In Ancient Egyptian astrology, the current sign is the god Shu. 10 things you didn't know about this Egyptian deity:
- The word Shu in the ancient Egyptian language meant light and space, and was the root of words for ‘dry’, ‘empty’, ‘sunlight’ and ‘withered’.
- Shu was a member of the Ennead, that is one of the nine most important Egyptian gods.
- He was the son of the creator god Atum, who conceived Shu and his Twin sister Tefnut, without the help of a woman, incubating them in his mouth.
- Shu and Tefnut were more than twin brother and sister. They were lovers, too, said to be the two halves of one soul, possibly the earliest mention of the concept of soul mates.
- Shu was the father of Geb, the earth god, and Nut, the goddess of the sky, and his grandchildren were Osiris, Isis, Set, and Nephthys, and his great-grandsons were Horus and Anubis.
- According to myth, Geb and Nut were inseparable, and it was Shu who put himself between them to separate them, so that Atum could create things in the space between them. Hence he came to represent the space between the Earth and the Sky and everything in it, namely, emptiness, air, wind, clouds and Fog.
- He was often depicted wearing an ostrich feather, which was a symbol of lightness and emptiness.
- Shu was also a god of the Underworld. He’s said to have created, along with Tefnut, a place for the dead to reside. Shu became a god of the dead, connected with the supply of food to nourish souls on their journey to the afterlife. He was also one of the 42 judges who decided whether a soul was good enough to be admitted to heaven.
- He is sometimes pictured with the head of a lioness. This is to represent yet another aspect of him, that he was Atum Ra’s right eye, the Sun while Tefnut was his left eye, the Moon.
- The Greek Titan Atlas, who holds up the sky in Greek myth, is said to have been inspired by Shu.
New Year New Reading Challenge?
I can help. Here are links to books which meet potential criteria:
A title with three words
- Death and Faxes
- Killing Me Softly
- Settling the Score
- Secrets and Skies
- Over the Rainbow
- Closing the Circle
A title with six words
A book with a number in the title
A book with a colour in the title
Short story collections/A book with a green cover
A book published in the last year/during lockdown
A book you can finish in a day/A book under 200 pages
A book featuring characters from a deck of cards
A Book set during Christmas
A book with a place in the title
A Debut novel
A book with a plant or flower on the cover/A book about siblings
A book with a female villain or criminal
Includes space travel
Features Royalty
Books featuring skiing or snowboarding
A book with the Olympic games in it
A book with a bird in the title
A book featuring a secret society
A book featuring time travel/alternative dimensions
Raiders Trilogy:
Books featuring superheroes
Books featuring ghosts
From an Indie Publisher/Self published/An author you've not read before/A female author/A genre you wouldn't normally read/A book outside your comfort zone/A book by an author with your initials and your initials are JH
All of them!
More details can be found here
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