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The Registry's categories link is examples of Black America that make up our character, intelligence, culture and timeline. The African American Registry® has twelve categories, each has its own color (Activist is light Blue Politics/Law is Gray, etc). The categories show the wide range of American lifestyles through the Black experience.

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Heh

Heh was the god of infinity and formlessness. He was shown as a crouching man holding out two palm ribs in his hands, each of which terminated with a tadplole and a shen ring. The shen ring was a traditional symbol of infinity. The palm ribs were symbols of the passage of time, in the temples they were notched to record cycles of time. The tadpole was a hieroglyph that represented the number 100,000.

The image of Heh himself was with his arms raised was the hieroglyph for the number one million.

Heh was a member of the Ogdoad of Hermopolis. He and his consort Hauhet together were the aspects of formlessness and endlessness that existed in the universe prior to the Creation. In Hermopolis, he was depicted as a serpent.

In the temple of Hathor at Dendera, several dozens of kilometers
north of Luxor, there are reliefs interpreted by some "experts" as lamps.

Hauhet


Hauhet (translit. HH.t or HHw.t) was a primeval goddess and the female consort of Hah, belonging to the Heliopolitan Ogdoad Like her consort she symbolized the formlessness of the primeval waters of Nun and the infinity of space. From Khnemu in Middle Egypt came the tale that eight frogs and snakes were the first animals to be made by Thoth as he created the world. The Greeks took over in the 300s BC and renamed the capital Hermopolis, continued the cult and clust- ered the reptiles into a group called the Ogdoad - meaning "the group of eight".

Hermopolitan Theology (The World Before Creation)


Hermopolitan Theology
Photo from: From My Mother, My Heart, Alison Roberts, Cenotaph of Seti I, Abydos

The Ancient Egyptian world was bordered by land below and sky above, separated by air. Within these limits the cycle of daily life took place, defined by the rising and setting of the sun. The Waters of Nun, which lay beyond these limits, was "unknown by (even) the gods."


kkw smAw qbbHw nTrw
united darkness, cool place of the gods.

wnn Hrw pt tn m n(j)n(j)
This upper sky exists in inertness.

rH r.s nn qdw.s ntrw axHw
The circling waters are not known to gods or akhs.

grt bw nb Sw n pt Sw n tA dwAt pA r Dr.s
Moreover, any place that is devoid of sky and devoid of land, that is the entire Duat.
To understand and describe what existed beyond their known world, the Ancient Egyptians contrasted qualities manifesting withing the world in whcih they lived. Thus, the inert world beyond was therefore infinite , dark , hidden , and lost .
The Ogdoad



Because these four elements of nature were perceived as beings of creation, and creators themselves, the male gods were given female counterparts. As frogs and snakes were considered representative of prolific, aquatic species, frog-headed males were paired with snake-headed females:

The Eight Infinite Ones
Nun .............. Naunet (Wateriness)
Huh ..... Hauhet (Infinitelness)
Kuk ... Kauket (Darkness)
Amun .......... Amaunet (Hiddenness)


j HH 8 jpw jrw awt pt
Oh! You eight infinite ones who make up the parts of the sky

skw wa.kw Hna nw m nnwt
When I (Atum) passed the time alone with the Waters in Inertness. (Nun and Naunet)
-CT 76

re xpr n tm jm HHw m nw m kkw m tnmw
...the day that Atum developed from the Flood (Infiniteness), from the Waters (Wateriness), from the Darkness and from Chaos. (Huh and Hauhet, Nun and Naunet, Kuk and Kauket, Chaos)

rx r.s ny qd.s nTrw axw
It's form (character) was not known by gods or akhs. (Amun and Amaunet - Hiddenness)

The sun's disappearance each night and reemergence each day represented the cycle of death and rebirth. At night, the sun passes out of the realm of human experience.
The places where the sun dies and is reborn are not exactly within the realm of the earth. They lie below the horizon, which explains why the sky stays light after sunset and before sunrise. This is the Akhet, , the place of becoming effective.

The Ogdoad, the fathers and mothers of the sun-disk, eventually came to rest on a mound of earth that emerged when the waters receded. His primeval hill was, Ta-tjenen, , the "land that becomes distinct."
In the photo, the sun makes its daily course before rising on the horizon. The Ogdoad till the mound creating a fertile place in which to create life. The goddesses of the North and South pour the infinite waters around the primeval mound.


Upon this First Place, arose the first Lily, , Nefertum, from which the sun emerged.
Here, the scribe Ani emerges from a lotus as the new sun.






Bibliograhpy:

Allan, James P., Middle Egyptian, Cambridge University Press,2000.
Allan, James P., Genesis in Egypt, New Haven, CT, 1988
Assmann, Jan, The Mind of Egypt, Metropolitan Books, 2002
Budge, E.A. Wallis, The Egyptian Book of the Dead, Dover Publications, NY 1967
Falulkner, Dr. Raymond, The Egyptian Book of the Dead, Chronicle Books, 1994
Roberts, Alison, My Mother, My Heart, Northgate, 2000
Siverman, David P., Ancient Egypt, Oxford University Press 1997
Tartasky, Lorraine, Lioness of the Sun, PublishAmerica, 2002
Van der Plas, Dirk and Borghouts, J.F., Coffin Texts Word Index, CCER, Utrecht University
Zandee, Jan, Hieroglyphs of the "Hymns to Amun" of Papyrus Leiden I 350

Peace be upon you

Lioness of the Sun - Hermopolitan Theology

African American Registry -- Your Source for African American History
Egyptian Mythology
Lights of the Pharaohs: the Electric Lights in Egypt? Guest article by Frank Drnenburg