Showing posts with label Nun. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nun. Show all posts

Monday, April 6, 2026

The World — XXI

Because the world is round, it turns me on
Because the world is round

Because the wind is high, it blows my mind
Because the wind is high

Love is old, love is new
Love is all, love is you

Because the sky is blue, it makes me cry
Because the sky is blue     
Because, The Beetles (1969)

With trump XXI, The World, we arrive at the completion of the cycle, and what better way to complete a cycle than with something circular or whirled/whorled as is our world!

Shadowscapes Tarot, by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law

 ". . . When one's goals have been reached, it is a wondrous and precious moment to see your dreams come true and know that elusively mythical treasure promised in fairy tales: the heart's desire."

The world is our universe and our universe is our world. It is our portion, enclosure, covering. Like the ancient Egyptian goddess Nut portrayed as a a star covered woman arching over over the sky(pt in ancient Egyptian), 

1
Nut, Tomb of Ramses IV, Valley of the Kings

whose name(the phonetic portion) was written with a nw/nu "pot" hieroglyph and also contained the pt "sky" hieroglyph as a determinative[not spoken🤫].

                                                                

Nut - nw/nu "pot" +  "bread bun"(feminine) + pt "sky"[det.] 

So, visually her name is the [female] container of the sky.

Nu-"et" came out of Nu. 

In the beginning the universe only consisted of a great chaotic cosmic ocean, and the ocean itself was referred to as [*Nu]Nun. Nun, Creation Myth, wikipedia. 

Nun was the great none or nothing, the Nu-thing from which EVERYTHING arose. Nun's name was written with three nw "pot" + three n "wavy lines/water ripples"  pt "sky" [also as a determinative].

                                                      

 [3] nw/nu "pot" + [3] n "wavy lines/water ripples"  pt "sky" [det.]+ seated god [det.]

So his name seems to visually represents the many/plural waters of the sky/heaven, while Nut is visually the single pot of the pet "sky".

Nut/nwt/Nuit is our pot/portion which arose out of Nun, namely, our visible or known universe

Here in the Crawley deck trump XXI is named The Universe. The figure in the middle and the snake are enclosed/ in utero/ in the belly of the starry sky[∴ Nut, aka, Nuit, who is apparent at night]. The starry sky is not merely a circle or a band, after all, but rather, is all encompassing or spherical like a pot[nw]. . . in a nut shell, like Nwt[aka, Nut/Nuit]. 

The Universe  [in a Nut] The Book of Thoth
Essential questions. Synthesis. Delay. Completion. Opposition. Inertia. Perseverence. Patience. Crystalized thinking. — Instructions for Alister Crowley's Thoth Tarot Deck, written by James Wasserman

The universe is the unus "one"+ versus "turned" or "turned into one," therefore the universus "whole, entire, all things" which is our place or physical enclosure in the sea of eternity[Nun]. 

If Judgment was a revealing, exposing, dis-clothing. The World is clothing, covering, wrapping [The World wraps up the fool's journey by wrapping things up]. The opposite of being naked or exposed is to be dressed which is to be covered. In the coffin above Nut is literally a three dimensional covering/enclosure for the body of the deceased.

In Latin mundus has the meaning "universe, world," however, mundus was also used to describe a woman's "ornaments, dress"[like Nut's star covered body], so things that cover but also have intentional arrangement. Adornments/Ornaments make a thing look put together, that is ordered(from Latin onare "equip, adorn"), equipped(Old Norse skipa "arrange, place in order"), ship-shape, which in Greek would be kosmos "orderly arrangement, i.e. decoration; the world," from which we get cosmos the Latinized version in English. 

Tarot de Marseilles 
[A woman enclosed/enclothed by a wreath and wrapped in a wrap, looking like an ornament]
"Attainment, completion, perfection, ultimate change, the end result of all efforts, success, assurance, synthesis, accomplishment, capability, the rewards that come from hard work, the path of liberation, eternal life."

Another primordial ancient Egyptian goddess like the cosmic Nut(our starry dressing/mundus), whose name is similar sounding to mundus/le monde, is Mut/Maut/Mout. 

Mut was considered a primal deity, associated with the primordial waters of Nu from which everything in the world was born. Mut, wikipedia

Her name had the meaning "mother," so Mut, Mother[Mut-er], was the Mater (L.)"origin, source, mother" of matter and the primordial mound of le monde, the world

To have things ornamented is to have them arranged or ordered which is to have things organized or have things in hand. And in Middle English mounde was "the hand ✋; protection, guardianship, power," from Old English mund, however in Old English mounde meant "the world." So, hand(mounde) and the world(mounde) are connected via the idea of protection or covering . He's got the whole world in his hands, or the whole mounde in his moundes. . . or the whole handiwork in his hands. Which would be the whole mound in his mounds 🤲, 

Print T-shirt from Target, Modern Lux,  photo by Julie O.

and a mound is a moat(in its original sense), from mote c. 1300  "a mound, a hill," from Medieval Latin mota "mound, fortified height," said to be "perhaps from Gaulish mutt, mutta," which is similar sounding to the divine mother(Mut).

The Mut Temple Complex had a kind of moat around the temple itself which sat on a mote "mound," and moats are also a form of mounde "protection" whether they are mounds(protection by height) or moats(protection by water). Very handy!

Precinct of Mut / Ruins of the Mut Temple Complex[from Ancient Thebes], Luxor, East Bank of the Nile South Karnak

At the macroscopic level the world(which is itself just a mote in the vastness of space/infinity) is our womb/enclosure/place of protection[mounde] therefore our mut "mother." At the microcosmic level, when we are in the womb, our mother[mutis our world[mounde]. 

A Mother Wombing, photo credit Julie O., May 18, 2012

In Hebrew a word meaning "womb" is rechemalso translated in the King James Bible as matrix(from Latin meaning "womb, uterus," from mãter, mãtris "[of the] mother"),  from racham (racham/rechem) "compasion, love, mercy," which is also the name for a kind of vulture, racham.

In ancient Egypt the vulture hieroglyph  represented the phonogram(i.e. word forming sound) for mut/mwt  meaning "mother," and it was also used as a phonogram for neret/nrt meaning "griffon vulture."

Mut (goddess) hieroglyph, Vulture with Nekhakha "flail"[aka, a claw/rake]

So, the vulture hieroglyph had the meaning mut "mother" and Mut was represented by the vulture. She was also called "Mut the great, mistress of Isheru," the isheru meaning "lake"[i.e., the "moat" at the temple complex] being a representation in the microcosm of the "waters above," namely, of the sky/heaven(pt), which we could say is our womb/mother. Therefore the vulture had correspondence in ancient Hebrew and ancient Egyptian with the concepts of womb, compassion, mother, protection and world/universe.

Vultures were thought of as being good and protective mothers to their young, i.e. nurturing (nrt-ing/vulturing), and their large outstretched wings were a sign of protection[mounde]. Vultures had very positive symbolic significance in ancient Egypt, like this rachaph "hovering" racham "vulture" below 👇. And to hover is to "move gently"[rachaph] like a "brooding"[rachaph] mother bird, or move gently as the rocking of a baby in the rechem "womb."

Nekhbet, Tutelary Goddess of Upper Egypt, Deir el-Bahari temple, Thebes, Egypt
Carrying a shen("encircling," symbolizing eternal protection) in her talons 
The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit[ruach] of God[elohim]was hovering[rachaph] over the face of the waters. Gen. 1:2 ESV

So, the "Spirit of God" was hovering / covering / wombing / momming / incubating / mounde-ing. . . moving gently/rocking. . . perhaps we could say, whirring / purring / humming / thrumming / vibrating(as wings do, think of hummingbirds), or idling. . .  but not idle. A LOT is going on in an egg or a womb even though what  is going on is hidden.  Just as a bird that is hovering in the sky is actually exerting a lot of controlled force and effort to remain balanced and aloft, yet appears motionless, or an idling engine appears to be idle, yet is full of potential power just waiting for the command/word that will set it loose. . . run! 

And God said, "let there be light," and there was light. Gen. 1:3

Likewise, there is a lot going on in a brain even though it has a lot "covering/wrapping/veil" over it. We can't see the workings of the mind until a person acts in some way. But if a brain has a good womb/mother/mounde/world/protection it has a good chance of developing well and being capable of acting/doing well.

Here is a vulture headdress/crown which is a bejeweled kind of covering[lot] that is cast/wrapped[lut] over a woman's head and is a part of a woman's mundus "dress" and is very adorned[mundus] and elegant[mundus]. It is a lot. 

Ptolemaic Period, c. 100—1 B.C., Denera, Egypt, Egypt Museum

It is depicted upon the crowns of goddesses associated with the vulture, such as Mut and Nekhbet ["{she} of Nekheb", (the city later called after the Greek equivalent, Eileiythia, goddess of childbirth). Nekhbet was another early predynastic creator goddess symbolizing protection and motherhood], and the crown was later worn by royalty and priestesses. 

Nefertari Meritmut, wife of Ramses II, Ninteenth Dynasty, c. 1255 BCE, Valley of the Queens, Luxor

In a certain sense, the whole world and universe is contained in one head/mound inside one mind[from PIE root *men(1) "to think"] of one/each man, therefore we could say that the vulture crown is an image of divine order and protection of the created universe.

This image of the vulture as a divine protector is similar to the Christian portrayal of the Holy Spirit as an alighting dove.


Or of the action of God in the Old Testament related to a nesher "large bird of prey; griffon vultureeagle," in the Old Testament.
'You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles'[nesherim] wings and brought you to myself. Ex. 19:4

Sometimes nesher is translated as "eagle" while at other times it is translated as "vulture"The Biblical Greek, aetos "eagle" is used to translate the Hebrew word, nesher, and so aetos is also translated to English at times as either "eagle" or "vulture."

The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle[aeto]Rev. 4:7 NIV

compare to Hebrew:

Their faces looked like this: Each of the four had the face of a human being, and on the right side of each had the face of a lion, and on the left the face of an ox; each also had the face of an eagle[nesher]. Ez. 1:10 NIV

The Universal Waite Tarot
The four living creatures are portrayed in the corners of the card

We also see this ambiguity in translation through the origins of the name of the bright star Vega. Vega is taken from a shortening of the Arabic an-nasr al-wāqi' commonly translated as the "falling/descending/swooping eagle," however, the word nasr, similar to the Hebrew nesher, can also be translated as vulture.

The bright star Vega has a name that is well-known around the world, but whose meaning continues to be misunderstood. Typically presented as the "Diving Eagle", the original Arabic name for Vega — an-nasr al-wāqi' —  is best represented as the "Alighting Vulture". Together with its partner, Altair— the Flying Vulture—these two stars were well-known to Arabian astronomy as the Two Vultures, a star name that was in use by the early 6th century CE.  From Diving Eagle to Alighting Vulture: The Origin of Vega in Arabian Astronomy, Danielle Adams, American Astronomical Society, 2023 
Deneb[Dhanab al-Dajājah](in Cygnus, Latin "the swan"), Vega[an-nasr al-wāqi',"the Alighting Vulture"](in Lyra), and Altair[al-nasr al tāir, "the Flying Vulture"](in Aquilla, Latin "the eagle"), the three stars known as "The Summer Triangle."  

Interestingly, this Arabic word wāqi' "falling, alighting" also carries the meaning "happening," or "occurring," as we might use the word "falling" when describing the occurrance of night "falling" or an event "falling" or "landing" on a certain day of the week. Chapter 56 of the Quran is called, Al-Wāqi-a, translated as "The Inevitable," or "The Event." In this chapter, the events following Judgment Day and the manner of resurrection and the afterlife are discussed. 

When the Inevitable Event takes place, 
then no one can deny it has come.
It will debase some and elevate others.
When the earth will be violently shaken,
and the mountains will be crushed to pieces,
becoming scattered particles of dust. . .  56. Al Waqi'ah          

If the Vulture represents a place of protection like world and womb, then the Vulture "Falling/Happening/Event," would be similar in meaning to The World XXI which carries the meaning of "attainment," "completion," "perfection," etc., which we could say is a type of birthing(womb) event, and such an event(i.e., birth), when imminent is described as a "falling, lightening, dropping," and birth is a culminating event that is both an ending/death(of pregnancy) and a new beginning(birth), and such events are not completed without a certain amount of drama and/or peril. 

Interestingly enough, on the grand timescale of history, there was such an event that occurred around the epoch when "The Falling Vulture," i.e., Vega, was slowly but steadily "falling away" from its position as the pole, after ≈ 12,000 BC[after having first risen to this prominence/star status, overtaking the previous acting pole star, Deneb, (from Arabic) Dhanab ad-Dajājah "tail of the hen," in Cygnus. Any star given the title of "Pole Star" is just playing a role for a time due to their prominence and position near [either of the the paths; north or south] of the celestial pole over the course of time it takes to complete the 25771.57 year axial procession.

Rough sketch by Julie O.,  from The Changing Pole Star, Exploring Science
The path of the North Celestial Pole [in red], NEP[North Ecliptic Pole]. The NCP was near the star Vega[the Falling Vulture/Eagle]  12,000 BC, thereafter "falling" away until the begging of the Holocene epoch  9,700 BC at which time the NCP was then near ι Herculis in the constellation of Hercules  10,000 BC.

This was the period of the Younger Dryas, a sudden cold period lasting 1200 yrs., followed by a period of rapid warming, ending the last glacial period, i.e., the last ice age, which we could say was the worlds's "water breaking," that is, the melting glaciers released/broke the world's water. And civilization was born!

Geological evidence is revealing how conditions during the Younger Dryas remodeled our planet. It created weather so extreme that it also reduced human societies [*hunter gatherers] living on the planet at this time.

Importantly, it marks the prehistory period just before human civilization arises. The Younger Dryas Event and the Prehistoric Period Extinction, by The Human Origin Project,

Following this period, was the advent of sedentary cultures in the eastern Mediterranean region(as well as other regions throughout the world) that culminated in the rise of agriculture and the emergence of the first megalithic structures(such as the temple complex at Göbekli Tepe in Anatolia, c. 9600 BC, modern day Turkey, part of the Fertile Crescent, a major cradle of civilization), at the birth/dawn of civilization [and dawn is a birth event as well; when the sun(Ra) is born anew from the sky(Nut)].

How did these people view vultures?

Generally today, eagles are given a positive roll as symbols of strength and freedom, while vultures are given a negative roll as harbingers of death and decay, however in certain cultures, and at certain times in history, such as in ancient Egypt, vultures were regarded very positively {even though the word for mother, mut, was similar to the word for death, mut; so "death" maybe containing the meaning of something like returning to the mother/womb/tomb/mound}.

After the unification of ancient Egypt the vulture (patron of Upper Egypt, Nekhbet) and the fiery serpent (patron of Lower Egypt, Wadjet) were joined as nebty, literally meaning "The Two Ladies," and were often depicted together as protectors of a unified Egypt.

The Two Ladies, Mask of Tutankhamun - Egypt Museum

If they were protectors, then they were shields or coverers[from *wer-(4) "to cover"] which as shown above, certain people would wear as coverings for the head. And a protector is a keeper or a watcher over something which we could say is a Lord[from hlaf+weardfrom *wer-(3)"perceive, watch out for"]/Lady who is a lofty/airy(air/*awer) being, which is *wer-(1) "raised lifted" wer "man"[Old English], from Latin vir/viri which is said to be the origin of our English word World, reconstructed as a Proto-Germanic compound of wer "man" + ald "age," meaning literally "the age of man." However, this etymology of "world" seems to be the word taken in a more secular "worldly" sense than that of Le Monde. Yet, men(wer) are those who *men-(1) "think," and in thinking they *men-(2) "project" themselves mentally like mountains[from men-(2)],  motes or mounds and contain the whole mundus (sometimes even making mountains out of mole hills).

Mental painting by Ailis O'Reilly 2017, ailis_art 

The "world" is the "age of the thinker(i.e., men)" or we could say, the "age of the story teller." 

We are the music makers,
    And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
    And sitting by desolate streams; —
World-losers and world-forsakers,
    On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
    Of the world for ever, it seems.

With wonderful deathless ditties
We build up the world's great cities,
    And out of a fabulous story
    We fashion an empire's glory:
One man with a dream, at pleasure,
    Shall go forth and conquer a crown;
And three with a new song's measure
    Can trample a kingdom down . . . 

 Ode — stanzas 1 & 2, by Arthur O'Shaunghnessey, The Poetry Foundation

An ald "age" is a period of time or period of history, so we could say that the world(wer+ald) is a tale/telling or a spell(from Old English spell "story, saying, tale; history, narrative, fable; discourse, command") of wer "man." Or is it a spell put over man? Or perhaps is it both at the same time? Our thoughts create our reality both individually and collectively and we inherit or are born into a world(story) of sin(i.e., the esse "being"ness or essentia "beingness" we experience which involves the experience of both good and evil). The world is our reality(realis) or the res "things" that are or have come to life through our thought. The spell is cast[lut] which creates a casting or veil[lot]. But perhaps we could call this state of things[i.e., the world of sin and death] a false mother/world/matrix. This story/world of sin and death is not our true mother, just like the woman in the Bible who did not protect 🤲 the living baby was not his mother.

The woman whose son was alive was deeply moved out of love for her son and said to the king, "Please, my lord, give her the living baby! Don't kill him!" But the other said, "Neither I nor you shall have him. Cut him in two! Then the king gave his ruling: "Give the living baby to the first woman. Do not kill him; she is his mother." 1 Kings 3:25-26

In reality, the world, our (true) mother, who covers us(wombs us), is a story that protects us. The world gives us a place in the vastness of eternity(which is Nu-thing/Nun). We need to have a point. . . and point of origin. The point 👉, the YOU ARE HERE on the map, is our anchor ⚓︎, and is life giving, an ankh-er ☥. Nothing comes from nothing, so we are the newthing(creation) from the knowthing 🧠 that came out of the Nuthing or Nun. Our world gives us space ✨ to exist, to grow, to evolve, to become more. . . As the world turns. Which brings us back again to The Fool

And a one, a two, a one, two, three, four!

Shaddowscapes Tarot, by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law

Thursday, February 18, 2021

He's Got the Whole World in His Hands

When we think of the word chaos we generally are referring to something like "orderless confusion" which is a usage from c.1600.

Meaning "utter confusion" is an extended sense from theological use of chaos in the Vulgate version of "Genesis" (1530s in English) for "the void at the beginning of creation, the confused, formless, elementary state of the universe." The Greek for "disorder" was tarakhe, but the use of chaos here was rooted in Hestoid ("Theogony"), who describes khaos as the primeval emptiness of the Universe, and Ovid ("Metamorphoses"), who opposes Khaos to Kosmos, the ordered Universe . . ." [OE]

Red Barron Pizza Box

We also have the mathematical branch of study called "Chaos theory" formalized c.1977, and famously referred to in the movie, Jurassic Park [based off the book by Michael Crichton]. 

Oh, it simply deals with predictability in complex systems. The shorthand is the butterfly effect. The butterfly can flap its wings in Peking and in Central Park you get rain instead of sunshine. -Dr. Malcolm

Chaos theory, in short, is the study of,

. . . dynamical systems whose apparently random states of disorder and irregularities are actually governed by underlying patterns and deterministic laws that are highly sensitive to initial conditions. Wikipedia, Chaos Theory

It is somewhat paradoxical in this sense[Chaos Theory] to use the word chaos to describe what is actually being governed, but the point is that it appears to be chaotic. Ah, what would we do without chaos in this sense? What a wonderfully boring world this would be. 

Chaos is from from Latin chaos, from the Greek khaos "any vast gulf or chasm, the nether abyss, empty space, the first state of the universe, from khaos "abyss, that which gapes wide open, that which is vast and empty from *khnwos, from PIE *ghieh- to yawn, gape, be wide open [OE]," or stem kha- to yawn, gape [OED]."

Kaw or caw, is the sound a crow makes. When a crow caws it opens its beak like a yawn or gape (kha-, *ghieh-). In fact the word crow is said to probably be imitative of the sound of the bird, as is raven ultimately. Raven which is from Old English hræven, initially a harsher more guttural sounding word, from the hypothesized PIE root *ker- "imitative of harsh sounds", also the source of Latin cornix "crow," corvis "raven," Greek korax, korōnē, koraki "raven, crow".

Cawing or Kha-ing Crow

Odin's ravens (Old Norse hrafn) Huginn "thought" and Muninn "memory, mind,"  made daily flights across the whole world and reported back to Odin everything they saw and heard. 

Huginn and Muninn

Perhaps the ravens also brought to mind that so called "chaos" at the beginning of the universe with their deep black pepla and fathomless black eyes. In Norse mythology this primordial abyss is known as Ginnungagap. It was the void or chaos which existed prior to the ordered universe or cosmos.

It was in the earliest times that Ymir dwelled. Neither sand nor sea, nor cold waves, nor earth were to be found. There was neither heaven above, nor grass anywhere, there was nothing but Ginnungagap. -Voluspa-Stanza 3, James Allen Chisholm translation

Ár var alda, pat er ekki var, vara sandr né sær né svalar unnar; jörd fannsk ævá né upphiminn, gap var ginnunga en gras hvergi.Voluspa-Stanza 3 

In other translations gap var ginnunga is translated as "yawning gap," "yawning chaos," "chaotic chasm," "swallowing abyss," "abyss of chaos,"Yawning Chasm [chaos]," "Gaping Void," and "the great void," among others.


Yawn is from Old English giniangionian "open, the mouth wide, yawn, gape", from Proto-Germanic *gin-,  also PIE *ghieh-, like "chaos" from the same. 

Gap is taken directly from old Norse gap from PIE *ghieh-, as well. And Old Norse gina is "to yawn," old High German ginen "to be wide open," German gähnen "to yawn". So we see that the elements of the term Ginnungagap, however it is translated, has a double emphasis upon the concept of PIE *ghieh- to yawn, gape, be wide open [OE].The words chaos, chasm, gap and yawn are all said to come from the same hypothesized PIE root *ghieh- "to yawn, gape, be wide open".

How did this apparent nothingness or abyss then evolve into the meaning of what we think of as chaos today?

It is strange that we think of something being chaotic when it has myriad disorganized and/or random parts, and yet the primordial abyss is the original sense of chaos. The primordial chaos seems to be more nothingness than chaotic. But when you think about it, the abyss is not really nothing, it is rather a womb of infinite potential in a state of perfect entropy, inert uniformity, or stasis. Otherwise, how could anything have arisen out of this "nothingness"?  It seems the original sense of chaos was the chaos of the infinite undefined. It could be anything, and in that sense, it was nothing. In this sense chaos is truly terrifying and awesome, perhaps NOTHING is more terrifying. 

This primordial abyss is often thought of as a huge black void, but it can also be pictured as limitless whiteness. Like a white room, representing nothingness, with a creator standing in the middle, as in the movie The Matrix.

Orpheus and Neo in a Simulation of Primordial Chaos

Or, on a less grand scale, a writer, artist, architect, musician, etc. begins a work in a state of utter chaos, that is, with a blank paper or canvas, where anything is possible, and that unlimited possibility is precisely the problem. Some might argue that the white room is an even more terrifying metaphor for chaos than utter blackness. Take this example from Herman Melvile's, Moby Dick, The Whiteness of the Whale,

Aside from those more obvious considerations touching Moby Dick, which could not but occasionally awaken in any man's soul some alarm, there was another thought, or rather vague, nameless horror concerning him, which at times by its intensity completely overpowered all the rest; and yet so mystical and well nigh ineffable was it, that I almost despair of putting it in a comprehensible form. It was the whiteness of the whale that above all things appalled me. But how can I hope to explain myself here; and yet, in some dim, random way, explain myself I must, else all these chapters might be naught . . . 

Is it that by its indefiniteness it shadows forth the heartless voids and immensities of the universe, and thus stabs us from behind with the thought of annihilation, when beholding the white depths of the milky way? Or is it, that as in essence whiteness is not so much a color as the visible absence of color; and at the same time the concrete of all colors; is it for these reasons that there is a dumb blankness, full of meaning, in a wide landscape of snows- a colorless, all-color of atheism from which we shrink . . . – ch. 42: The Whiteness of the Whale, Moby Dick

The Greeks personified chaos as the primordial goddess, Χαος Khaos (Chaos). She was also interestingly associated with air and the creation of birds, or what we might call "caw"ers. In Aristophanes', Birds, Khaos is winged like Eros, and is the mother of the birds, the birds whose "origin is very much older than that of the dwellers in Olympus."[702]

Winged Nyx, Personification of Night

Here the chorus of birds speak,

Firstly, black winged Night [Nyx] laid a germless egg in the bosom of the infinite deeps of Erebus [darkness], and from this, after the revolution of long ages, sprang there graceful Eros with his glittering golden wings, swift as the whirlwinds of the tempest. He mated in deep Tartarus with dark Chaos [Khaos], winged like himself, and thus hatched forth our race, which was the first to see the light. –[695-699] Aristophanes. Birds. Eugene O'Neil, Jr. 1938

Ancient Egypt also had certain stories associating the beginning of time and creation with a bird called the Benu bird. The name, Benu (transliterated from the hieroglyphics as bnn), is said to be related to the verb weben (wbn) "to rise in brilliance, to shine". 

As an aspect of Atum, the Benu bird was said to have flown over the waters of Nun before the original creation. According to this tradition, the bird came to rest on a rock from which its cry broke the primeval silence and this determined what was and was to to be unfolding creation. - touregypt.net

It is said that this bird began time and drove back chaos.

Benu Bird Perched on the Benben Stone (Primordial Mound), or Pyramidion, Papyrus of Nakht, 18-19th Dynasty

This imagery is similar to the story of creation given in Genesis where the Spirit of God, moves over or "hovers"(like a bird), over the waters [Nun].

The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Genesis 1:2

In certain time periods Atum and Ra, were combined because they illustrate different aspects or mythologies concerning the same archetype of creator god. This type of merging happened frequently with the different gods and goddess of ancient Egypt over long periods of time. Remember, the time span of what we call ancient Egypt covers about three thousands of years, beginning around 3100 BC. Atum was first worshiped in Heliopolis, in Lower Egypt, during this Predynastic Period, and Ra, came to be prominent by the fifth dynasty, between the 25th-24th centuries BC. 

So Ra, was also associated with the Benu bird, as was Atum. Ra or Rē (who's name was represented by the hieroglyph for "sun"), was the sun god, the light, like a "ray" perhaps, not unlike the Benu bird, the "shining"(wbn) one, who was, in fact said, to be the ba of Ra. The ba was an aspect of the soul represented as a birds. Birds were fitting representations for the soul because of their ability to fly and thus portray the mobility of the soul after death. 

Ba hovering over a dead man, from a Book of the Dead papyrus, British Museum

Apep or Apophis(Gk.), called "Lord of Chaos", was known as the enemy of Ra. He was pictured as a long snake. However Apep seems to be more a product of the original chaos, rather than the embodiment of that chaos itself. Or, we could say, Apep came to be as a consequence of creation which arose out of chaos.

The few descriptions of Apep's origin in myth usually demonstrate that it was born after Ra, usually from his umbilical cord. Combined with its absence from Egyptian creation myths, this has been interpreted as suggesting that Apep was not a primordial force in Egyptian theology, but a consequence of Ra's birth. . . Apep, wikipedia
It could be said that when Ra came to be, a duality or contrast also came to be. Whereas the primordial chaos had been a state of absolute equilibrium or "nothingness," once the light was created, the opposite of the light became darkness as opposed to light, and could then be labeled as evil. In ancient Egypt, Apep came to represent this concept called isfet (ízft), meaning "chaos, injustice, violence," or as a verb "to do evil." Isfet was opposed to ma'at "truth, order, harmony". Without the concept of light there is no judgment upon darkness as evil. Apep came to be after Ra, in this way. 

Set fending off Apep on the solar barque of Ra, 21st Dynasty, Book of the Dead, Egyptian Museum, Cairo

Creation started with a "caw," that is, with the cry or call of the Benu bird, but can end with a coughHaving a cough sometimes is a sign of sickness which can precede death and one's being placed in a coffin

Cough is from early 14c., coughen, from Proto-Germanic *kokh- which is onomatopoeic, or imitative, as is also the ultimate origins of the words caw, cry, squeal, howl, yell and call.

Coffin is derived from latin cophinus "basket hamper", from Greek kophinos "a basket" which is of uncertain origin. I'd venture to guess, then, given the origin being from a word meaning "basket", that rather than being from an imitative sound, like those other similar sounding words relating to chaos, coffin is related instead to the letter K, as in kaf / kaph, a letter of the Hebrew alphabet, which is thought to be derived from a pictogram of an outstretched hand. The word kaph in Hebrew is "the hollow of the hand, palm of the hand, sole of foot; hollow, socket (as in of a joint); pan." So it has to do with the shape being curved, bent or cupped. And indeed the shape of the letter is a cupped shape. 

Kaf / Kaph

Maybe we could say say that the palm is the "basket (kophinos) of the hand" because it can hold items as a basket holds items.

And in Egyptian hieroglyphics kefa / kepha was a closed fist and had the meaning "fist, grab, grasp, seize, grip [also of mental concepts and of emotions], it was also apparently used to refer to the vagina

Kefa / Kepha

Interestingly enough "basket" is also a euphemism for lady parts. So, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, kepha (vagina) to coffin, or out of the basket you came, to the casket/coffin you shall return. 

The ancient Egyptian god Khepra / Khepri / Khepera / Kheper, (prj), derived from the verb pr "develop, come into being, create," and symbolized by the scarab beetle, kheper (prr), was associated with the morning sun, creation, rebirth and transformation, so, indeed, it would be beneficial to be held in the grasp of this god (in the kepha [grasp] of the kaph [palm] of Khepra [the creator]) upon one's death to hopefully be born to new life. So this is in-kefa or kefa-in (coffin).

A coffin is a container like a basket or a cup. It, in some ways, mimics or is symbolic of the womb or primordial abyss from which we came, and the primordial abyss is often described as waters, such as the ancient Egyptian god Nu / Nun, who's hieroglyph contains the three (representative of many) pots, or might we say "cups"?

Nu/Nun

Cup is from Latin cupa "tub, cask, tun, barrel" it is thought to be cognate with Sanskrit kupah "hollow, pit, cave." So, this is similar, to Hebrew kaph in its meaning of "hollow." Cupa, also is cognate with Greek kype "gap, hole." Ahhh, so here we are back again to gap. Gap var ginnunga, the yawning chaos before time, or might we say kype (gap) of Nun, or "cup"(tub) of Nun? Nun, the limitless container of none or nothingness before time began, the sea of infinite potential. How different is this in concept, then, to the primordial womb out of which creation was birthed, i.e., chaos? Thus, it seems we could say there is a certain connection between the words cough and coffin

When people cough, not only do they make a "kha / caw" sound, but they also make something resembling a cave or a gap, as people do also when they yawn.

Cave is from Latin cavea "hollow"(place), a noun use of the adjective cavus "hollow", so again this is like kaph "hollow," the shape of a cupped hand, and kupah "hollow, pit, cave." However, the OE says cavus is from PIE *keue- "to swell," also "vault, hole," as in the words cumulative and cumulus. I say, talk to the hand! 🙌

My great-grandfather, Frank Daywalt, was caught (past participle of catch from PIE *kap- "to grasp") in a cave in, in Cowenhoven Tunnel, Aspen, Colorado in 1921. I'm sure that must have been a chaotic scene. It did put him in a coffin and he probably died coughing, trying to cover his face with his kaph (cupped hand). As the report says, he was "caught by a run of fine dirt on the tunnel." Poor great-grandpappy! 

Frank Daywalt, May 9, 1876 - Nov. 9, 1921

And my grandmother was very young. What a dark time for her family! His absence must have created a huge void and a yawning gap in their hearts. But we won't call it evil, just very sad and unfortunate. We'd like to think that the creator has a plan, and what appears to be chaos is really ordered and purposeful. 

He's got the whole world in his hands. 


P.S. Serendipitously, my grandmother's father just happened to pop up in this etymological post which I just finished, and today is her birthday!! Born February 18, 1915. She died 35 years ago in February of 1986. So, I have to include a picture of her as well. Happy Birthday Bam [short for Bambi, her nickname]! RIP <3

né Catherine Yvonne Daywalt, [photo]Feb. 5, 1956