. A purple gown is significant in that purple is a color of spiritual enlightenment associated with knowledge and wisdom. Perhaps you should look into goddesses associated with purple robes or the color purple and narrow them down by using locations where the people living there would be darker skinned. In Rome it also symbolized pride and wealth since purple dye was very expensive (this is where several biblical phrases regarding purple cloaks come from). Hestia is the Greek goddess of the hearth who is sometimes depicted wearing purple and being a Hellenistic goddess could fulfill some traits which you describe. However she would be more a fire goddess since she manages the hearth. Hemera is another greek goddess. She personifies the daytime sky and is said to wipe away nighttime along with her consort Aether (lightness). I listed Hemera because it was at one point believed light was connected to the sky rather than the sun and the passing of day and night had much to do with mists and air (this is a debatable and uncommon story though). Het-Heret's name literally translates as the House of Heru, with Heru being the sky god in Kemetic myth. In this context Het-Heret is the sky and the color purple fits her nicely; unfortunately her associations with air itself are practically nonexistent to my knowledge. It's all worth looking into if you desire but I can't offer you much outside of that.

In some cases it may be more productive to wait for the goddess to contact you, since obviously you have been trying to find her. Your efforts and obvious care are sure to leave an impression on your goddess whom I'm sure is just waiting for the right time to contact you again. Another possibility is the goddess is just trying to point you into the direction of air deities by saying you are of the air element.

[Rae'ya]

I have also had a lucid dream in which I met a mermaid who was either Celtic or Nordic. She was extremely beautiful, alluring and hypnotic. She looked straight at me and I could not look away. She had long wavy light brown hair that floated on the surface of the sea. I will never forget her face. Her skin was pale, whereas the previous Goddess had a tan or was darker.

I don't have anything to add about the Kemetic deities, as I don't work with them, but I wanted to give my input into the above.

Nordic mermaids are alluring and hypnotic, but not classically beautiful. The Nordic mermaid deities are Ran and her Daughters, the Nine Waves. They are Jotnar - they are primal, wild, dangerous creatures who embody characteristics of the ocean that drowns people. They have claws and teeth, even the 'nice' ones like Himinglava, and while they have been known to be seductive, they are a far cry from the modern idea of a mermaid. Think of them as sirens with teeth and you're close lol.

Egypt is only one country among many who could fit the description you made. I would also look at goddesses from the Semitic and Mesopotamian pantheons: Sumerian, Babylonian, Akkadian, Assyrian, Phoenecian, Caananite, Hittite, and others. Some of these pantheons cross over and have deities that are very similar or who have been imported from nearby or earlier religions. There is an enormous wealth of deities from the ancient Near and Middle East, but very few people ever pursue them, and if they do then the get caught up in the Egyptian pantheon or the Sumerian pantheon.

[bluewind]

I think the mermaid was non specific in name and not a Goddess but a truly wonderful experience. She was kind and good and beautiful. I felt no animosity.Nashe looked like Venus coming out of the shell but she was swimming.

And as far as the lady in purple, I think she was a guide trying to point me in the direction of an air Goddess or just to rein-force my airiness as for many years I thought I was more watery because of my sun sign. I had been confused and asked her which element and she was straight to the point and even reminded me of my childhood flying dreams. I still fly now but haven't had a lucid or astral dream in quite some time. Miss those encounters. I'm on meds that keep me stable but I don't get to seperate from my body. Discouraging.

Now that I've studied vedic astrolgy as compared to sidereal or western I am an air sign; Libra instead of Scorpio and I feel that is right on too.

Have you written a book? You are a very good writer with loads of interesting and thought provoking material. I truly love reading your posts and thank you again for your time and effort. I have clarity now. And I don't have a Goddess or God yet. I am deeply interested in the four elements of nature and that is where I am most experienced. I just don't know who created the all of it or the name of that being so that in times of joy and duress I can communicate.

It is a journey and one that won't be answered until death...unless I have an nde.

Thanks again my friend.

- - - Updated - - -

Rae'ya. This was definitely not a Nordic mermaid from what you explained. She had a classical beauty beyond human beauty. Incredibly loving and seemed bigger than life.

I was wondering about all those other countries you mentioned for the lady in purple. That could be so. I may look into that tomorrow after a coffee or two as it seems extensive and I need to brush up on my ancient geography as well.

If I could go and translocate to a different dimmension to get my answers I would. Perhaps trance or hypnotism and meditation since the dreaming has stopped for now. Is there anything true and concrete or am I merely riding the air currents looking for clues.

Thank you for posting. I will be pursuing the different countries....could even be Atlantis or Avalon but I was definitely in a desert with the purple lady. The mermaid was in a dark slate blue gray sea. Well see.

Thanks again!

[Heka]

My only thought into the purple woman being an air goddess thing is that as far as I remember, purple is not an air-y colour. But I could be mistaken. Maybe it is for you.